The Real 'Hero' in Last Week's Attack Against IRS Office

KTVT-TV

There's no doubt if you live in Austin, or anywhere else in the country for that matter, that you've heard of the fateful suicide flight that took place last Thursday.  The pilot of that plane, whose name has been repeated on television and written in the papers, has been called every name under the son, including a hero by his daughter.  She's since retracted that statement.  But it calls attention to the fact there is so much hype over a man who did a terrible thing.  Hundreds of people could have died.  The scene was unbelievable, only compared to September 11, 2001 by some.

Fortunately, hundreds did not die.  Instead, just one man lost his life, but indeed one life is too many.  Family, friends and church members celebrated his life on Sunday at his east Austin church.  Monday, Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary, and IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, visited the crash site and expressed his sympathy for the victim's family.  Accompanying the men, a statement from President Barack Obama.  Here is a portion of the statement, courtesy of the White House Blog.

To the men and women of the Internal Revenue Service at Austin:
I asked Secretary Geithner to carry this message to you.
It is with great sadness that I write to you on the tragic events of February 18th.  You, your families and colleagues are in my thoughts and prayers.
Michelle and I extend our condolences to you on the death of your colleague, Mr. Vernon Hunter.  Vernon dedicated his life to service to this great country, serving over 20 years in the military before joining the IRS.  We mourn his death.

The following is an opinion article from Salon.com about the attention-getting Joseph Stack, the software engineer with an apparent vendetta against the government, the IRS, and the "corrupt Catholic church."

by Joan Walsh, Salon.com

I traveled this weekend and missed the identification of the only person killed by Joe Stack in his unsettling attack on the Internal Revenue Service office in Austin last
week (h/t Crooks and Liars, Will Bunch).

He is Vietnam veteran and IRS worker Vernon Hunter.

His son, Ken Hunter, told local reporters he was tired of the media paying too much attention to the fractured and incoherent political beliefs espoused by the demented Stack, and not enough attention to his father's life:

"There was just too much going on about what the guy did and what he believed in, and enough's enough.  They don't need to talk about him.  Talk about my dad.  You know, some people are trying to make this guy out to be a hero, a patriot.  My dad served two terms in Vietnam.  This guy never served at all.  My dad wasn't responsible for his tax problems."

Hunter said his father was the kind of guy who'd have tried to help Stack with the tax troubles that supposedly drove Stack to the violence that took Hunter's life.

Googling "Vernon Hunter" on Monday night I was stunned by how little the national media, beyond Bunch, Crooks and Liars, the Associated Press and ABC's Good Morning America, had paid attention to Stack's victim.  GMA seemed to write about Hunter  because the show featured Stack's daughter from his first marriage, Samantha Bell, calling her father a "hero."  To her credit, Bell retracted her statement, and labeled Hunter the hero, when she learned about the man her father killed.

Stack's daughter may be forgiven bad judgment in the wake of losing her father. American politicians can't.  I cut new Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown some slack the other night – Brown compared Stack to the "frustrated" voters who backed him last month, "who want their elected officials to be accountable and open and talk about the things that are affecting their daily lives."  But I haven't seen Brown retract or clarify his comments since Hunter's identity was discovered, and that's disappointing.
Far worse than Brown is Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who embraced Stack's grievances four days after his attack and three days after Hunter's body was identified:

"I don’t know if [Stack's] grievances were legitimate, I’ve read part of the material.  I can tell you I’ve been audited by the IRS and I’ve had the sense of ‘why is the IRS in my kitchen.’  Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back. … It is intrusive and we can do a better job without them entirely."

Read the rest of this editorial by going to Salon.