Future tense
If you thought 2025 brought a lot of troubling changes, you ain’t seen nothing yet! But as the old saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” So, for my first column of the New Year, here are some bold predictions for 2026.
The town can reconfigure all the intersections it wants, but the next driver that comes to a complete stop at a STOP sign will be the first.
Our reliable local Hamas chapter will place yet another anti-Israel article on the Town Meeting warrant.
Moderator Bill Carroll will call for a vote to “lay on the table” every Town Meeting article.
The radical chic ladies of “Wakefield and Friends Protest” will continue to display their hand-made (or is it “handmaid?”) artwork at Main and Water streets every Saturday morning. No one will have the heart to tell them it’s not 1930s Germany.
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Minor party
I’m here to provide your periodic update on the effort to allow children to vote in local elections.
The Wakefield Youth Council had planned to get an article on the Nov. 8 Regular Town Meeting warrant, but there “wasn’t enough time.”
Too much homework, I guess.
But after listening to a recent Youth Council meeting, it’s clear that the kiddos are determined to pull out all the glottal stops and get it done in time for the Annual Town Meeting in the spring. To quote the Youth Council chair, that would be “amazing.” 
We are assured that the youngsters would only be voting in municipal elections, not in state or national elections. But local elections have a much more direct impact on your day-to-day life than voting for governor or president, which is the real reason they’re starting local. And those who want teenyboppers to vote in municipal elections have every intention of expanding it to state and federal elections. This is just the camel’s nose under the tent.
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Tags: children, Columbia University, cursive, elections, Humor, legislature, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, petition, Tom Mullen, Town Counsel, Town Meeting, vote, voting, voting age, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Youth Council, Zohran Mamdani
Lost in translation
Lots of professions have languages all their own, filled with terms and jargon that are foreign to the average human. Nowhere is that truer than in the field of public education. Even when “educators” are creating presentations for public consumption, their primary goal is to impress other educators, who are the only ones who can understand what they’re talking about.
I’m referring of course, to Eduspeak, a language that aims to sound erudite while being just inscrutable enough to discourage anyone who is not a “stakeholder” from delving too deeply into the underlying “frameworks.” 
Never is this parlance more in evidence than when educators are called upon to describe their goals. Wakefield School Superintendent Doug Lyons recently found himself in that “space.” To say that Dr. Lyons is fluent in Eduspeak would be an understatement of epic proportions.
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Tags: align, aligned, alignment, curriculum, Douglas Lyons, education, educator. teacher, eduspeak, Fahey's Tire Center, frameworks, goals, Google Translate, Humor, instruction, jargon, language, Mark Sardella, Opinion, School Superintendent, schools, space, stakeholder, teaching, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Tire Center, WPS
Faux Kings Day
As the world witnesses the joyous reunions of freed hostages and their families, the “No Kings” crowd will be back in Wakefield Square on Saturday morning to demonize the architect of the cease fire that led to the hostages being released.
The “No Kings” protesters boldly claim to be against genocide. So, on Saturday, they’ll be protesting the president who ended the imaginary “genocide” that they have been pretending to rail against.
They desperately want to believe that the United States is ruled by an “authoritarian.” But the very existence of the protests disproves their claim. Would a real authoritarian allow these protests to proceed against him?
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Missed message
Unlike many of those who have spent the last few weeks celebrating, excusing or minimizing his murder, I had heard of Charlie Kirk before a politically motivated assassin’s bullet tore through his neck as he spoke at a Utah university campus on Sept. 10. I wasn’t a big consumer of his content – I’m a little out of the demographic that was his target audience.
But as someone interested in cultural phenomena even beyond my usual orbit, I had heard of Charlie Kirk and his travels to college campuses challenging brainwashed students to refute his ideas and prove him wrong.
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Tags: assassination, brainwashing, Charlie Kirk, college, democracy, demonize, free speech, leaders, Mark Sardella, Opinion, Politics, rhetoric, students, teachers, TPUSA, TurningPointUSA, university, voters, Wakefield Daily Item
War of words
The move to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War has been met with predictable shrieks of horror from those who have never liked the military for defending a country they deem unworthy of protection.
The idea of the name change, as I understand it, is to project a more reality-based, warrior ethos for the department, rather than the more euphemistic “Department of Defense.”
It was called the War Department under every president from George Washington to FDR, and no one had a problem with it. But changing it back to the Department of War in 2025 apparently raises major concerns. We can only guess why.
Meanwhile, to nobody’s surprise, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is moving in the opposite direction. The ongoing effort to rid the state of its “offensive” state seal has recently picked up steam, with the unveiling of several proposed options.
The current state seal centers an Indian warrior holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. Near the top of the seal is an image of an arm wielding a sword. Anyone with eyes can see that these are two separate and distinct images. But those who hate tradition and honesty have chosen to see a sword being held aggressively over the head of the noble Native American and have declared it to be “a depiction of white supremacy.”
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Tags: America, chickadee, Department of Defense, Department of War, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Galvin Middle School, George Washington, Humor, Indian, John R. Galvin, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Native American, Opinion, Politics, presidents, School Committee, State Seal, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, War Department, warrior, Warriors
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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