One way to get a politician's attention
Said Ward last month, “If this (zone change) doesn’t go through, I lose my home, I lose my shop, I lose everything I got.”After Thursday’s 5-7 vote was cast, Ward stood and walked steadily toward the council.
“Johnny (Piper), I know I can’t speak,” Ward said over the mayor, who was telling Ward the public comment period had ended.
“Y’all have put me under,” Ward said, pulling out a small silver handgun. “I’m out of here.”
A gunshot punctuated his sentence, and Ward fell at the feet of those sitting in the first row.
My take on this is a little different from Beck's. In one sense, Ward was seeking an unearned value, by having his house declared more valuable so that he could secure the loan he needed. Yet his house was worth less solely because of the artificial market distortion of zoning. It would be interesting to know just what reasons the council majority had to refuse his request, besides that they could, or to know if zoning had been imposed before or after he got the house. Yet Billy's main point stands:
A nation of people bred now to everything but freedom will generally find it unimaginable that a man might simply have enough of the mortal indignity of so-called "public servants" arbitrarily deciding on the terms and conditions of his life, as if it is theirs, and not his.
And if it's not your life, but somebody else's, and there is no way to get it back, it's not totally unreasonable to take your life, so they can't have it. Not my choice or yours, maybe, but not the choice of a madman either.
Comments
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: October 5, 2007 09:34 PM
I've got a lot less sympathy for Mr. Ward. It sounds to me like the chief culprit is his own bad planning. His main traffic was soldiery from the 101 Airborne, and he expanded his shop only to find that traffic would disappear. So his business depended not on his fellow townspeople but the whims of government. He was feeding indirectly off the governmental porkpie. He obviously failed to secure adequate financing before he took the plunge. A year ago I suspect he would have had much less trouble in obtaining a line of credit against his house, and now the only solution he could think of was to manipulate the zoning laws so he could claim his house was not his home. "Your poor planning is not my emergency". I don't think he killed himself for the reason Billy gives. I think his suicide was more like a temper tantrum from a man who wrongly thought he could game the system. So he took the last train out.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: October 5, 2007 09:58 PM
Well, yeah, I caught that "gaming the system" aspect. OTOH, there's a big problem with the system being a game, and I think it's a mistake to lose sight of that here. I think there's a tendency for Billy to project his well-thought-out sense of principle onto the actions of others. But we can't know what his thought processes were, and the principle of charity suggests that we should assume he did it for a better reason that creating maximum shock and awe.
Posted by: Billy Beck
Posted on: October 6, 2007 06:26 AM
"OTOH, there's a big problem with the system being a game..."
That's the first and most principle problem, Jeffrey.
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: October 6, 2007 09:35 PM
I'll prefer to save my charity for the widow, who is apparently not only husbandless but incomeless and facing houselessness too. Even if Billy is right, did that give him the right to screw up her life even more completely than it would have been if he had merely gone through bankruptcy?
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: October 7, 2007 06:57 AM
He had the right to do so; nevertheless, it was not the act of a loving husband. I'd make a different call, personally, because in depriving Caesar of what is not Caesar's, I'd also be depriving God and my wife of their own. Before I did anything extreme, I'd want to discuss it with Rusty. Fortunately, I do have a wife who would consider my arguments...and cover my back if necessary.
Speaking of whom...her take on the zoning decision (without knowing the facts other than physical proximity to the base), as a veteran was "They were afraid it would become a whorehouse."
Posted by: James Chang
Posted on: October 8, 2007 10:17 AM
Would this show that some council officials just do not take the time and effort to research a request for a zoning change? That their thinking assumes that whatever they do, the populace would accept their decision as final without argument? I was hoping to see if the council did take the month to look into his request after the first reading.