Flagging allegiance
There aren’t a lot of human rights violations in Wakefield, Massachusetts. So, to justify its existence, the Wakefield Human Rights Commission has to find things to do.
I just wish they’d stick to discussing their favorite Girl Scout Cookies and leave our country’s flag, holidays and traditions alone.
The Wakefield Human Rights Commission (WHRC) recently convinced the Town Council to amend the town’s Flag Policy to allow flags other than the U.S. flag to be flown from public flagpoles. Specifically, they would like the “Pride” flag and the “Juneteenth” flag to share space with Old Glory on various town-owned poles.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
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An Irish homecoming
A cold October rain was falling as I turned my rented Nissan Sunny down the dirt lane in the village of Portglenone, Northern Ireland. The road was barely wide enough for one vehicle and had grass growing between tire-worn tracks. Up on a hill in the distance, I could make out a pickup truck. A man closed a gate behind the truck, then got behind the wheel and began driving down the long, winding road in my direction.
One of us was going to have to pull over into the tall grass along the side to let the other pass. Having no idea if I was on private property, I wondered if this could be the land-owner who might not appreciate my trespassing.
It was 1994, and I was in the middle of a three-week solo road trip through Ireland. I had come with no particular itinerary, except at some point I wanted to see where my maternal grandparents had come from. I had crossed the border into Northern Ireland the previous day and made my way farther north to my grandfather’s home village of Portglenone in County Antrim.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, Feature stories, History, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Ahoghill, Ballymena, Beechfield Guest House, Blaney, Clare Blaney, Colm Blaney, Dympna Blaney, Family, family history, genealogy, Harry Blaney, History, Ireland, John Blaney, Matk Sardella, Northern Ireland, Portglenone, Rosetta O'Hara, Sean Blaney, travel, Una Lynch, Wakefield Daily Item
Brave New World
Less than a year after dumping the Warrior logo, the Wakefield School Committee continues to demonstrate that they are more in tune with global causes than they are with the local taxpayers who pay the freight.
Last week, they quietly changed Columbus Day to “Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day.”
And nobody said a word.
The 2022-2023 School Calendar approved by the School Committee last week lists Monday, Oct. 10, 2022 as “Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day.” I’m shocked that they gave Columbus top billing.
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Tags: America, Aztecs, calendar, Christopher Columbus, colonizers, Columbus Day, education, European, explorer, History, human sacrifice, Humor, Indians, Indigenous People, Italian-Americans, Italians, learning, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, New World, North America, Opinion, Peru, Politics, Reuters, Scandinavian, school, stolen land, students, teachers, Vikings, virtue signaling, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Memorial High School, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield School Committee, WakefieldMA, Western Hemisphere
The naked and the masked
With COVID on the wane, last week everyone in Wakefield was finally liberated from the imperative to cover their faces. Everyone, that is, except those least at risk from the virus: school children. That’s what’s known as “following the science.”
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) lifted the state’s indoor mask mandate last week, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has said that masks no longer need to be worn in public schools as of Feb. 28. When two of the most alarmist state agencies are saying masks can go, you know that everybody is done.
Everybody, that is, except certain overwrought local officials, who can’t seem to let it go.
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Tags: Ami Wall, Amy Leeman, Anthony Chui, children, COVID, data, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Public Health, DESE, DPH, education, Families, health, Humor, illness, kids, mandate, Mark Sardella, mask mandate, masks, Massachusetts, nurse practictioner, Opinion, pandemic, Politics, schools, students, Suzy Veilleux, testing, Thomas Markham, unvaccinated, vaccinated, vaccination, vaccine, vax, virus, Wakefield, Wakefield Board of Health, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Town Council
Magic bus
Like most of you, I had never heard of “transportation equity” until a week or so ago. It’s one of those terms that members of the Woke Community toss around in casual conversation believing everybody knows what it means, because everybody they know does.
You probably thought “equity” was the value of your home minus what you still owe on the mortgage.
How quaint. Turn off Fox Business and put down the Wall Street Journal, insurrectionist.
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Return to ‘Wakefield Tonight’
Many years before I became an ink-stained wretch, I toiled in another branch of local media. It was way back in the last century, the 1980s, to be precise, when I produced and directed Wakefield’s first regularly-scheduled TV comedy/talk show.
