The visitation
The day after the funeral for my niece Meghan, I was busying myself planting petunias in the pots that I hang from my back deck every spring. I needed a ladder to reach one of the higher pots, and when I lifted the pot off its hook, a bird flew out. I immediately recognized it as a mourning dove.
I wondered why this bird was camped out in this hanging pot. Then I looked inside and saw that she was protecting a nest with two little white eggs. I quickly returned the hanging pot to its hook and moved away, hoping she would return.
I then heard the telltale whistling sound of her wings as she landed first on my neighbor’s roof and then on the roof of my house. I decided to leave the yard and go inside so she would feel safe to return to her nest, which I’m happy to say she did moments later.
I was struck by the significance of this close encounter with a mourning dove at a time when my family was mourning the sudden passing of my young niece. So, I went online and found its meaning to be far more profound than anything I could have imagined.
I feel honored and humbled to have this visitation, which seems all the more significant due to its intimate and extended nature. This was no casual encounter, but an up close and personal visit by an angel who, after flying away, quickly returned to continue providing her warm, nurturing care.
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Tags: angel, bird, dove, life, Mark Sardella, Meghan Sardella, mourning dove, nest, plant, visit
We care a lot
COVID may be over, but we still face an even more dangerous epidemic: complacency.
We saw it a few weeks ago, when a whopping 18 percent of Wakefield’s eligible voters supported building a new $274 million high school. It passed anyway because 75 percent of the town’s registered voters either didn’t know or didn’t care enough cast a ballot.
It turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg of indifference. The belated opposition to the Northeast Metro Tech building project presents an even more disturbing example.
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The price of apathy
Last Saturday’s Special Election, which saw 18 percent of the voters give 100 percent of Wakefield homeowners a hefty tax increase, brought back a hazy memory from about 40 years ago.
As a member of the Board of Assessors in the 1980s, Paul Faler was a fierce advocate for residential taxpayers. As I recall it, Paul narrowly lost re-election one year, and the next year he ran again in an attempt to return to the Board.
At a Wakefield League of Women Voters candidates’ night, he was asked, if he lost a second time, would he run again the following year as the taxpayers’ voice. Paul smiled at the question.
“At some point,” he said, “people have to save themselves.”
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‘Yes for WMHS’ raised $12,877
[From the Thursday, March 9, 2023 Wakefield Daily Item]
WAKEFIELD — The “Yes for WMHS” campaign raised over $12,000 to fund its advocacy for the new Wakefield Memorial High School building project, although nearly one-quarter of the total amount raised came from one individual.
In campaign finance reports filed with the Town Clerk, the Committee reported raising $7,657 between July 15, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2022. A subsequent filing on March 3 reported another $5,220 raised between Jan. 1, 2023 and Feb. 23, 2023, for a total of $12,877.
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Tags: campaign, campaign finance, contributions, donations, education, election, expenditures, fundraising, high school, March 11, money, Politics, schools, vote, Wakefield High School. Wakefield MA, Yes for WMHS
Schools of thought
Watching two school building projects unfold virtually side by side in time and space has provided a unique window into what happens when environmental and educational activism collide at the local level.
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Tags: activists, Amazon Rain Forest, Breakheart Reservation, Chelsea, civics, Conservation Commission, diversity, education, environment, equity, Everett, forest, Hemlock Rd., Humor, inclusion, Malden, Mark Sardella, MSBA, NEMT, Northeast Metro Tech, Opinion, Politics, privilege, Revere, schools, Shaun F. Beasley, social justice, trade school, vocational education, Voke, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Memorial High School, wildlife habitat, WMHS, woods
All aboard the Equity Express!
The plan to get you out of your single-family home and private vehicle is proceeding apace as we forge ahead toward our collective future.
The latest phase in this great leap forward has been promulgated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which is in the process of forcing it on local cities and towns with MBTA service, like Wakefield.
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Meeting expectations
There were few surprises at last Saturday’s Special Town Meeting, other than the fact that the start was delayed 45 minutes to allow several hundred people to stroll in fashionably late.
Who could have known that this much-anticipated and highly promoted Special Town Meeting would attract such a crowd? And you can hardly blame people for not knowing about the check-in process when they’ve never been to a Town Meeting before.
You mean we can’t just sashay in and sit down?
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Tags: Anthony Guardia, ballot, children, classroom, education, educators, homeowners, Humor, Mark Sardella, Open Town Meeting, Opinion, parents, Politics, punctuality, school, schools, senior citizens, social security, special election, Special Town Meeting, Steely Dan, students, taxes, teachers, vote voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, William Carroll
A very Special Town Meeting
In just over a week, Phase 1 of the campaign for a new Wakefield Memorial High School will be complete.
On Saturday, Jan. 28, the Special Town Meeting will be called to order and hundreds of people will pack the high school field house to hear school administrators and other town officials drone on at length about the dire need for a new high school.
Most of those present will have never attended a Town Meeting before and likely never will again. They will be there at the behest of the local education lobby, which has put out an urgent call for warm bodies to come out and vote “Yes for WMHS” on Jan. 28.
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Here comes Santa Claus
I’ve taken to heart recent advice from readers that I should “do a little investigative journalism.” And since it’s my firm conviction that the public has a constitutional right to know what their local officials and others will be receiving in their stockings and under their trees on Christmas morning, my digging has uncovered Santa’s secret list.
Due to inflation, Santa’s list is shorter than usual this year, which will come as a relief to those who didn’t make the list.
To Sam Stella: a bright red MAGA hat.
To Jonathan Chines: the Beatles’ Taxman on vinyl.
To the 2022 Wakefield Warrior football team: a trip to Superbowl LVII on Feb. 12.
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Tags: Amy McLeod, Beatles, Christmas, copyright, Donald Trump, Dr. Douglas Lyons, Fence Viewers, Humor, Jason Lewis, Jeff Kehoe, Jonathan Chines, MAGA, Mark Sardella, Mehreen Butt, News, Northeast Metro Tech, Ohio State University, Politics, Sam Stella, Santa Claus, Shaun F. Beasley, Smart Brevity, Taxman, Unitarian Universalist, Voke, voters, Wakefield Bowladrome, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield Police Department, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Town Council, Warrior logo, Winter Solstice, WMHS