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 ...
Amen! See my tagline.
Carolyn
This poor guy must've felt cornered.
I'm in complete agreement with your comments.
So you condone public suicide as a means to make a point?
Perhaps we should have a new cable channel...let's call it TSC (The Suicide Channel). The suicidee can maybe give a 5 or 10 minute diatribe of their plight before the actual suicide. That way, at least people can CHOOSE whether or not they want to watch it, as opposed to having it forced upon them.
If you want to hear about consequences of private suicide, FReepmail me.
It's far worse than a public suicide, especially if it's your parents or spouse that find you first.
I haven't seen too much of that. In fact, most people have condemned the board or at least allowed that we don't have the facts we need to make a decision.
or saying that such a minor setback wouldn’t have unhinged THEM
To the point of suicide? Let's be honest. If suicide was the normal response to these kind of setbacks, 25% of people would be offing themselves at some point.
or complaining that suicide is wrong
In point of fact, it is wrong.
or wringing their hands over the poor innocent council having to witness this dreadful sinner’s act
Well, five of them votes for his position. Should they have been forced to witness this?
People don’t kill themselves over a rejection of a rezone request or a business going under unless they have other emotional problems. I feel for his family.
I concur. I should have come up with a gem like this instead:
"All of you jerks who are FReepmailing me or thinking about it, knock it off."
Much more witty, I must agree.
I think that’s a better way of doing it, because it’s less arbitrary, and out of the control of politicians.
Drama queen.
Of COURSE losing your home and business are terrible. But people don't kill themselves over those things unless they have emotional problems.
City Councils are cold-blooded a-holes....
it’s no supprise that they drove Him to this.
Our city is writing tickets to tow cars that are registered, Insured, and running...because they are “Eyesores” if they are Dirty.
what kind of Commie crap is that?
that guy should have pointed that Gun in another direction.
Guy had some serious problems.
Yep, and my guess would be most of them were on the city council. Now they will move to a secure room and nothing like this will happen in front of them ever again. The Bo’s will be forced to do themselves in somewhere outside the circle of the city council. Decisions have consequences, and I’m sure had they known the depth of Bo’s trouble their decision might have been different.
Most citizens do not believe that the law should make special exemptions for the unpredictable behavior of crazy people.
View Larger Map
His "home address", 1517 Madison St. also appears to be surrounded by commercial properties.
I agree to some extent with this statement. However, it's hard to define the "violation of the rights of others" part. What are those rights? Exactly?
One resident may feel he has the right to peace and quiet; another resident may feel he has the right to unload trucks at 1:00 AM.
One resident may feel he has the right to fresh air; another resident may feel he has the right to operate a commercial bakery in his backyard.
One resident may feel he has the right to sunlight. Another resident may feel he has the right to build a 10 story building at the property line.
Towns have zoning laws to offer protection to residents from unwanted land uses near their homes. It's not safe for people to live next to a factory, for exampele.
People buy property understanding those laws and with full knowledge of those laws. If they want commercial property, they should buy commercial property.
If a person's property is zoned commercial and the town rezones it to a lesser valued use, then the town should compensate the owner for the "effective taking" of property. Denying a resident's application to rezone residential to commercial is not theft. The resident purchased the home knowing it was residential and paid accordingly.
A zoning decision changing a residential use to commercial use may amount to a "taking" from the neighboring residential property because the neighboring home may lose value as a result. Who wants to live next door to a factory?
Let's say my next door neighbor wants to operate a pig farm and successfully receives a varience to do so, what happens to my home's value? It plummets. I would no longer want to live there and neither would anyone else. The home would become unsuitable for residential use. Who would reimburse me for the value of my home? Who would pay my moving expenses?
Zoning laws are necessary except in rare circumstances where all properties are large enough that no use will negatively affect neighbors.
Reads as though his behavior was very predictable, to himself and possibly others.
Adversity in life and in death is inevitable. Stress is optional.
IMHO, there are a number of issues involved. Escalating the situation to suicide, IMHO, was foolish and not warranted.
Likewise, a council which is so far removed from the mechanics of people earning a living and building a home and community, that they would not allow a barber shop in a Tennessee residence. which had been established for many years, by a person who displayed public comradery, itself displays a zeal for injustice rather than righteousness.
Who knows, it might have been some internal masonic leveraging for power in the community. Some senior level masons advance by getting their brethren to believe in them over other things even to the point of their demise. Maybe the deciding vote on the council got promoted to a lodge leader position and given more worldly power in the interim, while the Shriner thought he was gaining some spiritual advancement by sacrifice.
To bad neither one of them exercised faith through Christ in their testimonies, so that all of their efforts might simply get burned up and dealt with as ‘good for nothingness’.
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