Cable TV was new and all the rage. Cable companies vied for lucrative contracts in every city and town. They would promise the world in order to secure the right to provide cable services to a municipality.
And that’s where the competition ended. The successful cable provider had a monopoly in that community for the next 15-20 years. None of this “choice” between Comcast, Verizon and RCN like we have now.
One of the carrots that cable companies dangled in order to win those contracts was local programming – television that would originate in your very own community. The companies would make grandiose promises of a “state-of-the-art” television studio in your town where professionals would train local people in how to produce television programs “by and for the community.”
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Ethos, pathos and logos
Having endured two previous School Department “forums” on the Wakefield Warrior logo, my expectations were not high for last week’s “Warrior Logo Community Forum.”
Somehow, it still managed to disappoint.
For one thing, it was held via Zoom, which hinders participation by the less technically adept while favoring a demographic more comfortable with technology. If you don’t believe Zoom presents a technical roadblock for many people, consider that the forum started almost 15 minutes late because those in charge of running it encountered – you guessed it – technical problems.
Last week’s forum was billed as an opportunity for members of the Wakefield community to offer their input regarding a new logo to replace the old Warrior logo.
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Tags: American Indians, Bayrd Family, caring, chat, compassionate, courageous, Douglas Lyons, fierce, football, forum, global community, gridiron, Humor, inclusive, Indigenous peoples, Jim Landrigan, Landrigan Field, logo, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, Opinion, Politics, respectful, School Committee, schools, sensitivity training, sports Wakefield Warriors, strong, students, teachers, technology, Town Election, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, welcoming, Zoom
Santa is coming!
The Daily Item has obtained, through a Freedom of Information Act request, a partial copy of Santa’s Christmas list. As journalists, we believe in the public’s Constitutional right to know what our local officials and others will be receiving in their stockings and under their trees on Christmas morning.
The North Pole Information Agency has grudgingly complied with our request. (Like they had a choice.)
Through its press office, the North Pole released a statement calling the release “a regrettable breach of the trust that Santa Claus has worked hundreds of years to establish. After this, how can anyone speak freely while sitting on the lap of a bearded stranger in a red suit?”
That’s the price of transparency, Big Guy. Ho, ho, ho.
As our gift to our readers, the Daily Item has decided to publish the unedited list. Don’t blame us. We’re just the messengers.
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Tags: Ann Santos, Betsy Sheeran, Bill Renault, Board of Health, Brian McGrail, Donald Trump, Ed Dombroski, Edward Dombroski Jr., elections, FOIA, Fred Rich, gift, Humor, Jeff Kehoe, Marian Ryan, Mark Sardella, Melrose, Merry Christmas, Mishy Lesser, North Pole, Opinion, Politics, present, Santa Claus, School Committee, Stephen P. Maio, Suzy Veilleux, Town Council, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights CommissionChristmas, Wakefield Public Schools, WCAT, Youth Council, Zoning Board of Appeals
Logo logistics
Apparently, the Wakefield School Department doesn’t have enough on its plate at the moment, so last week administrators announced plans to push ahead with developing a new high school sports logo to replace the Native American image that was so heinous it took three quarters of a century to determine that it was offensive.
Presumably, the process of choosing a new logo will require somewhat less time.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 9 Comments
Tags: amends, atonement, Bandstand, community forum, Critical Race Theory, curriculum, decolonization, diversity, Douglas Lyons, education, equity, Eurocentrism, Golden State Warriors, Hiker, Humor, inclusion, Indienous people, Mishy Lesser, Opinion, Politics, schools, students, teachers, Upstander Academy, Upstander Project, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Warriors, Warrior logo, Western Civilization
Honorable mention
It leapt out at me as I drove past the marquee sign in front of the high school.
I wasn’t annoyed so much as bemused. I took a picture and posted it on Facebook with the light-hearted comment, “Did they run out of letters?”
The responses from the local “Kindness is Everything” community were anything but light-hearted.
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Tags: Christmas, Easter, holiday, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, patriotism, School Committee, schools, sign, Spring Break, veteran, Veterans' Day, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Junior High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Memorial High School, WHS, Winter Break, WMHS
Mark Sardella 