Do I sympathize with Joseph Stack?
In this instance, I find it prudent to follow the advice given to Thumper by his father: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”
Instead, I’ll highlight and highly recommend this recent (but pre-Stack) post by David Gross at The Picket Line (who incidentally practices and advocates a response to the IRS different than Stack’s), in which he quotes these words by Henry David Thoreau:
It galls me to listen to the remarks of craven-hearted neighbors who speak disparagingly of [John] Brown because he resorted to violence… They preserve the so-called peace of their community by deeds of petty violence every day. Look at the policeman’s billy & handcuffs! Look at the jail! Look at the gallows!
. . .
I do not complain of any tactics that are effective of good, whether one wields the quill or the sword, but I shall not think him mistaken who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I will judge of the tactics by the fruits.
I’ll also give a hearty Amen to this post by Norm Pattis and this post by Mike at Crime & Federalism, both about Stack.
If you’re looking for a fair tax system, albeit one that the criminals who run this country will never enact in a million years, look here.
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Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus (2) and Luther,(3) and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
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