Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 8, 2007

For many years, Ronald ?Bo? Ward operated a barber shop in Clarksville, Tennessee. He took a paternal interest in the soldiers at nearby Fort Campbell, often giving them haircuts for free.

Bo incurred debts by expanding his shop. He could get a debt consolidation loan on his home if it was re-zoned as a commercial property. When he put in a request to the City Council in September, Bo explained that if the loan didn't go through, ?I lose my home, I lose my shop, I lose everything I got.?

During an October 4 meeting, the City Council turned down the request. Distraught, Bo declared: ?Y'all have put me under,? then drew a gun and killed himself.

Bo had asked to make more profitable use of his own property, only to learn that, because of the socialist practice of municipal planning and zoning, he didn't really own that property ? including the life ruined by the local zoning bureaucracy.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.