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View from QCA: Listen to the ghost of Douglas Park, help R.I. save it
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Allow me to touch upon the subject of the renovation of Douglas Park and the need to take it off life support and put life back into such a vital landmark in the City of Rock Island. I have spent most of my life at Douglas Park, watching the legends of the game to clap, yell and enjoy their play. Many have moved on in life and joined the heavens of their God only with only their ghostly presence to remain. I've been told many ghosts loom over Douglas Park, where the great Jim Thorpe played professional football, where the Chicago Bears planted roots, where softball championships were renowned, where little and pony leagues were formed, where I played my first little league football game and home field to me when I played at Franklin Jr. High School. The ghosts of Douglas Park speak of the folks who brought their families to the park to enjoy the competition between children, cousins, uncles, daughters, sons, fathers, and mothers. As a child, I recall my father calling me mannish as I met my first girlfriend here. Many of us know Douglas Park to be a place of freedom and enjoyment and the ghosts there are wishing, hoping, looking, and expressing the wishes of saving this park. They yearn for the return of enjoyment to give back to their living legacy. I think ... I know the ghosts think this park has earned the right to be saved for the past and living history and it's for this reason I believe the park deserves to live. That said, the city has to make the first step in leading the team in this renovation project. Please, hear this call: foundations, private sector, preservation experts, politicians, historians, clergymen and women, and, most important, the community. We must follow our ghosts and take part in bringing this back to life. Douglas Park must remain and from it, newness must emerge. So I set forth this challenge in speaking on behalf of the parks past and present. For more information or to assist by joining a committee in the project to renovate Douglas Park please contact me at 309-230-5338. Terry M.A. Brooks is 1st Ward Rock Island alderman. 
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Today is Tuesday, May 21, the 141st day of 2013. There are 224 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: On Monday the 11th inst. on Center Ridge in Mercer County,some citizens got out their cannon to celebrate the taking of Richmond. The gun wasoverloaded and burst. No one was injured, but one 30-pound piece went though thesecond story of a house.
1888 -- 125 years ago: The old folks concert at the Harper Theater last night to benefit St.Luke's Cottage Hospital, attracted a large audience.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Unless depredation by vandals in Rock Island parks is halted,special policemen will be assigned to night duty to protect the flowers and other property.
1938 -- 75 years ago: Station WHBF has received a special citation from Washington forits participation in Air Mail Week, which was observed this week throughout the nation.
1963 -- 50 years ago: A 10-year high in employment in the Quad-City area was reachedat the end of the last quarter, according to an industrial employment barometer releasedtoday.
1988 -- 25 years ago: Pee Wee teams will be able to play baseball and softball as usualon Diamond Three at Dorrance Park this summer, but after that, the ball field is doomed.County crews have put the diamond back in shape after heavy trucks marred the playingfield earlier this spring. Illinois Department of Transportation crews drove onto it to makeborings for the relocation of the junction of Illinois 84 and the Port Byron-Hillsdale road.
(More History)