Sometime around noon today, as I was making lunch for me and Kyle (Sara was at school), my wife calls to tell me that there's been a plane crash in Austin. I didn't think too much of at first. But then she told me that it crashed right in the area we used to live. Not directly into our apartment complex, but about less than half a mile from there.
So I turn on the news, and sure enough, there's a picture of the plane crash all over the news. Not just the local news, but CNN. I recognize the building on fire as a place we used to drive by all the time.
Apparently, a man by the name of Joseph Stack, angry at the government (and the IRS in particular), committed suicide by deliberately slamming his small plane into the building.
The crash looked pretty bad, and I was prepared for the worst at the hospital. I was expecting a lot of patients to be here. Sure enough, once I got here, there were many patients in the ER, but none directly related to the plane crash. Instead, there were people in the ER who came in because they were "emotionally upset" about the plane crash, or they were complaining about the smoke in the air.
Ok, I can probably understand the smoke issue, but as for the emotionally upset? That's a head scratcher. I figured they must have Medicaid (the free, government insurance), because what rational person would deliberately take themselves to an ER, to be ridiculously overcharged, for what is basically rattled nerves?
On some level, I can empathize with the guy who did it. From his suicide note, it sounded like he had been screwed over by the government in some form or another since the 1980's. But still, killing innocent people isn't really the answer to your problems. Try going public, contact news consumer watchdogs, or even Michael Moore. There's always someone out there willing to stand up for the little guy.
So, for any relative out there reading this. Everyone here is fine. We now live a good 15 miles away from where the plane crashed. Luckily, it seems that no one was killed in the crash (other than the pilot), and hopefully the IRS office that was destroyed wasn't the same one that is holding onto our tax return! :)
So I turn on the news, and sure enough, there's a picture of the plane crash all over the news. Not just the local news, but CNN. I recognize the building on fire as a place we used to drive by all the time.
Apparently, a man by the name of Joseph Stack, angry at the government (and the IRS in particular), committed suicide by deliberately slamming his small plane into the building.
The crash looked pretty bad, and I was prepared for the worst at the hospital. I was expecting a lot of patients to be here. Sure enough, once I got here, there were many patients in the ER, but none directly related to the plane crash. Instead, there were people in the ER who came in because they were "emotionally upset" about the plane crash, or they were complaining about the smoke in the air.
Ok, I can probably understand the smoke issue, but as for the emotionally upset? That's a head scratcher. I figured they must have Medicaid (the free, government insurance), because what rational person would deliberately take themselves to an ER, to be ridiculously overcharged, for what is basically rattled nerves?
On some level, I can empathize with the guy who did it. From his suicide note, it sounded like he had been screwed over by the government in some form or another since the 1980's. But still, killing innocent people isn't really the answer to your problems. Try going public, contact news consumer watchdogs, or even Michael Moore. There's always someone out there willing to stand up for the little guy.
So, for any relative out there reading this. Everyone here is fine. We now live a good 15 miles away from where the plane crashed. Luckily, it seems that no one was killed in the crash (other than the pilot), and hopefully the IRS office that was destroyed wasn't the same one that is holding onto our tax return! :)
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