Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Hate globally, act locally
I’ve never been so glad that I got to experience Wakefield as a normal, working-class town, before the Home of the Warriors turned into the home of the social justice warriors. Wakefield’s official slogan used to be “the most enterprising community north of Boston.” (Try to imagine a time when capitalism was considered a good […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 12 Comments
Tags: Amherst, anti-Semitism, Cambridge, Climate Leader Communities, colonizers, Concord, Gaza. Middle East, Hamas, housing, immigrants, Israel, Mark Sardella, October 7, Opinion, Palestine, petition, Pledge of Allegiance, Politics, social justice, Specialized Energy Code, terrorism, Town Council, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield MA, Wally Moccia, war, Warriors
Do the right thing
Last Thursday’s public menorah lighting ceremony drew the largest crowd ever for this annual public celebration on the Common to mark the start of Chanukah. It was a heartening response in the wake of the horrific Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis by the terrorist group Hamas. Most of the victims were civilians […]
Filed under: History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: anti-Semitism, Chabad of the North Shore, Chanukah, colleges, Hamas, Hanukkah, human rights, Human Rights Commission, Israel, Jewish, Jews, lights, Mark Sardella, massacre, menorah, New Zealand, Opinion, Palestine, rabbi, terrorism, university, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, WHRC
Sore losers
As everyone knows by now, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has overturned the Wakefield Conservation Commission’s denial of Northeast Metro Tech’s plan to build a new vocational high school The decision means that NEMT can now proceed with plans to build a much-needed new regional vocational high school on a wooded parcel across Hemlock […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: activists, appeal, ConCom, corruption, election, environment, forest, high school, injunction, Mark Sardella, MassDEP, Middlesex Superior Court, NEMT, Opinion, Politics, Save the Forest, slander, trade school, treesNortheast Metro Tech, vocational school, Voke, Wakefield Conservation Commission, Wakefield Daily Item, Wetlands Protection Act, woods, Zoom
Happy real Columbus Day!
Today, October 12, is traditional Columbus Day. It was 531 years ago today that the Genoese explorer became the first European to set foot in the Western Hemisphere. No big deal, according to those who want to cancel Christopher Columbus because he violated “norms” that the world wouldn’t discover for another half millennium. The cancelers […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: America, cancel culture, Christopher Columbus, Europeans, exploration, FDR, Genoa, History, Humor, Indians, Italians, Italy, LBJ, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, New World, Oct. 12, Opinion, politicsColumbus Day, Samuel Eliot Morison, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Circle game
So, this is how it ends. All we have to show for two and a half years of rancor and division in the community is a double circle with a “W” inside it. This will surely inspire fear in our Middlesex League opponents. Predictably, this decision was made literally in the middle of the summer, […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: 4th of July, educators, Gen. John Galvin, Humor, Independence Day Parade, Indian, July Fourth, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, NATO, Opinion, Politics, School Committee, schools, soldier, students, teachers, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Warrior Football, warrior, WHS, WMHS
Flag warriors
Next Tuesday, July 18, 2023 will be a big day in Wakefield – if things go as planned. But if past is prologue, that’s a big “if.” The School Committee says that it will vote that night on a new Wakefield Warrior logo. Since this is at least the fourth time that they’ve said this […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: American Flag, education, election, Facebook, Flag Day, football, Humor, Independence Day, Indian, July 4, lightning bolt, logo, Mark Sardella, messenger, Opinion, Parade, photo, Politics, School Committee, schools, strength, students, summer, survey, team, Town Council, valor, veterans, virility, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrior, warrior, WMHS, Youth Council
Flagging allegiance
What happens when a community deserts its wounded warriors in favor of social justice warriors? The town of Wakefield, Massachusetts is in the process of finding out. On May 16, the Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) voted 7-0 to request that the town honor Flag Day “by flying only the American flag” from public flagpoles on […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: activists, Ed Dombroski, election, flag American Flag, Flag Day, flagpole, Jonathan Chines, Juneteenth, Old Glory, Pride flag, progressive, Stars & Stripes, Town Council, VAB, veterans, Veterans Advisory Board, voter turnout, voters, Wakefiekd MA, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, WHRC, woke
Lightning strikes twice
When I saw the two final design options for the new Wakefield Warrior logo presented at last week’s School Committee meeting, I’ll admit I was little relieved. At least they decided to forgo the hammer and sickle.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: Bayrd's Indian Trading Post, Community, Daily Item, education, election, hammer & sickle, Humor, Indians, Indigenous People, John R. Galvin, lightning bolt, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, Opinion, Politics, Richard O. Bayrd, schools, vote, Wakefield, Wakefield Memorial High School, Wakefield School Committee, Warrior Logo. Wakefield MA, WHS, WMHS, yearbook, Youth Council
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, […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: bike lanes, Blosoms at the Beebe, Board of Assessors, education, election, electorate, homeowners, Humor, Jonathan Chines, League of Women Voters, LWV, Mark Sardella, Mike Conley, Opinion, Paul Faler, People's Paradise, Phil Porter, Phyllis Hull, Politics, Proposition 2 1/2, Sam Benedetto, schools, solar panels, special election, TAW, taxes, taxpayers, Taxpayers Association of Wakefield, Town Council, townies, voters, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield natives, WMHS, Yes for WMHS
Mark Sardella 