Posted on 10/05/2007 5:49:29 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A business owner shot and killed himself during a City Council meeting Thursday night after members voted against his request to rezone his property, witnesses said.
Ronald "Bo" Ward, owner of Bo's Barber Shop, had told the council his business would go under if he couldn't get his home rezoned as commercial. After the 5-7 vote Thursday night, Ward stood and walked toward the council.
"Y'all have put me under. ... I'm out of here," he said before shooting himself in the head with a small handgun.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Sounds like a very good guy. So sad.
Bo Ward admired as true patriot
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071005/NEWS01/710050371
Guy had some serious problems.
Bo spoke in class today
Well, damn. Guess that’ll learn ‘em...
That’s very sad. The poor gentleman must have been unwell.
Good guy or not, stupid move.
Public suicide (and a messy sort like this) has got to be one of the most anti-social actions one could take.
Well, that’s that.
"If a soldier came in and said he needed a haircut but didn't have any money, Bo would cut his hair and tell him to pay him when he could."
Absolutely. Hence, all the more pointless and sad.
They're damn lucky he didn't decide to take a few of them with him.
L
Well, hemanaged to get the mayor to change meeting rooms, anyway. What a waste.
So is the theft of a person's livelihood—which is what had just happened to the guy.
It was quicker and less painful than going through the appeals process. Poor man thought he still lived in a free country.
Bureaucrats treat zoning flippantly even though it controls major aspects of individuals’ homes and businesses.
“What, the sidewalk is across the street rather than on your side of the street?!”
“Well, sorry, but your business can no longer operate there...”
And when the bureaucrats say “No,” the individual is out of luck and options.
Zoning is overrated, anyway. Look at Houston for a counter-example!
Bud Dweyer Ping
Sorry. I've known lots of folks who didn't get promotions, got fired, or even had to close doors on their own businesses that they started from scratch.
Suicide wouldn't have solved any of those issues.
Life can hurt sometimes. Things aren't always fair. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and find another way to make a living (people do this all the time, BTW). If you wanna shoot yourself don't make a roomfull of innocent people have to witness it.
Those people in that room were not innocent. Actions have consequences. Push a guy over the line, and you just might have to witness his suicide.
My sympathy is with the dead guy.
You posted: Good guy or not, stupid move.
***
I heard that his last words were, in response to someone laughing at him as he pointed the gun to his head, “ Shut up! You’re next!!”
Bud Dwyer was selfish and arrogant and delusional to state that others saw him as some sort of equivalent to the biblical character Job, just prior to his suicide. When the going got tough, did Job kill himself? No, but Bud Dwyer sure did.
A liberal would not give a vet. a free haircut !!!I know liberals they are the meanest, nastiest people on the face of the earth.
And those who didn't vote against got to watch it too, not to mention anyone else in attandance who wasn't voting.
What ever happened to the mentality of not being a perpetual victim and overcoming one's circumstances?
A complete digression I know but — that is one dangerous looking road in the background.
Don’t they have traffic engineer’s in Tennessee?
That's hardly the definition of a liberal. This man gave of his own labor, only asking for repayment when circumstances permitted. A liberal would give a poor person a haircut and then expect you to pay for it.
Considering how much this man apparently did for the locals, including many soldiers, this is unfortunately a classic case of “no good deed goes unpunished.”
This guy wanted his HOME zoned as commercial. In most states that would likely be illegal spot zoning. Imagine living in a neighborhood, only to find one day that your next door neighbor was now operating a convenience store from his home. This is why zoning regulations are important. Now, it may be that this guy lived in a home in the midst of other commercial development, which would have made the decision to deny his rezoning less supportable.
There must have been some reason why a majority decided to vote against his zoning application.
Doesn’t sound like a typical liberal to me.
That city council held power over him, and used it to his detriment; did you read the article?
He WAS a victim—of petty, power-mad city council members. Now, he is a victim no longer, they have no further power to hurt him.
He did.
