Two teachers

I've been stewing since Friday when I got two calls from teachers.

The first called to ask if we could cover an event at her school. I asked some routine questions that anyone would ask and she concluded I had no interest in sending a reporter/photographer to the event. She said she would call the Daily News or Channel 2. I hope the event does get covered. But she should be ashamed of trying to be a bully. Apparently, along the way of her life, she has been rewarded for pouting and holding her breath. Too bad she didn't hold her breath when she called.

The other teacher asked why we didn't do a better job of covering the school board. That's reasonable question and I didn't have a good answer so I guess I stammered. Impatient and indignant, she asked how many reporters we have. I told her two.

"Two?"

"Yes, two."

"Two?"

I sensed we weren't communicating, so I tried another language.

"Dos."

At that point she got it.

There's a commonality between the two teachers. Our failure to be everywhere. For the first time in decades, the Frontiersman didn't cover the Iditarod from somewhere on the trail. An iconic annual event in our backyard, and we chose not to spend the money to do something we've always done. With only two news reporters, one sportswriter and one photographer and a borough of some 80,000 people, dozens of schools, MEA, borough and city governments, crime and courts and a plethera of other clubs, groups and social events — We can't do it the way we would like to or should. If there were 10 of us, we couldn't do. We could do more, but there will always be people who feel we don't do what we could for them.

The two teachers should imagine trying to teach all the students in the borough between them.

They won't, of course. Their myopic view of our community won't allow that kind of selfless thinking.