Channing Dutton is a lawyer in Urbandale. His duty is climate action for all children.
Meredith Willson gave us a timeless Iowa tale in “The Music Man”: a fast-talking charmer named Professor Harold Hill sweeps into River City, peddling a dream of shiny instruments, crisp uniforms, and the vision of a boys’ band that will keep young people out of trouble.
Not everyone was swayed by his pitch. Do you remember the bumbling school board members assigned to track down his credentials? Every time they got close, Hill got the barber shop quartet to start singing instead of digging up the truth.
The Professor is a fraud, of course—but by the end, we don’t hate him. In fact, he delivers more hope and harmony than River City had before.
Fast-forward to Des Moines in 2025, and the story feels strangely familiar. Only this time, the man with the dream wasn’t selling trombones—he was selling himself. Dr. Ian Roberts, the new superintendent, told us he had the Ph.D., the MIT pedigree, and the big awards. He signed the forms, shook the hands, and inspired the community to believe again. The city wanted to believe. We all wanted to believe.
Like Harold Hill, it appears Ian Roberts lived inside the story he was spinning. Maybe he even came to believe his own script: “I always think there’s a band, kid.”
And while the résumé padding and falsehoods are no small matter—he wasn’t a citizen, wasn’t the credentialed academic we thought—it’s also true that he came to Des Moines with energy, vision, and a promise to the kids. We all loved it.
That’s the curious thing: even as the deception unraveled, people admitted Roberts had presence. He could inspire. He talked about kids’ futures with urgency and passion, something that most superintendents drown in bureaucracy before ever attempting. In a way, he delivered more than the safe and steady “honest” choices often do.
Now Des Moines finds itself in the same bittersweet position as Willson’s fictional Iowa town. Do we remember the lies, or the lift we felt when we believed? Do we condemn the imposter, or recognize that even an imposter can stir something real in a community?
In the musical, Harold Hill is redeemed by the ragtag band that finally plays—badly, but together. In Des Moines, the story may not end with a parade, but perhaps with the humbling realization that sometimes, even the flawed figures who sell us dreams manage to change us for the better.
3 Comments
thanks for this
I’m afraid it will get swept away in the maelstrom of hate and bigotry but by all accounts the man was delivering on the job he was hired to do and if not for his getting caught up in the ethnic cleansing dragnet he would still be…
https://www.joyannreid.com/p/the-vice-president-has-too-much-time
dirkiniowacity Sat 4 Oct 12:26 PM
Some Perspective is in Order
There sure has been a bit of passion displayed over the Ian Roberts matter in the Bleeding Heartland posting and comments space.
The facts still need to be fully confirmed and sorted out. But even in the worst-case scenario, everything is fixable without moving mountains. Of course – with race, immigration, ICE and politics all involved – drama and temperatures will run high.
That’s the world we live in at this moment.
But when compared to the systemic problems that are prevalent in the State of Iowa, the Roberts affair is really pretty small potatoes.
Our waterways are polluted with no urgency by the governing majority to do anything about it.
Iowa public schools are underfunded with tax dollars being diverted to unaccountable, by comparison, private schools.
An actual budget shortfall is being papered over by using rainy day funds. Unnecessary tax cuts disproportionally benefiting the affluent and the aforementioned private school vouchers won’t make solutions any easier.
Rural hospitals and other healthcare providers face a rough road ahead as Iowa’s congressional delegation supports cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Don’t believe them if they tell you otherwise.
Iowa will be negatively impacted as the Trump administration’s economic policies take hold. Prices are rising, jobs are going away and farmers can’t sleep at night as major international markets vanish. It will get worse.
As we witnessed in the Roberts case, ICE is out of control and operating in a manner inconsistent with the rule of law and traditional law enforcement practices.
Long held public health practices and medical research initiatives are being ripped apart in stunning and careless ways.
Of course, there’s much more.
My point is that the Des Moines Public School System will get its act together concerning its hiring practices. But will Iowans get their act together to start electing people that will preserve our children’s futures, not diminish them?
Let’s keep our eyes focused on the big things.
Bill Bumgarner Sat 4 Oct 12:30 PM
thanks Bill
for trying to provide some context and perspective, but of course all of these matters are intimately tied together.
As a practical matter one cannot separate out some aspects of this tangle by labeling them as “culture war” and move onto others one might call “kitchen table”, because culture is where all our guiding values lie and MAGA’s values lead to all of the societal harms you point to.
So indeed let’s not get too focused on any one example such that we lose the bigger picture, or get too caught up in the traps of debating with people living in their conspiracies as there is much work to be done.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/opinion/charlie-kirk-media-truth-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qE8.-EcA.PgpQnf7SG6FR&smid=url-share
dirkiniowacity Sat 4 Oct 1:12 PM