Wading In

Three deaths of notable persons all resonated with me. The passing of former President Gerald Ford resonates with me because he was the first president I was aware of. When I was a kid, I remember there was stuff on TV about Watergate and I had no idea what a Watergate was. I was only like 7 years old. But I remember Ford being president. For some reason, my brother Orvis had a big poster of President Ford. At some point, he was going to throw it away and I asked him if I could have it. Gerald Ford was my introduction to politics. I was young but was fully aware of the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter. I was sad that Ford lost. So how much did I really know about him at the time or Republicans in general? Not much. I knew he was a Republican. I knew he hadn’t been elected. And he was the first president I’d ever known. One could say that poster of Gerald Ford got me hooked on politics. As I grew older, I grew appreciative of Ford’s role in limiting the damage to government in par...

The Iraqi High Tribunal appellate court upheld Saddam Hussein’s death sentence and stated that it must be carried out within 30 days. What are they thinking? The solution to the whole Iraq mess is right in their hands and they’re about to squander it. It’s obvious that George W. Bush stepped in Shiite when he chose to invade Iraq . It’s been a basketcase ever since. Looting, shooting, IEDs and maimings, as well as a US death toll greater than 9/11 has proven the mission was never accomplished there. The solution is simple. We say, “Oops! We had no idea y’all were so dysfunctional. Our bad.” And we put Saddam back in charge and bring our troops home. What have we been trying Saddam for anyway? Killing his own people back in the 80’s? C’mon, we didn’t care at the time. Have those people’s lives suddenly acquired meaning to us? We’ve stood by while African nations have hacked themselves to pieces. Surely we can turn a blind eye while Saddam straig...

Column originally published 12-28-06 Obama's book offers a new perspective While watching Barack Hussein Obama's electrifying keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, I, like many Americans, thought I was witnessing the future first black president. After reading Obama's bestselling book, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream," I'm convinced. This week a poll from the Concord (N.H.) Monitor showed Sen. Barack Obama tied with Sen. Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical match up in the Democratic primary. Polls also showed Obama beating Sen. John McCain and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani in a general election. Of course, 2008 is a long way away and frontrunners like McCain in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004 often go nowhere. But setting aside the presidential hype, "The Audacity of Hope" is a good read at this time in our history. However, Democrats or liberals hoping to find a tome full of red meat wit...

Barack Obama recognizes that his popularity right now is mainly fueled by his being a stand-in. He's the embodiment of hope. If you ask even passionate supporters of Barack Obama what his position on CAFTA, social security reform, Medicare reform, taxes, or American foreign policy was, they probably couldn't tell you. They're responding to a gut reaction. I'm not saying it's invalid. But even Obama recognizes that he's riding a wave of hope. He brings a history of bridging gaps and compromising. Being a fierce partisan satisfies your base but it doesn't get anything done. Obama is untainted by Washington. His relative inexperience means he's also inexperienced at corruption and selling out. His history is compelling and he's a brilliant man. In the book, he relates this story of a black Illinois State Senate colleague (let's call him Frank) who is blasting the Senate on a matter of race. A white colleague of Obama's tells Barack, "Yo...

THE RIDICULOUS CHRISTMAS DEBATE Time to "wade in" to the Christmas culture war. Can’t we just stop this whole Christmas vs. holiday nonsense? The article in today’s DR about how local schools handle Christmas made me want to hurl. Let me show you how absurd it is. Did you hear about the Christmas tree fiasco at the Seattle Airport? The Seattle airport has had Christmas trees in the terminals at Christmas time for years. Now a Rabbi complained saying he wanted a menorah on display or else he was going to sue. The airport removed the trees. They put them back after a public outcry. Religious folks are claiming it as a victory for religious Christmas celebrations because the trees are back. Excuse me, it’s a victory for secular Christmas. A Rabbi wanted to include a religious item alongside secular Christmas trees. We’ve got school principals who get nervous when a parent shows up dressed as Santa Claus? Why? Perhaps he or she is worried about violating the se...