He was hoping that the board would rezone his property so he could secure a business loan on more favorable terms.
Basically he was hoping that the board would vote to give him free money - his rights weren't infringed - they just didn't help him with his rent-seeking plans.
These city councils and homeowner’s boards are SOOOOOO dictatorial....however Suicide is always bad....driven to desparation. The most upset I ever saw my father was when the county was going to take his house for a road......almost killed him.
Suicide was not an irrational response. It was an emotional response. And so quite human.
The guy would have been better off to have started over. The city would be better off to start fully respecting property rights, and get rid of all its zoning laws.
So is the theft of a person’s livelihood—which is what had just happened to the guy.
Found this on the web:
Although this was the man’s home and was zoned residential, don’t think he was trying to rezone a property in the middle of a neighborhood. This area is diverse in the number of residential and commercial properties. His address, 1517 Madison St, is right in the middle and across the street from property already zoned commercial. 1498, 1500, 1501, 1503, 1510, 1511, and 1516 Madison St are just to name a few.
“Suicide was not an irrational response.” => Suicide was not a rational response.
They're damn lucky he didn't decide to take a few of them with him.
I fear our society is in an inevitable progression towards a time where both types of outcomes (suicide and homicide) will be much more common. Every public official who is in a position to make these sorts of life-altering decisions needs to read "The Ballad of Carl Drega", by Vin Suprynowicz and to remember that people who feel they have been forced into a situation by those officials where they nothing to lose, have nothing to lose.
I was going to make a comment that if the bottom line was so important to him (so he could secure the loan he wanted and not have his business fail) why did he operate the business the way he did?
I mean no disrespect, just thinking out loud here, but how successful would any other company who lets people pay whenever they want be?
From what I’ve read, I do believe he had a warm heart, but sometimes too much generosity later leads to too many expectations and then if something doesn’t go your way, it hits you that much harder.
So suicide is the ONLY option when things don't go your way. Got it.
engineer’s = engineers
Zoning laws are theft. They are always theft. If you own something, you have the absolute, inalienable right to use it as you please, with the only restriction being that you must not violate the rights of others.
Thanks for that additional information. I advise planning boards and zoning boards for a couple of small towns in this area. These people are volunteers, and I have found that they try to do what is right, in my experience. They don’t usually have axes to grind.
I don’t know what the back story may be here. I also don’t know what “commercial zoning” may mean in this city. His application might have allowed (even though he wouldn’t necessarily have wanted to operate) an adult establishment or who knows what. I can’t immediately fault the city because this guy made a deadly decision.
That’s very sad. It sounds like the guy just wasn’t a very good businessman. I’ve owned various businesses over the last 20 years & it is as hard as heck to succeed in these times of mega-corporate-conglomerate businesses to have to compete with.
However, there are lots of small businesses that do succeed, despite the odds. Lots of luck helps, but it really boils down to good business management.
This poor man felt like he was driven to the edge by the city council - but he failed to look at his own short-comings in managing his business. Winners take lemons & make lemonade - losers sit & whine about it, blaming others instead of coming up with other solutions.
Very, very sad story.
So let me exrapolate this.....Hitlery loses the election,....then she.......................!
We all have serious problems with government today although this is not a way to answer them. If he truly were crazy why would he not have shot the council that was screwing him,think about it.Most of these idiots kill before they go I just do not think he was crazy.
At a minimum.
From the original article, he already had the loan and expanded his business. The rezoning would have helped him financially, true—it would have kept his business from going under, and he could have kept on going.
The city council put him in a position where he’d lose everything. They didn’t do anything except destroy his entire livelihood and business.
No problem. He should just suck it up. Right. Like YOU would do. Got it.
On the other hand, this way, the city council got to see first hand what people do when they destroy everything people have worked for, for years. I have no problem with that.
I guess you think city councils are politics free, voting for the good of the citizens. Good luck with that.
I agree. Even though I sympathize with the man, I'm surprised he got any votes at all.
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