School choice
Most of us know at least one person who grew up in Wakefield, attended Wakefield Public Schools and then had to reluctantly leave his hometown as it became increasingly unaffordable.
Well, living in Wakefield is about to get even more expensive, if the current plans for a new high school go through.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: 1960, Andy Bray, ballot committee, building, building project, cost, Dolbeare School, economy, Galvin Middle School, inflation, Ken Duval, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Michael Scollo, Opinion, Politics, Robert Bradley, senior citizens, taxes, Television, Town Election, Town Meeting, TV, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools, WMHS, Woodville School, working families, Yes for WMHS
Imitation game
If it’s “cultural appropriation” when you use a drawing of a Native American as a school sports logo, what is it called when you knowingly appropriate a logo design from another school?
If you’re Ohio State University, you might call it “copyright infringement.”
The endless saga of the Wakefield Warrior Logo just keeps going and going and going. Every time it appears that this wholly unnecessary affair is finally coming to a merciful conclusion, something happens to drag it out longer.
This time, the snag came from a city 700 miles away: Columbus, Ohio.
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Tags: attorney, copyright, copyright infringement, cultural appropriation, dilution, football, Indians, Indigenous People, law, lawyer, legal, logo, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, meeting., Native American, Native Americans. Mark Sardella, Ohio, Ohio State, Ohio State University, Opinion, OSU, paleface, plagiarism, Politics, sports, uniform, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Warrior, WMHS
Columbian exposition
Not so long ago, Italian-Americans were actually seen as a disadvantaged group that faced real discrimination.
For that reason, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the first federal observance of Columbus Day in 1937 to recognize the contributions of Italian-Americans and to assure them of their rightful place in American history.
“We are celebrating today the exploit of a bold and adventurous Italian,” FDR said, “who with the aid of Spain opened up a new world where freedom, tolerance and respect for human dignity provided a refuge for the oppressed of the Old World.”
Eighty-five years ago, even progressives believed that.
Today, not so much.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 7 Comments
Tags: 1492, America, American History, Christopher Columbus, colonizers, Columbus Day, conquerors, European, FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Galvin Middle School, holiday, Humor, Indians, Indigenous Curriculum, Indigenous Peoples Day, invaders, Italian-Americans, Italians, Mark Sardella, Megan Webb, Native Americans, New World, North America, October, Opinion, Original Sin, Politics, progressives, U.S. history, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Warrior
Dangerous liaisons
School is back in session and it seems that a little adult education is also in order.
Nearly half of Wakefield’s taxpayer-funded budget already goes to the schools. In the next few months, Wakefield taxpayers will be asked to vote for a new high school at a total cost of $273.7 million. Even at that cost estimate, it will mean (at minimum) an additional $1,384 in property taxes on the average single-family home in Wakefield every year for the next 30 years – or $115 a month.
Do you think you’d miss $115 a month? That’s on top of the $300 a year that you’re still paying for the Galvin Middle School, which now looks like a bargain at a mere $74 million.
A Special Town Meeting to vote on the funding for the new high school is scheduled for January 28, 2023. If it passes Town Meeting, a Special Election will be held in March.
But before you vote to hand over another big chunk of your paycheck to the schools, you might want to know what those schools are teaching and who is influencing the curriculum, i.e., the courses offered at the schools.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, children, colonizer, consultants, Critical Race Theory, CRT, culturally responsive teaching, curriculum, education, Franklin D. Roosevelt, History, Indians, indigenous, Jamilah Pitts, JFK, John Collier, John F. Kennedy, Mark Sardella, Marxism, Mishy Lesser, Native Americans, News, Opinion, parents, Politics, professional development, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, schools, socialism, students, taxpayers, teaching, United States, Upstander Academy, Upstander Project, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Warrior Logo
Lady killer
Tony Costa is the most vicious serial killer you never heard of, which is all the more remarkable considering he plied his trade right here in Massachusetts.
He didn’t just murder his victims. He eviscerated and dismembered them. And like so many other serial killers, Tony Costa was a real tough guy. He preyed on girls. He was suspected of killing at least eight young women.
Costa’s story is the subject of Helltown, a new book by Casey Sherman, who takes a novel approach to telling this tale of horror on Cape Cod.
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Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, News, Opinion, Reviews | 2 Comments
Tags: 1960s, 1969, book, book review, Cape Cod, Casey Sherman, Chappaquiddick, Charles Manson, Charlie Manson, Edmund Dinis, Edward M. Kennedy, Helltown, hippies, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Sardella, Mary Anne Wusocki, Mary Jo Kopechne, Massachusetts, Moon Landing, murder, NASA, Norman mailer, Patricia Walsh, Provincetown, review, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Sixties, Susan Perry, Tony Costa, true crime, Truro, Wakefield Daily Item
Developing a climate plan
The state of Massachusetts wants more control over municipal decision-making and is threatening to withhold state funding from cities and towns that do not comply with its social and climate goals disguised as zoning.
