Bob,
If you measure your intellectual superiority by the number of witty and denigrating retorts you make to in public online forums, then I will cede that you are the smartest man in Pittsfield. It is not my interest to engage in that type of exchange.

I am not politically savvy nor have I tried to present myself as such. In fact, I have stated here previously that I wasn't much into local politics. This attempt at a recall was my first foray into political activism. Yet, that is all irrelevant.

I have stated my position and now for some reason you feel it necessary to attack me personally. That is not a very mature approach to take for the smartest man in Pittsfield.

If you have taken offense to my assertion that people by and large remain out of the loop on local political issues, then I am sorry you feel that way. Go out door to door as I have done, however, and you will find that most people haven't a clue about local issues. And I should know, I was once one of those people. Most of the people can't even identify the names of our township officials.

As far as Wal-mart goes, it isn't Wal-mart itself that will endanger the children at the schools. People like to cite issues with selling alcohol, firearms and inhalants near schools, but I have no opinion on that. My issue is the cut-through traffic. There are 4 routes through the school, including two neighborhoods. The main entrance to that development is directly across from the main entrance to the schools. The school soccer fields lie along one of those routes as well. Anytime you put children in close proximity to cars, then you create safety concerns. The WCRC maintains the site plan for the school originally called for connecting roads to those neighborhoods. Several months ago we met with WCRC engineers regarding all the cut-through traffic. At that meeting they admitted that those neighborhoods indeed have excessive cut-through traffic and it is a problem. With the pending Wal-mart, the traffic is only going to get worse. Unfortunately, the traffic calming measures offered by the WCRC will be deemed too expensive by our township to implement. As a result, I fear that children who stand in the way of shoppers reaching their destinations will ultimately be the hapless victims.

Now, I have no doubt that you believe that I am stupid for having concerns about the safety of my children, so there is no need for you to continue to call me stupid. We already know that. So instead try adding value to this discussion by explaining to me how my concerns are unfounded. If you can do that, then I will certainly give a personal call to the Big 3 and apologize for my actions.