Hero Without Heroics

Because every dad should be a hero to his child, it is easy to applaud the relationship Joe Stack built with daughter Samantha Bell. Still, it is hard not to wonder what the very troubled pilot (who flew his plane into an IRS building in protest) taught her about life.

She was certainly gracious in explaining the limits of her mourning for the role model (a "hero," she said) she lost. However, he was arguably a terrorist, who seemed overwhelmed by money problems that he couldn't dig himself out from under. And he did burn down his own home (leaving a wife and child to stand on the street, watch and cry). So maybe he can and will always be his daughter's hero, but it seems a big stretch to push it anywhere beyond that.