My mother's house was recently sold. It was what she wanted and what all the boys agreed to do following her death. At the same time, it's difficult saying goodbye to the family home. There's so much history within those walls. It's hard to imagine another family living in our rooms, cooking in our kitchen and eating in our dining room. Someone will make memories of their own in that space. I wanted to take a look back at the house and the family that resided in it. Times have indeed changed. I'll miss it.

Originally published 12-21-06 Saying 'good-bye' to the family home By Kelvin Wade It’s the end of an era this holiday season. Our late mother’s house, the Wade family home, has been sold. This will be the last Christmas at the Wade compound. We moved to Fairfield in 1976. This four bedroom, two bath house with a massive backyard was the first home we’d owned, having lived in navy housing on both coasts until then. The new owners might wonder what that huge concrete patio is for in the backyard. It used to be the basketball court where I spent countless hours schooling my brothers and our dad in the art of hoops. The new owners should be thankful the 3 feet of chicken wire no longer rides atop the side fence. Our dad installed the eyesore to prevent Tony’s bricked basketballs from bouncing over the neighbor’s fence. It was in this house that countless games of Spades, dominos, Monopoly, chess, checkers, Risk, Balderdash, Scattergories a...

It wouldn't come this week. Sometimes I have weeks where nothing interests me. No topics. It's frustrating but I don't panic. I pride myself on the fact that I've never missed a deadline in 14 years of writing my column. This week, I dusted off something I wrote a couple months ago. I've been waiting for the right time to run it. I like it and I think it's amusing. It centers on a horrible crime that took place at my house. I'm not going to give too much away because I think you should experience it the way it was originally intended. Also, I had a little to say about one of the stranger aspects of a new Wal-Mart being located in Fairfield. And I think, if you look, you might see something I wrote about an incident involving a mall Santa Claus in Fairfield. Take a deep breath. Enjoy...

Originally published Thursday, December 14, 2006 Murderous rumblings in the home By Kelvin Wade It was a horrific crime. I'm a seasoned investigator of these types of homicides, but even I was shaken by what I saw. The body was found wrapped in a blanket on the bed in my spare bedroom. The blonde girl was nude, and she had no arms or legs. On the back of her head was the marking "2002 TM R & C" and on her back was simply the word, "CHINA." I recovered a shredded skirt and a tattered jean jacket nearby. I left the scene and spoke with a 9-year-old girl (name withheld). She identified the body only as "Cloe." So as of now, she's known as Cloe Doe. The witness appeared a bit unnerved by the fate of her friend but answered my questions. She'd last seen Cloe days before her disappearance. They'd been playing together. When I asked her if she knew anyone who'd want to harm her, she answered, "Theo." She told me that he ...

WAL-MART'S SECRETS ON COMPETING WITH WAL-MART As part of the deal that brings a Wal-Mart Supercenter to the old Mission Village site, Wal-Mart has to sponsor two seminars to teach local businesses how to compete with a big box retailer. The City Council is proud of this requirement. It’s like requiring the San Diego Chargers to hold practices to teach opponents how to compete against them. C’mon, what incentive would they have to actually impart useful information to the other teams? (Of course they could give the Oakland Raiders their entire playbook, snap counts, hand signs and game plan and the Raiders would still find a way to lose by two touchdowns. I say this as a 30 year Raider fan!) Having Wal-Mart hold these seminars is an interesting little concession on their part. The fact that they’re so eager to do it might make me a wee bit suspicious if I were a retailer on N. Texas St. It’s like the heavyweight champion of the world training his opponent for an u...

