TRIB TALK

Published Thursday, October 9, 2008

Call 815-1776 to contribute.
Jim Robertson, managing editor

"Yeah, they returned to the traditional math, and I couldn’t applaud it more. What the kids here in Columbia have been getting is just drivel. It’s someone’s idea of not making people accountable for actually learning that 2 plus 2 is black and white. There’s no concept there, it is just 2 plus 2. One hundred divided by 10 is 10 and is 10 percent. That’s just the way it is. To try to teach concepts doesn’t work. I’m a parent of a child who went through and thought that she was learning. We thought she was learning. She got good grades, she didn’t necessarily ask for help, but then when she got out of high school to go to college, college says, "You haven’t had math yet," and we were astounded. Then she struggled to get back to the basics of math to get enough credits. We raised a ruckus with Rock Bridge for not even letting us know that they were involved in this stuff of just teaching concepts."

"Jim Ritter sold out on canning the previous math program. He obviously was listening to the public, who are very uninformed. It would be encouraging if before they pulled the plug on the math program that they actually did some research."

"I was just reading in the paper about this man who sits in front of the Catholic school, and now someone calls in and thinks Commerce Bank should build him a house for free. That’s about the stupidest mentality. Why would you even print that in the paper? If that’s the case, I’m going to do away with my $375-a-month trailer I live in and go sit in front of a bank, and maybe they’ll build me a house for free. That’s just the most idiotic thing I have ever heard come out of somebody’s mouth or to be put in print. So let’s - the whole country - let’s go sit in front of a bank so they’ll build us a house. I wish you would start printing something in here of someone with some type of intelligence instead of idiots like that."

Robertson replies: Now I’m not positive, and I could be wrong, but I think the caller was speaking with his or her tongue firmly in cheek.

"I wish they would get over Hickman still owing money for its football field. Let’s face it: Rock Bridge constituents have deeper pockets. Hickman will get its field paid off. Give our students and our schools a pat on the back instead of throwing stones."

"I really enjoyed your photos of the ballet dancers. I thought they were outstanding photos, and I enjoyed the article. And I also enjoyed the article about Spirit Riders. I thought it was inspiring and showed a lot of hard work by the girls involved."

"What a crock. I always thought we had a separation of church of state in this country, but I see because of some Jewish holiday that Congress is out of town not voting on something that’s very important to do with the nation’s economy. This is a load of crap if you ask me. What’s our country coming to? Is the Israeli lobby really that strong in this country?"

"Do you know what I think is really funny is that Jesus was known to hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors, and yet we can’t abide a gay high school prom couple. I find that very hard to believe."

"I just wonder why in the Sept. 30 Tribune that you buried a very, very important story on Page 9A. The title of the article is ‘Bond’s office denies role in attorney’s firing.’ This is a major scandal nationwide, and now it’s being exposed that Kit Bond is just as much a part of this as many other GOP operatives in this big corruption case that removed erroneously U.S. attorneys across the country because they were not politically aligned with the GOP."

"Columbia, it’s time to wake up. I can’t believe we don’t do more to recognize Carl Edwards, our own local hometown hero. If he were a bicyclist, we would already have a bronze statue on the Courthouse Square. I just cannot believe he does not get better treatment from our city fathers when it comes to recognizing what he does and what he means to the community."

"I’m just curious, and this is a very old question. Did anybody ever get their refunds from Everett’s when it closed? They said to send in your gift certificates and you would be reimbursed. I never got anything."

"I have a couple of things to say. First, I was reading in Trib Talk about people complaining about the Hickman field not being paid off. That wouldn’t be sour grapes from having your butt kicked in the Providence Bowl again, would it? Also, I guess that means you guys are going to have to go back and redraw the boundary lines again and take more athletes away - again."

"I just wanted to comment about the story about the horses and the young girls. Thank you. It’s so nice to hear a good story, something nice that’s happening and somebody working to do some good things. Thank you."