No time for townies
Whomever the Wakefield Town Council appointed this week as the next Town Administrator, it was sure to spark questions. Here’s one: Out of the 23 individuals who submitted resumes, was there really only one qualified male?
A lot of people thought that local resident Ann Santos, having grown up in Wakefield, had the inside track and was a shoo-in to get the Town Administrator job. Those people have not been paying attention.
It’s been a long time since Wakefield roots conferred any kind of advantage. These days, being a townie is more of a liability than a plus.
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One child, one vote
Don’t be surprised if you see an article on the fall Regular Town Meeting warrant aimed at lowering the voting age in local elections to 16. The Youth Council voted in June to push Town Meeting for a home rule petition to that effect.
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The real ‘No Kings Day’
On July 4th, throngs of people will line the sidewalks of downtown Wakefield, but they won’t be holding “No Kings” signs.
No, this crowd will be proudly celebrating their country’s founding and the brave men who fought for independence from a real monarch.
What a difference a quarter of a millennium makes.
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Royal pains
Last Saturday was something called “No King’s Day,” a nationwide protest brought to you by those who have convinced themselves that the White House is currently occupied by a man who would be king.
He must be a very benevolent monarch, since he allowed the hundreds of protests against him last weekend to go on unhindered.
Deep down, even the protestors know the whole “king” thing is nonsense – just a slightly less offensive label than “dictator” or “Hitler.” But it’s fun to play pretend, and they hope to fool a few gullible people with their hysterical histrionics.
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Retreat to paradise
One of your new Town Councilors wants Wakefield to be more like Lexington, Northampton and Georgetown. Another would like the Council to think about “scaling back” the public’s online access to meetings via Zoom.
And although the “T” word was never uttered, most councilors are very worried about “what’s going on in Washington” and how that could impact grants and other funding, including federal dollars that are funneled through the state.
This all came to light at a special meeting of the Town Council held on Tuesday, May 20, in the first-floor conference room at Town Hall. This space used to be known as the “Selectmen’s Meeting Room,” before we realized that “selectmen” was a bad word.
The very special meeting was called by Town Council chair Mehreen Butt. (“Chairman” is now also a forbidden term, whether the holder of the position uses “she/her” or “he/him” pronouns).
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It would be tedious and boring if it weren’t so dangerous.
Another anti-Israel article will appear on Monday’s Annual Town Meeting warrant as a result of a citizens’ petition. It’s the third consecutive Wakefield Town Meeting that such an article has appeared on the warrant. 
The first one appeared on last year’s Annual Town Meeting warrant. It was back again on the Regular Town Meeting warrant last fall. Neither measure passed, but voters were forced to sit through excruciating presentations full of Hamas talking points and anti-Israel propaganda.
Which I suppose is the point.
The local Friends of Hamas know they have zero chance of getting these measures passed, just as their heroes in Gaza know they have no chance of defeating Israel. But the latter keep lobbing rockets and launching Oct. 7-type attacks anyway. And we keep getting these Town Meeting articles.
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A hero remembered
There are heroes walking among us, but the true heroes don’t go around seeking recognition for their deeds. We lost another one of those authentic heroes last week. I count myself fortunate for having known World War II veteran Alfred Willett. Al was 85 years old in 2010 when I had the honor and privilege of interviewing him about his experience on Omaha Beach as part of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. During our conversation that day, Al mentioned several times that he planned to live to be 100. I remember thinking at the time that if anyone had earned a long life, it was this man.
Al Willett passed away on April 19, 2025. He was 100 years old.
Below, read Al’s story of bravery, which originally ran in the September 20, 2010 Wakefield Daily Item.
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WORLD WAR II VET AL WILLETT RECALLS NORMANDY INVASION
In October of 1942, Wakefield’s Alfred Willett was an 18 year-old Maine farm boy. Twenty months later, he was storming Omaha Beach with the United States Army in the Invasion of Normandy.
When the draft notice arrived, young Willett was working at Commonwealth Shoe & Leather Company in Gardiner, ME in addition to his chores on the family farm where he lived with his parents and five siblings. His father told him that he could get a six-month deferment if he took a full-time job on another farm. But young Alfred wanted no part of that.
“I said, ‘Everybody else is going to go, so I’m going to go,’” Willett recalls.
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Mean streets
I’m told that my last column was insensitive to those who despise Elon Musk and Tesla with every fiber of their being.
So, allow me to make amends and start off today’s column by saying something positive. Last Saturday was International Tesla Takedown Day, but unlike their brothers and sisters in arms, our local protesters have not been firebombing Tesla dealerships.
That demonstrates maturity, and if there’s one quality that our home-grown dissidents have in abundance it’s maturity, although you’re not supposed to notice anything at all about these folks standing in the public square doing their very best to be noticed.
Their vitriol is aimed primarily at Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who now heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). We all know people who just a few months ago would swoon at the mere sight of a Tesla. But those days are in the rearview mirror since their former hero’s defection to the Dark Side. Now, the people who want you to stop burning fossil fuels are torching Teslas. That’ll show the climate deniers.
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Tags: cars, Climate Change, DOGE, electric vehicles, Elon Musk, EV, fossil fuels, Humor, Mark Sardella, opimion, Politics, protesters, Resistance, Tesla, Tesla Takedown, Wakefield Daily Item, WakefieldMA
Senior movement
If you ventured to downtown Wakefield last Saturday morning, you may have thought you’d stumbled upon an open-air AARP meeting. In reality, it was a couple of dozen Woodstock alumni holding handmade (or is it handmaid?) signs proclaiming their disapproval of the current administration in Washington.
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Environmental justice
Monday’s Wakefield Town Council meeting felt like karma. And you know what they say about karma.
On Monday, the Town Council pulled the plug on the “Decarbonization Roadmap.” Creating the Roadmap was key step in the process of joining the state’s “Climate Leader Communities” program.
To appreciate why this is so delicious, return with me, if you will, to April 8, 2024.
Among the items slated for discussion at the April 8 Town Council meeting was one listed simply as “Climate Leaders,” which then-Town Councilor Julie Smith-Galvin had asked Chairman Jonathan Chines to place on the agenda.
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Mark Sardella 