New state guidelines based on a law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last January require that every community with MBTA service (like Wakefield) must have at least one zoning district near a transit station in which multi-family housing is allowed by right.
“By right” means that developers can come in and build multi-family residential buildings without the bother of getting a Special Permit, variance or other relief from the local Zoning Board.
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Tags: automobiles, batteries, building, bus lines, buses, cars, Charlie Baker, China, Climate Change, commuter rail, developers, development, electric vehicles, environmentalists, EVs, forced labor, fossil fuels, housing, Humor, lithium mining, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Legislature, MBTA, Mike Kennealy, multi-family, Opinion, parking, Politics, public transportation, railroad, Town Meeting, traffic, trains, transit, Wakefield Daily Item, zoning
A revolting development
A Boston University study recently found that municipal zoning boards, planning boards and redevelopment boards are dominated by white male homeowners.
Wait. Men are more interested in construction, development and zoning than women are? What’s the next bombshell revelation – male drivers won’t ask for directions?
Fight the urban planning patriarchy!
Speaking of zoning and development, it’s time for your periodic reminder that most of the development you’ve been seeing in recent years is happening in and around the downtown district and along public transportation routes, not on the leafy suburban lanes of Greenwood or the West Side.
That’s not by accident, but it’s not a conspiracy, either – unless you consider Wakefield Town Meeting a “conspiracy.” In November of 2015, Town Meeting voters approved a zoning change designed to encourage mixed-use development in the downtown business districts and along public transit lines.
It has worked exactly as Town Meeting intended.
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Tags: American Mutual, Board of Appeals, building, business, Comverse Technologies, construction, development Cabot Cabot & Forbes, elitism, Facebook, Humor, Lake Quannapowitt, Malden MA, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Politics, public hearings, public transit, smart growth, social media, Town Meeting, urban planning, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, ZBA, zoning, Zoning Board, Zoning Bylaws
Sentimental journey
So, it’s settled.
A majority of the Wakefield Town Council gets to define what “Official Town Sentiment” is.
The Council voted earlier this month to give itself the power to determine what constitutes Official Town Sentiment, at least in terms of which flags can be flown from town flagpoles as an expression of such sentiment. (As of now, the American flag is still allowed.)
The impetus for the new Flag Policy dates back to April, when the Wakefield Human Rights Commission approached the Town Council about flying the “Pride” and “Juneteenth” flags from various town-owned flagpoles.
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Tags: American Flag, Boston, Christian Flag, election, First Amendment, flag, flagpoles, flags, Humor, Juneteenth, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, News, Official Town Sentiment, Old Glory, Opinion, Politics, POW-MIA, Pride flag, Stars and Stripes, Supreme Court, symbol, Tom Mullen, US Supreme Court, veterans, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Town Council, Wakefield Veterans Advisory Board, Wakefield Warrior, Warrior logo, WHRC
High school math
Let’s start by stipulating that there will be a new Wakefield Memorial High School.
And it will be fabulous.
We know this because the local education lobby is very motivated and highly coordinated. We saw it in the recent Town Election. The three School Committee winners were all educators or former educators. And all three finished within 72 votes of each other. That’s not a coincidence. The top two had almost identical vote counts.
When the time comes to vote for the debt exclusion or override for the new high school, the same forces will again marshal the vote and overwhelm any feeble pushback from the taxpayers, assuming the taxpayers mount any pushback at all. Phyllis Hull and Mike Conley are no longer here to lead the resistance.
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Tags: ageism, debt exclusion, Douglas Lyons, economy, education, electric, energy, environment, fossil fuels, Galvin Middle School, gasoline, groceries, Humor, inflation, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts School Building Authority, Mike Conley, MSBA, Opinion, override, Phyllis Hull, Politics, schools, sustainability, taxes, taxpayers, townies, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, WMHS
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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Tags: America, Americal Civic Center, Edward Dombroski Jr., flagpoles, flags US flag, genocide, Girl Scout Cookies, History, Humor, immigrants, inclusive, Indians, Indigenous People, Juneteenth, land acknowledgement, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Native Americans, Old Glory, Opinion, oppression, patriotism, Politics, POW-MIA flag, Pride flag, School Committee, Stars & Stripes, Thomas A. Mullen, Town Council, United States, veterans, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield Town Council, Wakefield Warrior Logo, welcoming, WHRC, woke, wokeism, wokism, Youth Council
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