Today Austin made national news. But not for anything amazing or heroic.
Around 9AM a house fire started in north Austin. Most of the time a house fire does not warrant a whole lot of news coverage. It might get one little segment, which is what it got in the beginning.
Forty minutes later an airplane crashed into a building off of highway 183 in north Austin. We quickly found out that the building housed a few federal departments, and most importantly in this case the IRS.
As Austinites watched this story unfold on the TV, and slowly the rest of the world began to hear about it, eyewitness stories started to surface. My favorite would be from a man named Jerry Cullen. He was in the Marie Calendar parking lot on the opposite side of the highway. He is a pilot and was able to give insightful information, which began to reveal this may not be an accident. He said the plane was going full speed into the building. The description of the impact with the explosion was not adding up to just being a plane with its gas tank full either.
One random thought about this eyewitness, his last name of course happens to be the same as one famous vampire. When the reporter asked what his name was and how to spell it, it would have been great if he answered, “Like the vampire.” HAHAHA…makes me chuckle to myself.
Moving on…as time passed it was apparent the plane crash and house fire were related. Joseph Andrew Stack was an angry man. He was mad at the government. More like fanatical. There had been a family dispute at the home last night where his wife and daughter left and stayed in a hotel. He made the decision to burn his own house down (still not quite sure why he chose to do this) and fly a plane into a building to make a statement. If you have not already, and you want to know what was really on this guys mind, you can read his “suicide note,” but it more like a 5 page rant.
Here is the wrap up. Good things: 2 people were taken to the hospital injured. And there was one death, besides Stack. CRAZY. Austin fire, police, etc. did an awesome job at both the house fire and the building.
Negative: Austin reporting. When the reporters began to try to draw parallels to 9/11, that’s when I began to be a little bothered. Today was nothing like 9/11. The only thing that was similar was a plane hitting a building. It was not terrorists attacking us. It was not multiple planes. It was not in a metropolitan area. And no one was killed. It really irritated me.
I’m not saying that this was not a horrible act by any means but it is on a totally different scale. My heart goes out to the family of the man who was killed and also to Stack’s wife and daughter.
Enjoy my thoughts 🙂 Until next time…PEACE OUT!
The One... 