Posts Tagged ‘History’
If the sudden urgency to eliminate the Wakefield Warrior logo last spring after 75 years struck you as curious, perhaps it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. In retrospect, you wouldn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that the logo’s elimination was merely setting the stage for something bigger, like the local […]
Filed under: History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: America, American University, children, colonialism, colonizers, CRT, culturally responsive teaching, culture, educators, History, Humor, Indians, Indigenous Curriculum, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, melting pot, Mishy Lesser, Native Americans, Opinion, Politics, public schools, students, teachers, United States, Upstander Academy, Upstander Project, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield School Department, Wakefield Warrior Logo, WakefieldMA, Youth Council
Score one for the Warrior
The best news out of Tuesday’s Town Election is that Wakefield isn’t totally gone. Not yet, anyway. I guess I’m not supposed to use the word “normal” anymore, but Tuesday’s vote on the Warrior logo was a victory for those who value tradition, history and the people’s right to tell their elected officials what they […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: April 27, ballot question, Bayrd Family, compromise, election, grassroots, heritage, History, Indian, legacy, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, News, Opinion, Politics, Richard Batrd, Save the Warrior, School Committee, signs, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrior, Warriors
Forum follies
It was a cavalcade of cancel culture, featuring a Who’s Who of Wakefield’s woke elite at their virtue signaling best. Last week’s online “public forum” on the Wakefield Warrior logo was utterly predictable in its participation and tenor. In fact, I did predict it.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 9 Comments
Tags: activists, cancel culture, culture, election, heritage, History, Human Rights Commission, Humor, Indians, Indiginous Peoples, Jason Lewis, logo, Mark Sardella, mascot, Massachusetts, Native Americans, networking, Opinion, political correctness, public forum, public opinion, School Committee, school logo, speakers, sports, technology, tradition, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Itempolitics, Wakefield Warrior, warrior, WCAT, William Carroll, woke, Youth Council, Zoom
Offensive strategy
If nothing else, the current debate over the Wakefield Warrior logo has been educational. I’m not talking about learning the unique history of the logo. It’s been well-established that a local Native American family and the four-star general for whom we named the Galvin Middle School played key roles in the history of the Warrior […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: ancestry, athletes, children, education, Galvin Middle School, game plan, heritage, History, Indian, jocks, John R. Galvin, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, Opinion, Politics, Richard Bayrd, school, strategy, students, tactics, U.S. Census, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, warrior, Youth Council
Done Deal
Allow me to be the one to break the sad news. The Wakefield Warrior logo is history. Oh sure, the School Committee paid lip service Tuesday night to the lofty notion of having a “community-wide discussion.” But you didn’t need a degree in “English Language Arts” to read between the lines. There would be no […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 14 Comments
Tags: Community, conformity, COVID, cultural appropriation, History, Indian, logo, Mark Sardella, Native Amreican, Opinion, Politics, public opinion, racism, sports, survey, truth, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Warriors, Warrior logo, Youth Council
Happy Columbus Day!
Let me be the first to wish you and yours a happy Columbus Day. This year’s holiday is doubly special because it’s not just the second Monday in October. Monday also happens to be Oct. 12, which is traditional Columbus Day. It will be exactly 528 years ago to the day that the great Italian […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: cancel culture, China, Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day, COVID-19, Elia Sardella, explorer, genealogy, History, human rights, Humor, immigration, Indians, Indiginous Peoples Day, Italian, Italian-Americans, Italy, Luisa Padellaro, Mark Sardella, masculinity, Massachusettts, Native Americans, Nina, Opinion, Palermo, Pinta, Politics, Santa Maria, ship, Sicily, Steve Sardella, Wakefield MA, woke
Teachable moment
“Demands on classroom teachers are now laughable,” Wakefield Education Association president Will Karvouniaris told the meeting of the “Tri-Board” last week. If any members of the Town Council, the School Committee or Finance Committee were amused, they didn’t show it. The town’s three top boards were meeting in joint session at the Galvin Auditorium last […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: budget, children, class size, Finance Committee, finances, fiscal, History, Humor, Mark Sardella, mythology, newspaper, Opinion, Politics, quid pro quo, School Committee, schools, teachers, Town Council, Tri-Board, union, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Education Association, Wakefield MA, WEA, William Karvouniaris
Weekend Warrior
As we head into the long Indigenous Peoples Day weekend, let us take a moment from our apple picking, leaf-peeping and farmers market excursions to reflect upon the true meaning of the holiday: to show how much more virtuous and woke we are than those who still call it Columbus Day.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Berkeley, Board of Selectmen, CA, Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day, Europeans, farmers' market, FDR, First Peoples, football, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, History, holiday, Human Rights Commission, Humor, inclusive, Indians, Indigenous Peoples Day, Italian-Americans, Landrigan Field, Mark Sardella, men, Native Americans, Opinion, Politics, progressives, Roman Empire, Town Council, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrior
The sounds of silence
READING — When brilliant, Radcliffe College-educated Henrietta Leavitt (played by Grace Sumner) receives a letter at her Wisconsin home inviting her to come and work for Edward Charles Pickering, director of the prestigious Harvard College Observatory, she is thrilled by the prospect of doing important astronomical research.
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, History, Opinion, Politics, Reviews, theater, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: astronomy, community theater, Demetra Tseckares, drama, earth, feminism, Grace Sumner, Harvard College Observatory, heavens, Henrietta Leavitt, History, Humor, Lauren Gunderson, Mark Sardella, Nancy Curran Willis, Nancy Finn, Nick T. Miller, planets, play, Quannapowitt Players, Rachel Furgiuele, Radcliffe College, review, science, Silent Sky, sky, stage, stars, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item, womens sufferage
Take a hike
Throughout his decades as a steady presence on the local scene, he has cultivated an air of quiet reserve. But now, one of Wakefield’s most iconic figures has finally broken his silence. Some may find what he had to say shocking. In an exclusive interview with the Wakefield Daily Item, the character known affectionately as […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Profiles, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: ableism, Artichokes, bronze, climate, goat yoga, gun, History, Humor, interview, Lake Quannapowitt, male, man, marble, Mark Sardella, men, minuteman, Opinion, parody, rifle, Rockery, satire, soldier, Spanish American War, statue, The Hiker, Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, Toxic Masculinity, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
