Bruce O’Connell and his family run the Pisgah Inn on a concession contract along the Blue Ridge Parkway since the late 1970s. A public service concession is when a private company enters into an agreement with bureaucrats to have the exclusive right to operate or maintain so-called public land. Because of the so-called “government shutdown” federal agents told Bruce to close the doors to his Inn.
Instead, he pledged to defy orders and stay open to serve his customers, drawing over 1000 “Likes” on the Inn’s facebook page. But when National Park Rangers showed up with their guns and ordered Bruce to close, Bruce quote, “decided we weren’t prepared to be a symbol, and we closed.” But after a night of sleeping on it, Bruce said, quote, “I simply decided ‘If not now, when? If not me, who?’”
The Inn serves about 20,000 tourists during a typical October, but Bruce said his defiance was not about the lost revenue. quote, “It’s about the visitors. It’s about the staff and employees who are now having to move off the mountain — they live here — with no notice. They have no jobs. That’s the concern.”
Men with guns blocked off the entrance to the Inn with their cars to prevent anyone from entering. With no way for new customers to enter, Bruce caved and shut the Inn’s doors until further notice from the benevolent overlords at the Federal Government.
h/t http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/04/blue-ridge-parkway-pisgah-inn/2923169/