Yeah I never called him a hero but some on the net are since he took action for what he thought was right instead of just doing nothing, like most do.
JIC no one caught it, I never said he was right in what he did, I just asked the question to cause a discussion :)
Was he, I guess so far no one here thinks so. My opinion, if truly innocent people were in the IRS building, then, I would agree, what he did had no positive effect what-so-ever and was in fact the opposite. (and like I mentioned I'm sure most or even all of them were but who really knows) What I did say was I agree with all the things he wrote about in the letter, hes bang on and he left out tons of stuff to boot.
Reading his letter I'd hardly call him insane, true I'm not a professional and didnt know the guy but it seemed clear to me why he chose to take his own life, he felt he had no other way out other than work the rest of his days until an old cripple and death just to pay more taxes, he was never going to retire and he couldnt live with that simple truth. Not to mention in this economy, he was having trouble even finding work and it was much lower paying. He mentioned the true definition (or one of them) of insanity in his letter, "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". Well for anyone that read the letter they will see that the guy worked his whole life, went to school, etc, just to basically have nothing and in the end, have the IRS come breathing down his neck. His conclusion was simple, after 55 years of doing that and getting no where, nothing going forward was going to change so he chose not to keep doing the same thing.
Your right though Oak, it was mostly a cowardly thing to do, taking the easy way out and I only found out today about his poor family he left behind, very sad indeed. Was there really another solution though for a 55 year old engineer who had nothing and basically no prospects to get anywhere? This is not the first guy to take his own life due to piled up debt and wont be the last. I honestly dont know what he could have done to help himself, if he had the schooling, experience etc to get work and still couldnt. Even if he waited the economy out I guess he just thought he would always be fighting an uphill battle to which he would never win.
I know one thing, if I went through his same plight of spending years in school and thousands and thousands of dollars on it and then working my ass off only to give away most of it back to the government in one way or another and then have the economy collaspe so getting work is even harder and not as profitable to only then watch the government bail out all the crooks who caused the problem with the honest peoples money instead of helping the honest people, I know if in that boat I too would sure be frustrated and angry in a very big way and probably feel hopeless too.
Like I said I'm NOT condoning what this guy did in any shape or form, could have been my wife or kid in that building no question and maybe there was some other kind of solution for him. I just wonder if other people were in his shoes and went through the same path in life, what they would do instead.