I wanted to both congratulate and thank Charles Tate for 42 years of distinguished service with the city of Columbus. Charles retired this week as the department head over Information Technology. When he was hired in 1972, there were no cell phones, Internet, emails, social media, and very few computers. Therefore, since age 20, he began the tough job of implementing high-tech innovations to transform the Consolidated Government into a new technology era.He has worked with every mayor and every city manager since consolidation, including myself for eight years. He has always been very professional, dedicated,Making fortune through job se, and a real leader. Yet he is very humble and always gives his employees the credit for their accomplishments, which are many.Public service has been his life. Protecting the public's interest in the free flow of government information is an important responsibility and one which Charles took very seriously. That mission was his passion and his calling, second only to his wonderful wife, Cheryl, his children, grandchildren, and his church. He is a fine man, very intelligent, well respected, a true historian, and leaves a legacy in technology which our government and this community will benefit from for years to come. Thank you, Charles Tate, for your friendship and your lifelong dedication to your city and community.Bobby PetersColumbusSuperior Court Judge Bobby Peters was Mayor of Columbus from 1995-2003.Not good enoughI want to address Dimon Kendrick-Holmes' recent front page article titled "Rise of Math."While it is welcome news that math performance has improved in our local public school system, we cannot ignore the continuing crisis of our failure to meet the state average score on the CRCT.The fact that the Muscogee County School System is routinely ranked below the state average in various educational measures has become the norm. We've accepted that the bar is now set quite low, and we seem to be celebrating that we are now not quite as bad as we used to be.That mindset is wrong. In fact, it's embarrassing. I believe we are better than that.It is past time that we change the way we are doing business in our local school system. We should end the sweetheart no-bid contracts that are cheating our kids and redirect this flow of money to the classroom where it belongs. Among other good uses for that new revenue stream, we could give performance bonuses to our best teachers.By rewarding and showing our appreciation for those who teach our kids, we might well build on this recent, modest progress.Frank MyersColumbusFrank Myers is a member-elect of the Muscogee County School BoardTake it downThis letter is concerning a "peace" spire located in the median of the 1000 block of Broadway. It was made by the Thompson-Pound Art Program and sponsored by the Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministry and approved, apparently, by Uptown Columbus Association.This spire is decorated with Jewish,Fournier- Biden's 'Hope And C, Islamic, Hindu and New Age symbols, as well as marijuana leaves. It has various quotes by historical figures depicted on its base. What is noticeably lacking, however, is any blatant Christian symbol such as a cross. What is also lacking is any quote from the Prince of Peace, Himself. I suppose it is some kind of misdirected effort toward the admirable goal of interfaith harmony.As a Christian, I find this offensive because biblical Christianity has been slighted. In its present form, this object has no legitimate place on our streets. I urge Christians to call Richard Bishop at Uptown Columbus Association to remove the offensive object.Craig HarbinColumbusFruits of lawlessnessAs we witness more goofiness in the Middle East we can only ask for what purpose?The Iraq invasion in 2002 violated every international law, including our own inspired Nuremburg Accords. There were never any weapons of mass destruction; there was no al Qaeda presence because Saddam Hussein was noted for hanging dissidents from the nearest light pole. The invasion tore the country apart and exploded sectarian tensions, thus plunging a sovereign nation into utter chaos and destruction.The authors of this criminality were Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, Condoleeza Rice and George W. Bush. Four months before the 2002 invasion,Developer offering homes buil, Bush et al. conspired with then British Prime Minister Tony Blair to invade Iraq and overthrow Hussein regardless of the absence of any criteria to support the invasion. All of the principals convened on April 25, 2013 to celebrate the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library while arrogantly proclaiming that they had brought liberty to Iraq. The celebration should have resulted in all of their arrests and prosecution for crimes against humanity that thus far has destabilized foreign policy and cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion; needless military deaths; and record numbers of post traumatic stress disorder among those that survived and now overwhelm the VA.Robert John WhiteGeorgetown