Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
Let’s be clear
To paraphrase the late, great Dan Hicks, “How can we miss them when they won’t go away?” Just when you thought it was safe to go to the Post Office on Saturday morning, they’re back like a bad penny – or three or four of them. The Wakefield Civic League, those guardians of our local […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Albion Cultural Exchange, Board of Selectmen, Boston Globe Spotlight Team, correspondence, Dan Hicks, Gov. Charlie Baker, government, Hallmark Health, Humor, information, Jean Nicholson, KENO, letters, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Lottery Commission, News, Opinion, Paul DiNocco, Politics, post office, Rep. Donald Wong, Rep. Paul Brodeur, town hall, Town of Wakefield, transparency, Wakefield Civic League, Zoning Board of Appeals
Summer checklist
Have you looked at a calendar lately? It’s Aug. 18 already! Wasn’t the July Fourth Parade was just last weekend? Summer’s slipping away, and we are rapidly approaching the point where even Daylight Saving Time will not be able to stave off the encroaching night. Even Saturday’s Festival Italia will conclude in darkness. But if […]
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Tags: balloon, bicycle, Brightview Senior Living, calendar, camping, concert, crane, cycling, Daylight Saving Time, drive-in movie, drought, farmers' market, Festival Italia, fireflies, fracking, gasoline price, grass, hiking, Humor, July Fourth, Labor Day, Marco Polo, Mark Sardella summer, Martha Stewart, Mazda, mosquitoes, Olympics, Opinion, plastic bags, Politics, rain, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Words with Friends
High resolution
This week, the Wakefield Board of Selectmen passed a resolution opposing the legalization of marijuana, dealing a devastating blow to the local Cannabis Community. On the bright side, most of them were too high to notice. Dude, don’t the selectmen know that people have a Constitutional right to smoke weed? The Constitution was written on […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: ballot, Bob DeLeo, bong, Boston, cannabis, David Njuguna, driving, drug abuse, drugs, edibles, election, ganja, Gov. Charlie Baker, hemp, herb, joint, legalization, Lt. Thomas Clardy, marijuana. pot, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Maura Healey, Mayor Martin Walsh, medical, prohibition, Question 4, Sen. Jason Lewis, THC, US Constitution, vote, Wakefield Board of Selectmen, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed
Fine print
Lately, I don’t feel like my week is complete until I’ve been lectured by a millennial about one thing or another. Usually it’s about the evil of plastic bags or how many genders there are or how the Founding Fathers all smoked hemp, dude. The usual venue for these sermons is social media, where I’m […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baby Boomers, citizenship, civics, education, Facebook, First Amendment, Founding Fathers, Freedom of the Press, Great Depression, Greatest Generation, hippies, Invasion of Normandy, Mark Sardella, media, millenials, mosquito, News, newspapers, Olympics, peace movement, Politics, press, schools, social media, Stephen Colbert, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Zika
Where’s the Money?
Now that July 19 is behind us, can we finally admit that all the hand-wringing over the Special Election had nothing to do with it costing the town $10,000 and everything to do with politics and the person who filed for the Special Election? After Phyllis Hull collected the 200 signatures needed to force the […]
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Tags: Ally Houghton, Betsy Sheeran, Board of Selectmen, campaign, candidates, Chris Callanan, Dan Benjamin, election, Galvin Middle School, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, money, Nate Gayman, Phyllis Hull, Politics, schools, special election, taxes, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Nobody asked, but…
Things like the recent Independence Day celebration and the upcoming Festival Italia remind me that civic groups that actually do things are a lot more interesting (not to mention fun) than the ones that exist just air grievances and self-promote. If it’s true that after July Fourth, the summer flies by, then why do I […]
Filed under: baseball, Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: baseball, bomb dogs, Boston Red Sox, Charlie Baker, COPS, female, Festival Italia, genders, golf, hockey, Indepencence Day, Jason Lewis, Lois Lane, male, marijana, plastic bags, Pokemon, police, pot, price point, Rick Porcello, smart phone, Srop Sign, Steven Wright, Superman, tomato plants, weather girls, weed
Of plastic and pot
The town recently held an event called “Wakefield 101,” an orientation session for new residents to give them a chance to talk to representatives of town departments, community organizations and local businesses. The idea was to help new residents get the lay of the land and to give them a heads up on how we […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Bay State, business, fossil fuels, herb, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella Wakefield Daily Item, Massachusetts, petroleum, plastic bags, pot, Wakefield 101, Wakefield Massachusetts, weed
Hot fun in the summertime
As of this writing, we have eight people (and counting) running for Selectman in the July 19 Special Election to fill the nine months left on former selectman Betsy Sheeran’s term. This sudden surge of interest in public service is truly a wonderful thing to behold. My only question is, where were some of these […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Betsy Sheeran, Board of Selectmen, candidates, election, July, Mark Sardella, Mass., Massachusetts, Phyllis Hull, Politics, selectman, special election, summer, Town Election, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walter Schofield
Mark Sardella 