Braking bad
Now that the intersection of Salem and Pleasant streets is a 4-way stop, stand by for indignant complaints from drivers who have never come to a complete stop at a STOP sign in their entire lives. If those drivers are looking for someone to blame for this new arrangement, I suggest that they tilt their rear-view mirrors slightly down and to the left.
The new 4-way stop would not be necessary if one driver had ever come to a full stop at the Pleasant Street STOP signs. But the next time that happens will be the very first time.
I don’t like the new 4-way stop. It will cause traffic to back up on Salem Street and it is going to personally inconvenience me at least twice a day. But I agree with the decision to implement it because drivers refuse to follow basic traffic rules.
Even now, I don’t expect to see anyone to come to a complete stop at Salem and Pleasant streets. But the frequent accidents at this intersection will likely be less serious now, as cars slowly roll through the STOP signs from all four directions.
There’s nothing worse than a reformed scofflaw like me. About 10 years ago, I was pulled over and ticketed for rolling through a STOP sign in another town. Ever since, I’ve made a point of noticing how many drivers in front of me come to a full stop at STOP signs.
Answer: zero and counting. In my entire life behind the wheel, I could probably count on one hand the number of drivers I’ve seen come to a complete stop at a STOP sign.
Ever since my own violation a decade ago and the resulting ticket, fine and years of insurance surcharges, I have made it a practice to come to a full stop at all STOP signs. As you can imagine, this has not endeared me to the motorists behind me, who often have had to slam on their brakes to avoid a rear-end collision because I actually stopped. This is often accompanied by a blast of a horn and a finger gesture because apparently, I’m the bad guy.
Even worse than drivers ignoring STOP signs are the ones who have the right of way (no STOP sign) but stop anyway. For some reason, this had been an especially frequent occurrence at Salem and Pleasant streets.
Just last week (before the change), I turned right from Main Street onto Salem Street and continued up the hill behind a white Mercedes E 300. When we got to the top of the hill at Pleasant Street, Mr. Mercedes stopped for no reason whatsoever and proceeded to wave cars through the STOP signs on Pleasant Street.
Being the helpful type, I gave a 10-second toot of my horn to remind him that there was no STOP sign, and we had the right of way.
I suppose Mr. Mercedes thought he was being kind to the drivers waiting on Pleasant Street by waving them through the STOP signs. But what about all the drivers behind him on Salem Street? We were forced to stop and wait for no reason so this bonehead could feel good about himself.
But that’s not even the worst part.
As we continued down Salem Street, you can probably guess what happened when Mr. Mercedes reached the STOP sign at Vernon Street. That’s right – he blew right through it like it wasn’t even there. His brake lights didn’t even come on.
If you want to know why there is now a 4-way stop at Salem and Pleasant streets, I offer Mr. Mercedes as Exhibit A.
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[This column originally appeared in the August 10, 2023 Wakefield Daily Item.]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: 4-way Stop, automobile, brakes, cars, collision, crash, drivers, horn, insurance, intersection, Mark Sardella, Mercedes, Pleasant Street, rearview mirror, road, Salem Street, stop sign, street, ticket, traffic, violation, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
The new one percent
You probably remember the term “one percent” or “one-percenter,” which became popularized during the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Theoretically, it referred to the richest one percent of the population, who are said to have most of the money, property, and power in society. In reality, it was used to demonize any productive individual who had the audacity to earn and accumulate any quantity of wealth.
As an economic term, it has largely disappeared, except in Marxist enclaves and public schools.
But now a new “one percent” has emerged, and their presence is being felt right here in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
Continue reading ‘The new one percent’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
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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, when even fewer people than usual are paying attention to what their local officials are up to.
But it was done very democratically, don’t you know.
Continue reading ‘Circle game’
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 in the two and a half years since they cancelled the traditional logo, I’ll believe it when I see it.
At their June 27 meeting, the School Committee was presented with yet two more new “final” logo options, after the two previous “lightning bolt” finalists, which members gushed over at their June 6 meeting, were quietly removed from consideration. The lightning bolt designs were gone in a flash after student survey on the last day of school rejected them in favor of a new option added to the mix at the last minute: a simple circle with a “W” inside it.
It was nothing short of a miracle that they were able to conduct this student survey on the final day of school. In June 2022, the School Committee announced that it was putting off a decision on three entirely different logo “finalists” until the fall “due to the legitimate challenge in designing, reviewing, implementing and collecting survey data at the very end of the school year.”
But that was then. This is now.
In 2023, not only were they able to conduct a survey on the last day of school, but they have subsequently done a summer vacation student survey after yet another new logo finalist miraculously surfaced since the previous survey!
If you’re confused, you’re not alone. And we’ve barely scratched the surface of this endlessly convoluted “process.”
Given all the student surveys that have been conducted, you might get the impression that it was the high school students who wanted to get rid of the traditional Warrior logo in the first place. But the students were never asked that question on any survey.
If you attended last week’s Independence Day Parade, you know why.
The state champion Wakefield Warrior football team rode on a flatbed truck waving flags featuring two versions of the traditional Warrior logo: the side-facing one and the front-facing Indian warrior.
Could it be that the students, just like the voters in the 2021 Town Election, wanted to keep the traditional Warrior logo?
When I very innocently posted on Facebook my parade photo of the football players waving their Warrior logo flags, it quickly generated hundreds of “Likes” and positive comments.
