By now, you’ve probably heard that the School Committee voted on March 23 to eliminate the Wakefield Warrior logo.
You may have inferred from that 5-2 vote that the issue is settled and the April 27 Town Election vote on the Warrior logo ballot question is now moot.
That’s exactly what the School Committee wants you to think. It’s the main reason they voted when they did – to make you believe the April 27 ballot question no longer matters. That, and to show their utter disdain for the process. They alone know best. The voters be damned.
As much as it was a vote to eliminate the logo, the March 23 School Committee vote was also an effort to depress the pro-Warrior turnout on April 27.
Continue reading ‘Why the Warrior logo vote still matters’Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: ActBlue, April 27, election, Indian, lawn signs, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, Opinion, Politics, rallies, vote, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Warrior
Wakefield Warrior, 1947-2021
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Warrior passed away Tuesday night, March 23, after a courageous battle with an aggressive strain of cancel culture. He was 74.
Specialists from around the state were brought in last week to consult on the Warrior’s condition but their intervention may, in fact, have hastened his demise.
The Wakefield Warrior came into this world in 1947. He could trace his roots back to the late General John R. Galvin and the Bayrd family of Wakefield. He was the godson of Harold Greene.
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Education of a Warrior
The Wakefield Warrior debate of the last several months has certainly been educational, which is only fitting since it involves a school logo.
I, personally, have learned a great many things, the latest as recently as yesterday.
After finishing my annual boiled dinner, I decided to relax with a pint of Guinness and watch last night’s televised panel discussion, where I learned that it’s wrong to take anyone’s culture for granted.
I also learned that mascots are bad, so I’m really glad we don’t have one.
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Tags: boiled dinner, cancel culture, civil rights, culture, education, Facebook, forum, Guinness, Humor, Indian, Irish, learning, letter, logo, mailbox, Mark Sardella, mascots, Native American, Opinion, panel discussion, Politics, schools, scoreboard, signs, St Patrick's Day, survey, teaching, teenagers, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Warriors, youth
Forum follies
It was a cavalcade of cancel culture, featuring a Who’s Who of Wakefield’s woke elite at their virtue signaling best.
Last week’s online “public forum” on the Wakefield Warrior logo was utterly predictable in its participation and tenor.
In fact, I did predict it.
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Tags: activists, cancel culture, culture, election, heritage, History, Human Rights Commission, Humor, Indians, Indiginous Peoples, Jason Lewis, logo, Mark Sardella, mascot, Massachusetts, Native Americans, networking, Opinion, political correctness, public forum, public opinion, School Committee, school logo, speakers, sports, technology, tradition, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Itempolitics, Wakefield Warrior, warrior, WCAT, William Carroll, woke, Youth Council, Zoom
Undue process
“First we have the fair trial, then we hang him.”
That quote from Judge Roy Bean came to mind last week as I watched the School Committee discuss the “process” that would be used to determine the fate of the Wakefield Warrior logo.
After this “process” plays out, the School Committee, in its adopted role as Supreme Court, will hand down its verdict and sentence.
This is apparently the next step after the Youth Council, acting as grand jury, indicted the Warrior last October.
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Tags: Aimee Purcell, ballot question, Colleen Guida, court, Darci Burns, execution, Finance Committee, gallows, Greg Liakos, hanging, hangman, Humor, Judge Roy Bean, justice, logo, Mark Sardella, Mike Boudreau, Opinion, Politics, process, referendum, school, School Committee, sentence, Thomas Markham, Town Council, Town Election, trial, verdict, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrior, Youth Council, Zoom
Offensive strategy
If nothing else, the current debate over the Wakefield Warrior logo has been educational.
I’m not talking about learning the unique history of the logo. It’s been well-established that a local Native American family and the four-star general for whom we named the Galvin Middle School played key roles in the history of the Warrior name and logo.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: ancestry, athletes, children, education, Galvin Middle School, game plan, heritage, History, Indian, jocks, John R. Galvin, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, Opinion, Politics, Richard Bayrd, school, strategy, students, tactics, U.S. Census, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, warrior, Youth Council
Done Deal
Allow me to be the one to break the sad news.
The Wakefield Warrior logo is history.
Oh sure, the School Committee paid lip service Tuesday night to the lofty notion of having a “community-wide discussion.” But you didn’t need a degree in “English Language Arts” to read between the lines. There would be no need to go through a “process” if the intention was to keep the logo.
No. The Warrior is a goner. Sorry there isn’t better news, but there isn’t.
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Tags: Community, conformity, COVID, cultural appropriation, History, Indian, logo, Mark Sardella, Native Amreican, Opinion, Politics, public opinion, racism, sports, survey, truth, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Warriors, Warrior logo, Youth Council
Civics lesson
A certain kind of bias has long been suspected in public education but has always been vigorously denied.
So, I commend Wakefield School Committee member Greg Liakos for his honesty and forthrightness this week in loudly and proudly confirming what many have long believed.
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Tags: bias, civic education, civics, civil discourse, classroom, demagogues, democracy, Donald Trump, education, Greg Liakos, learning, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, parents, Politics, President Trump, School Committee, schools, students, teachers, teaching, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools
2020, we hardly knew ye
We couldn’t wait to kick 2020 to the curb, and indeed it was a rotten year in many respects. The pandemic brought illness and worse to the old and vulnerable.
For the rest of us, it was a year of prohibitions: on going out to eat, on walking around the Lake, on attending church, on celebrating holidays and going anywhere without a mask. As if that weren’t enough (and it never is), they added insult to injury by banning plastic utensils and straws!
But I’m here to tell you that, just as no human being is all bad, even the worst years have redeeming qualities.
Herewith, in no particular order, is my (very) short list of reasons to lighten up on 2020.
Since March, all public board meetings have been conducted remotely via Zoom. Now citizens are able to avoid attending these meetings from the comfort of their own homes!
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Tags: 2020, business, court, COVID coronavirus, DPW, Fire Department, flags, Humor, lockdowns, Mark Sardella, Memorial Day, News, Opinion, pandemic, plastic, police, Politics, prohibition, social media, straws, Town Meeting, Veterans' Day, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield MA, Warrior logo, Winship Mansion, wreaths, Youth Council, Zoom
The longest year
Time flies when you’re having fun, which explains why 2020 has been the longest year since the asteroid traveling at 40,000 mph crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, wiping out nearly 80 percent of life on earth and disappointing thousands of spring breakers.
Kind of puts 2020 in perspective, doesn’t it?
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Tags: asteroid, business, coronavirus, COVID-19, defund, facemask, Festival Italia, fun, Holiday Stroll, holidays, Humor, hybrid, jobs, July Fourth, Mark Sardella, Mask Police, masks, Massachusetts, mute button, Opinion, pandemic, plague, police, Politics, Saint Nick, Santa Claus, School Committee, schools, supermarkets, Town Council, unmute, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, work, Yucatan, Zoom