What the heck was going through the mind of the man playing Santa Claus at the Cherry Hill Photo booth at the Solano mall in Fairfield? Did you read about this story? The Santa asked a black woman if she’d be offended if he called her a “picaninny”. When she said she would, he asked her, “What about a coon?” The insulted woman went to management and the Santa was fired on the spot. Later this genius wrote to his manager that he didn’t intend for the questions to be offensive. That could be. Maybe the fellow didn’t have any African-American friends to ask. Perhaps he had no access to dictionaries or the internet to divine the derogatory nature of the words. Perhaps he’d been living under a rock or was new to our planet. I say this because this fellow apparently couldn’t think of anywhere else to obtain the answers to these burning questions except while on the job talking to a stranger while dressed as Santa Claus. Now it would’ve really been something if he’d asked these questions ...

Fairfield council OK's plan for Wal-Mart By Daily Republic staff FAIRFIELD - The Fairfield City Council reversed a Planning Commission decision early today, paving the way for Wal-Mart to build a supercenter at the Mission Village shopping center. The 5-0 vote came at about 1 a.m., following six hours of debate and discussion. In November, the Planning Commission turned down the application, but the retail giant appealed the decision to the council. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX I'm glad Wal-Mart was approved. Unanimously even. Fairfield needs this. Cheap bastards everywhere need it. If they'd voted this down, I would've excoriated them next week. I would've filleted them.

This week I wrote about an incident that happened with the Fairfield Suisun Unified School District school board. Don't roll your eyes yet. It's not that boring. At a meeting, the Superintendent showed a risque' picture on an overhead projector as an icebreaker. It didn't go over that well. I wanted to comment on it. Also, I wrote about the Bush presidential library. Did you hear about this story? George W. Bush wants to raise a half a billion dollars for a presidential library. I couldn't resist. I had to go after him on something like this. My punching bag in my garage is broken so he'll do.

Originally published 12-7-06 An innocent mistake by Carter Sparks may fly at tonight's school board meeting centering on the joke that Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter unveiled at an administrative meeting last week. At the meeting of 65 administrators, Carter showed a picture of something purported to be the "Swiss Army knife of sex toys." It featured a sex toy that could be used as a cell phone, lipstick, nail file and even delivered a tampon. Carter intended it to be a humorous icebreaker. But in the aftermath, it seems it broke ice like the Titanic. Carter has since apologized to anyone offended by the picture. Fliers featuring the picture and calling for Carter's dismissal have been distributed throughout the community. Who knows how many outraged (or feigning outrage) teachers and parents will show up at the meeting? I look at it like this: Almost every day most of us receive forwarded e-mails with humorous content. We often forward these e-mails to peopl...

Last week, I read something truly hilarious. George W. Bush hopes to raise five hundred million dollars for a presidential library. He also wants to open a conservative think tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. The idea of a George W. Bush library is like a Martin Luther King military base or the Michael Richards-Mel Gibson School of Tolerance. The editors of Webster’s dictionary are probably amending the definition of oxymoron as you read this to include “George W. Bush library” as an example. I’ve been trying to figure out what would be in this President’s library. Of course, Bush’s library would not be complete without a copy of Siegfried Engelmann and Elaine C. Bruner’s Reading Mastery II Storybook 1 featuring the presidentially endorsed story, “The Pet Goat.” A friend suggested that among the presidential papers in his archives there should be coloring books, copies of Mad magazine and perhaps connect-the-dot books. (...

Since the middle of June I've had the opportunity to take care of my girlfriend's grandkids, Lauryn, 9, and Kawika, almost 2. It's been quite the experience. Sometimes it's been hard....wanting my privacy, wanting some adult conversation, stretching my patience thin. But it's been rewarding, too. And for the first time I believe I could've done this. I could have done the daddy thing had I decided to go that route in life. It's a huge task and I can see why weak souls run out on it (not that I condone it). It's hard being consistent. It's hard alwyas doing the right thing. It takes strength to discipline. I can't say that it hurts me more than it does them but kids don't realize that you'd much rather be having fun with your kids than scolding them. I realize that parents want to give their kids everything and I don't think the kids even realize that. It's hard for parents to have to say no. At least it's hard for me sometime...