The wisest man that ever lived said, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” As the “New Branson,” currently being built by the City of Branson and its developers with taxpayer dollars, emerges from “Branson,” the Branson that private entrepreneurs built with their own money, it would behoove us to consider a paraphrase of that question, “For what does it profit a community to gain a few bucks, and forfeit its values?”
Why? The very family value based system of Branson that makes our community such a great place to live and is the bed rock upon which its economic success rests is being gambled on the New Branson. A Branson based on family values and community interest is being wagered on a New Branson where anything is all right as long as it raises revenues to salve the seemingly insatiable appetite of the City of
The amazing thing is that the vast majority of the very families benefiting from Branson, both those who built it and those who live in the community because of it, their leaders, associations, churches, etc. are taking no action, are standing idlely by, and letting it happen. What if the Lord appeared this very night and asked the question, “What have you done with the Branson that I entrusted to you?” If the public record is any indication, there would be a lot of people, churches, organizations, and elected officials who would be mute while the City of
A front page article, in the July 12-13 edition of this paper entitled, “Alderman urges Huffman to ‘reconsider’ alcohol sales” indicates how little control even the City of
It also indicated that Purvis, based on his observations, was concerned about the mix of alcohol and children in the public square and asked the developer to please reconsider the way alcohol is served at Branson Landing. The article reports that although Rick Huffman, developer of Branson Landing, addressed the issue of open container sales during the regular Branson Board of Aldermen meeting on June 26 he made no comments in response to Alderman Purvis’ request.
As was the case with the question of potential pornography being brought into Branson Landing by the Hilton Hotels, which was brought up by City Administrator Terry Dody at their June 26 meeting, the City of
To that an Ole Seagull would reply, “Not really.” A recent branding study paid for by the City of
Now let’s see, the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the New Branson will bring how many new visitors to Branson over the next five years? One can only wonder how that number would compare to the number of new visitors that $10 million a year, spent on expanding the range and penetration of marketing what Branson currently has to offer, over each of the next three years, would bring in.
Interestingly enough, the New Branson can not only survive, but can thrive, on Branson’s existing value system; but Branson, both from a quality of life and economic perspective, will suffer tremendously without it. Does it make more sense for Branson to gamble its value system against the New Branson concept of anything for a buck or for Branson to fight to preserve the family value system that has worked so well for it up to this point? To an Ole Seagull the answer is pretty simple, for what does it profit a community to maybe gain a few bucks, and forfeit its values?
