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 ...
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.
Needs to be said again.
I'm just wondering if the town's government and /or zoning commission is composed of 'Rat libs who reflected their hatred of Bud's patriotic actions by spot-denying him rezoning even though he's in the midst of commercial.
In view of the twisted, vengeful virulence of petty leftist fascists, I wouldn't discount my theory as too far off the beam.
Leni
I think you have pretty much put it into perspective. It wasn’t so much that he was denied permission to operate his business, he was denied a request to rezone it. While he had some measure of success, it didn’t mean that his expectations were going to be automatically fulfilled by a rezoning committee. But still, he had an opportunity to try to prevail. He could at least talked to people and tried to get some public support. He took the hard way out, and that was very sad.
You posted: 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.
***
What violates the rights of others, in your opinion? If your next door neighbor decides to build a gas station and car repair shot next door, open until 10 or 11 at night, with bright lights flashing, noise and smell, would you be ok with that? I’d have a problem, unless, at the time I bought my home, I knew that it was possible for this to happen, or unless I could afford enough property to create an adequate buffer from this sort of use. Most people cannot afford that much land. Zoning laws can be abused, by governments and landowners, but they can, and usually do, protect property rights, at least when thoughtfully adopted and applied.
Yeah, I'm the only person here that would avoid suicide and try to find some other way to provide for my family. Such an oddball, aren't I?
"I have no problem with that."
You are already on record as stating you have no problem with public suicide, even if it means those who voted his way have to witness it. Some interesting logic, but hey, it's Friday.
Of course he wasn’t crazy. He felt bullied, knew he did a lot for the community and expected the council to come through for him.
The lesson to be learned is to continue to give generously to your neighbors but don’t expect certain things to happen in return, based on your level of giving.
You try to go through life measuring and obsessing over your give:get ratio, it will kill you eventually.
You’re sick dude.
Read upthread, there were buildings zoned commercial all around him, including next door.
All this is overdramatic.
We used to be a nation of doers - our history is full of successful men and women who lost homes and businesses several times over and picked themselves up by their bootstraps and started again.
I personally know people who have lost businesses and been forced to sell their homes at unfavorable prices. They had a couple of bad years, took some lumps, and moved on.
This guy overextended himself financially and tried to get the government to give him a special break to help him out.
You say he had nothing to lose - had he been sane, he would have realized he had plenty to lose.
If he lost his business and his home, he could have gotten a job cutting hair somewhere else or just another job.
He could have cut his losses and moved on, like thousands of his fellow citizens do every day.
The world and the zoning council do not owe him a lifeline out of debt.
Sometimes the consequences of wrong thinking are irreversible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.