Chicken Man and the American Dream

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Some of you may have been following the story of one man's fight against a suburban Town Constable here in the Great State (sic) of Georgia. He is known as Chicken Man because he wanted to raise chickens and other barnyard critters in his rural home.

Only thing is, a neighbor complained. God damn Roosters! This lead to other complaints, and Chicken Man soon found himself afoul of the law. In a comedy of drama, one thing led to another until yesterday, confronted with eviction of his home (missed payments because he was in jail on code citations, severely damaged by floods, etc) he simply did the American thing and instead of giving up his property that he was in arrears on, instead he he had a chicken bake.

The battle between one man and the city of Roswell that started over his keeping of chickens ended Monday afternoon in a fiery explosion. Investigators believe that rather than be evicted from his home, Andrew Wordes poured gasoline throughout the house and set it on fire.

Now, I know there are those within this community that believe in 'rugged individualism'. Here is a man whose last 3 year of life could be played in a movie by Tommy Lee Jones or Clint Eastwood (older white males). Chicken Man was no liberal.

I speculate Chicken Man listened to Boortz/Limbaugh daily. I speculate that Chicken Man bought into "The American Dream" scheme of property ownership being the 'ultimate right'. To men like The Chicken Man, land ownership, even if shared with a bank, is 'the defining paradigm of being a Man in the US).

Ayn Rand's kind of man. Ayn would have approved of this mans' defiance in the face of those who would take from his hard work and property. After all, what is unreasonable about wanting to raise chickens, goats and hens?

Lots of stories like this are accumulating on the internet news wires. This is not an isolated incident.

Has the American Dream finally died? Or was there never really one, just a way for the banks and construction firms, the ad agencies and the cheap furniture stores to all profit off Dreamers like The Chicken Man?

Dd the empty rhetoric of the GOP kill Chicken Man? Did he believe so much that Republicans had the 'right' answer because he was taught  for decades to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS mistrust the "left"? Then they went and elected that...well..you know!

Are you still buying the empty rhetoric of the GOP? Do you believe a persons property is what defines them, and if they can not have unfettered access to their property (the government's got guns pointed at us, yall!) then you are less than human? How many of you are clinging to bad debt, to ridiculous financial situations, just to have a 'place to call your own'?

Who among us is one step away from being the next Chicken Man?

Comments

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Indeed, that would make for a great movie. Proposed title: Rooster Man of course!

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

Alice in Chains can do the opening song!

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Well, property rights are one of the 6 Killer Apps (http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/blog/view/542) according to Niall Ferguson, i.e. crucial factors for the long-term prosperity of a society.

Of course, it's when any of these gets brought to an extreme that grotesque and hilarious cases like this emerge.

[michael barnett (from livejournal.com)]

I saw this giant wall of text on my friends page and as I began scrolling down to the next entry, this caught my eye:

"Dd the empty rhetoric of the GOP kill Chicken Man?"

I can't tell you how funny that sentence is without any accompanying context.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, the first thing that popped into my head was this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f7m2bSs8wU#t=08m22s

Too soon?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

why did they blow up their houses?

Sheesh. Rugged rural individualists...

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

It was the very last episode of "Little House on the Prairie", and basically everyone found out that this one guy had somehow gotten possession of the entire town. I forget the details, but it was all legal, and it ended up that they basically had the choice of moving, or living under his exorbitant rents and working for him.

So they moved, but blew up their houses. "You own the land. You don't own what WE built on it." When the guy arrived to make sure they were leaving (backed by the National Guard to ensure compliance) with a bunch of town leaders from OTHER nearby towns he had aquired (in order to demonstrate that resistance is futile), it all backfired because the guardsmen agreed with the townspeople's logic, refused to arrest them, and the folks from the other towns realized they could likewise take a stand, and would give him the same reception when THEY had to move out. So, ultimately the main characters did all lose their land, but the bad guy didn't get the ready made pre-built towns he was hoping to use as a quick money maker either, and it's implied that the OTHER towns might have been saved because of it.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

My wife loves that show. But the guy, in the end, did keep the land. Was this the last TV episode or a Movie thingie?

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

It was a movie thing, but I think it was meant to wrap up the series after the last episode had aired. They even got Michael Landon to come back for it after having left the show.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

The American Dream is 2 parts hard work, 5 parts luck. Add to that the 'special unique snowflake' growing up from the days of hippies and now everyone thinks they're entitled to success, and not just normal success and a living wage but wealth. The amount of Americans who literally think they'll be millionaires some day is staggering, even moreso the amount that erroneously believe they're in the middle class.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

2 + 5 parts = 7 parts. Doesn't make for a good fraction. I mean, "two-sevenths". Come on! :D

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

hippy

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

"If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all"

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Let us not forget all of those foreign investors who are lining up to purchase foreclosed American properties. Promoting the influx of capital from abroad is the America way.

[stephenp.livejournal.com]

The biggest threat to America today is America.
Forget about Canadians who saved up for a down payment and are interested in an appropriate mortgage, are not a threat to American sovereignty.

Definitely considering picking up a 8 or 10 urban acres in D-Town.

I am not sure if this constitutes agreement or argument, but I'm cool either way.

[cinchntouch.livejournal.com]

I think the way the city treated Andrew Wordes is deplorable. Just as an FYI, the animals had all been rehomed before the fire and explosion.

When he bought the property the chickens were legal. The city harassed him because they wanted to rezone his neighborhood. In the original case the courts sided with Wordes and his right to have his chickens on his property. Subsequently, the city changed the zoning laws and didn't grandfather his property. Furthermore, there are a number of questionable citations (was there a policy of harassment), traffic tickets and further development in the area that could have played a role in his basement flooding.

There were a number of factors that ultimately destroyed him. Massive flooding can be enough to wipe out a lot of home owners.

This may not signal the death of the American Dream, but it is a damn good argument for paying attention to the actions of your city.

I also fail to see how his political affiliation has anything to do with anything (I am gleaning he was a Libertarian, based on web research). The last I checked, Democrats don't appreciate having City Councils and developers screw with their civil rights either.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Democrats are not killing themselves because they connect Life, with pursuit of property ownership.

But I agree, he was fucked with in order to be made a lesson of.

Only the student became the teacher in the end.

[cinchntouch.livejournal.com]

LJ doesn't allow links, but if you do a quick search you will find that there are quite a few suicides connected to being foreclosed on (some of them also fall under the broader headline of "debt"). I sincerely doubt if all of these folks are Republicans.

In terms of blowing up the house, there is research that for some reason men tend to kill themselves in more flamboyant ways than women.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

I'd also gather that squatters who refuse to move after foreclosure and those who move into empty foreclosed homes aren't all that conservative. Property means something to them, too.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

My coworker is raising chickens and rabbits at his suburban home. I have another neighbor down the street who also has at least one chicken, that they let walk around. Someone has a sheep that they take on walks around the neighborhood. Lots of people have horses. Why is Georgia so backwards?