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Op-ed: Carl Miler deserves credit for Music Man Square (by Peter Children)

Of late there has been some positive mention of The Music Man Square and its contribution to this city.  Personally I have been a long standing fan of this complex and as such realized early on it’s presence in our town.

When it was first proposed there were opposition to it being built, but through the persistence of a handful of supporters and the dream of one man in particular, Carl Miller…it became a reality.  Money was tight but unknown perhaps to us all was the fact that in our mist was a first-rate fund raiser who got down to business and saw to it the money was there.

This was not an easy project, much went into it.  Land had to be acquired, financing had to be in place, some large ($100,000.00) contributions had to be confirmed, and again this man brought the rain when it was most needed.

It’s only human nature to have opposition to any idea, good or bad when it effects the landscape of the city, but this was built as a tribute to our favorite son and world renowned celebrity Meredith Willson, and at the same time brought state and nationwide attention to our city.

“Without Carl Miller there would be no Music Man Square.”    

                                                         Jack Leaman

Former City Planner

It is well known that the ram rod in the effort to build this monument to our favorite son was headed up by Carl Miller; “He made it happen,” was one of the comments from Roger Bang, former mayor.  “Once Carl set his mind to it there was no stopping him,” he went on to say.

Yet in the last two mentions in the Globe Gazette Carl’s name was nowhere to be found.  Frankly I would find it impossible to write anything about this facility without including Carl Miller in the story. It takes a lot of “spite” from the local paper to exclude this man in their writing concerning the creation of this edifice, more than you can imagine.  I am not privy to the original members of the Mason City Foundation that was the body that spearheaded the project, but they all deserve to be applauded. In addition those individuals who gave so freely of their money to get the project off the ground and make it real.  They too need to be thanked.  Ask anyone one of them and you will hear them say that it was Miller who convinced them to contribute.

Don’t be mad or upset with the Globe Gazette building or the furniture inside, do not take it out on the printing presses or the delivery people; if you want to express you disgust direct it towards those who are in charge of what goes onto the pages, and what does not.  Pathetic petty predjucies are more often than not harbored by petty pathetic people, small minded individuals who sit behind those desks and lament over their failure to generate a larger subscription base and their loss of any imagined power they may have once wielded in this city.  The loss of credibility by a newspaper is paramount to its very existence.  Since the birth of NIT and the option of a second opinion, the landscape of the delivery of news in North Iowa has drastically changed and will never be the same again.

When you’re in business no matter what it might be, you must compete to get customers through your doors, if you have a job and work for someone, you must compete with those who want the position you hold.  But for over a century the Globe Gazette was excluded from that aspect of competition…they had no viable such thing.  There was no voice to cry out in the light of day or the dark of night, it was what it was.

You were allowed to write to the editor once every three weeks; you must state your name and contact information…and if they did not agree with the content of your letter, they simply did not run it our altered it to change what you were trying to convey.  This isn’t a third world dictatorship, this is America… Remember it isn’t always what you say that can deceive, sometimes it’s what you don’t say that can be more effective. Because they conveniently left any mention of him out of their recent reports, doesn’t mean those living here forgot who he was and the contribution he made to this city.

Peter Children

 

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