The usual Fellowship of the Miserable also weighed in, lecturing that “30 football players don’t represent all 800 students at Wakefield High School.”
That’s funny, because ever since the Youth Council voted 7-1 to recommend getting rid of the traditional Warrior logo in November 2020, we’ve been told repeatedly that those kids represent the entire WHS student body, even though the Youth Council has zero connection to Wakefield Public Schools. Its members are appointed by the Town Council. At the time that the Youth Council recommended getting rid of the old Warrior logo, its chairman was a St. John’s Prep student.
Of course, the anti-logo forces didn’t dare directly criticize the high school football players for waving the Warrior flag. So instead, they attacked the messenger.
It mirrored the other recent flag controversy in town.
In May, the local Veterans Board formally requested that on Flag Day only the American flag be flown on town-owned flagpoles. Considering all the sacrifices that our veterans have made, it was a tiny ask and would have cost the town nothing to grant the request.
But by a vote of 4-2, your Town Council said “No” to the veterans.
I wrote a news story on the decision and later wrote a column supporting the veterans’ position.
Naturally, the flag-haters didn’t dare go after the veterans who made the request, so again, they bravely attacked the messenger.
Which is fine with me. Just another day in paradise.
But it raises an interesting question. What qualities do veterans, football players and the old Warrior logo all represent that give rise to such enmity?
How about strength, virility and valor? Those used to be considered admirable traits, but not in our present emasculated society.
Still, the image of those football players proudly waving the Warrior flag in the parade offers a glimmer of hope for the future.
Apparently not everyone in our local educational collectives is fully on board with the program.
Not yet, anyway.
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[This column originally appeared in the July 13, 2023 Wakefield Daily Item.]
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 June 14.
By a vote of 4-2 on June 12, the Town Council said, “Thanks but no thanks,” to our veterans. The Town Council had already left the veterans hanging for three weeks before finally voting to hang them out to dry.
Continue reading ‘Flagging allegiance’
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.
Continue reading ‘Lightning strikes twice’
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
To be, or 40B
Let’s be clear. Something is going to be built at 119-135 Nahant St., the former location of Precision Honing.
At this point, the only question is, ‘What?”
Right now, it’s a blighted industrial site with a crumbling old factory building on it.
Developer Jason Kearney’s new proposal to build a six-story, 120-unit, 40B affordable housing project on the site understandably has neighbors and town officials worried.
Continue reading ‘To be, or 40B’
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Tags: 40B, affordable housing, apartment building, building development, comprehensive permit, construction, developers, equity, housing, Humor, legislature, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MassHousing, Nahant Street, Opinion, Politics, Precision Honing, private property, suburbia, suburbs, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Zoning Board of Appeals, Zoning Bylaws
The visitation
The day after the funeral for my niece Meghan, I was busying myself planting petunias in the pots that I hang from my back deck every spring. I needed a ladder to reach one of the higher pots, and when I lifted the pot off its hook, a bird flew out. I immediately recognized it as a mourning dove.
I wondered why this bird was camped out in this hanging pot. Then I looked inside and saw that she was protecting a nest with two little white eggs. I quickly returned the hanging pot to its hook and moved away, hoping she would return.
I then heard the telltale whistling sound of her wings as she landed first on my neighbor’s roof and then on the roof of my house. I decided to leave the yard and go inside so she would feel safe to return to her nest, which I’m happy to say she did moments later.
I was struck by the significance of this close encounter with a mourning dove at a time when my family was mourning the sudden passing of my young niece. So, I went online and found its meaning to be far more profound than anything I could have imagined.
I feel honored and humbled to have this visitation, which seems all the more significant due to its intimate and extended nature. This was no casual encounter, but an up close and personal visit by an angel who, after flying away, quickly returned to continue providing her warm, nurturing care.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, Nature & Wildlife | 4 Comments
Tags: angel, bird, dove, life, Mark Sardella, Meghan Sardella, mourning dove, nest, plant, visit
School Book Report
Serious question: Are all educational gurus Marxists?
Or is it just random luck that we keep finding them to guide curriculum development and teaching practice in Wakefield Public Schools?
We’ll get to the latest example in a moment, but first a quick review.
Continue reading ‘School Book Report’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 11 Comments
Tags: agitation literacies, Angela Davis, Betina L. Love, classroom, Critical Race Theory, Critical Theory, criticality, CRT, Cultivating Genius, culturally responsive teaching, Dr. Gholnescar Muhammad, education, Ella Baker, equity, feminism, historically responsive teaching, History, indoctrination, Jamilah Pitts, Little Red Book, manifesto, Mark Sardella, Marxism, math, Opinion, opinioncurriculum, oppression, Politics, power, privilege, professional development, racism, Roxanne Dungar-Ortiz, schools, science, Social Studies, socialism, students, teachers, teaching, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools, writing
We care a lot
COVID may be over, but we still face an even more dangerous epidemic: complacency.
We saw it a few weeks ago, when a whopping 18 percent of Wakefield’s eligible voters supported building a new $274 million high school. It passed anyway because 75 percent of the town’s registered voters either didn’t know or didn’t care enough cast a ballot.
It turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg of indifference. The belated opposition to the Northeast Metro Tech building project presents an even more disturbing example.
Continue reading ‘We care a lot’
Filed under: Columns & Essays | 5 Comments
Mark Sardella 