Joe Stack was a Terrorist. Period.

Above: Photo of the damage to the Echelon Building | Author: Jasleen Kaur

The following is an excerpt from a piece I got published today on the Christian Science Monitor's opinion page. I really am getting sick of hearing from Stack apologists, and am less than happy with the response Stack has been getting from the tea party movement.

I hoped to set the right example with my post condemning Stack's criminal act last week, but maybe the tea party doesn't have as much spine (or good sense) as I hoped it would. I hate that I had to write this, but someone has to say it:

Joe Stack was a terrorist. Period.
If intentionally targeting civilians with acts of violence is terrorism, then Mr. Stack was a domestic terrorist. So why the nonchalance, even empathy, from conservatives like Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa and Sen. Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts who are typically “strong on defense?”
The progressive blogosphere and media rushed to label Stack a “tea party terrorist” and associate him with the resurgent antitax protest movement in the United States (conveniently ignoring the concluding swipe Stack’s suicide note made at capitalism: “The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.”)
Yet despite this glaring omission of something you probably won’t see on a sign at your next tea party rally, it would seem that tea party activists have bought into the smear that Stack is one of their own. Their reactions have varied from explicit endorsements of Stack’s violence, like this appalling tweet from TeaPartyPatriots.org, “God bless Joe Stack an american hero,” to lukewarm condemnations and awkward dismissals of his behavior, à la Representative King and Senator Brown.

Read the rest of the article at the Christian Science Monitor.

Digg it up here. Discuss here.

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