Wading In

Printed on: Thu, Aug 30, 2007 Parents can impact test scores By Kelvin Wade Why do black and Latino test scores lag behind those of whites? This year 's California Exit Exam held both good news and bad. The good news wa s that 93 percent of seniors passed the exam with the greatest strides being made by blacks and Latinos. The bad news is their scores still lag behind whites. The same is true in the Standardized Testing and Reporting program (STAR). But this year, the data in the STAR tests shows that poverty is not a factor in the low scores. Low-income whites scored the same or better than blacks and Latinos who are not poor. As a black man it's frustrating to see this year after year. How do we explain it? Is it that old trusty crutch, racism? It was reported earlier this month that a black Fairfield High student and his mother filed a federal lawsuit against the student's teacher, the high school, the school district, principal and superintendent, p...

Printed on: Thu, Aug 23, 2007 Fairfield man could teach Vick a few lessons By Kelvin Wade It's easy to hate Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick as he takes a plea deal in his much-publicized despicable dogfighting case. One of his co-defendants alleges that not only did Vick bankroll the illegal operation, but that he personally took part in the killing of dogs by drowning and hanging them. Vick seems to be just the latest reminder that kids shouldn't look to athletes as heroes or role models. Or is that painting with too broad a brush? When I attended Tolenas Elementary, we were visited each year by New York Giants defensive end George Martin. Martin had lived in Fairfield, played football at Armijo High and had been student body president. Martin (and later younger brother Doug who played for the Minnesota Vikings) made a point of coming back to his roots and encouraging kids to stay in school and do their best. The gentle giant was drafted by the N...

Printed on: Thu, Aug 16, 2007 Where are the parents? By Kelvin Wade It's easy to be jaded by crime in Fairfield. We're used to shootings, robberies or parties that get out of hand and spill out into the street. But this week's crime stories take the cake and tie into a recent theme in this column: the lack of good parenting. In the first incident on Sunday, an 11- and 13-year-old allegedly attempted to rob a couple walking on the Linear Trail through the Suisun-Fairfield Cemetery. The 11-year-old reportedly punched the couple's 7-month-old child in the head. In the second, on Tuesday, a 12-year-old allegedly stabbed a 15-year-old after a dispute over the soda machine at a fast food restaurant on North Texas Street. The 15-year-old and three cohorts, two 14-year-olds and an 11-year-old, chased the 12-year-old and purportedly stabbed him until the attack was interrupted by a karate instructor. What these young predators-in-training don't understa...

Presidential advisor Karl Rove, the man called "Bush's Brain" by some (I'll refrain from the jokes), is stepping down at the end of this month. While I and many Americans would've preferred Rove leaving earlier and under different circumstances, one has to be glad that his foul stench will soon leave the capital. Rove says he's proud of being part of history. He's proud to be the architect of the Bush presidency. Proud of what? A $1.35 trillion tax cut and new spending that gobbled up the surplus and exploded the deficit? Dick Cheney's energy policy of deregulation and subsidies to gas, coal and oil companies? Limiting federal stem cell research to existing lines? Pulling out of the Kyoto Treaty? Abandoning a promised reduction in carbon dioxide to fight global warming? Pulling out of the ABM (antiballistic missile treaty) treaty? The biggest national security breakdown in US history where 19 hijackers crash four planes and kill nearly 3,000 people and...

A tale of two columns...the one I submitted and the one that ran. For some reason, my editor Pat Butler decided to dispense with my tagline "Peace" that I'd ended columns with since 1992. It was just a way of saying 'goodbye' really and also helped to soften and humanize the column. He gave me no explanation. Just snipped it away one week. This week he snipped some content out of my column. I'm going to run the column that was printed and insert in bold, colored text what was cut out. Printed on: Thu, Aug 09, 2007 Suggestions to improve our world By Kelvin Wade I have a lot of different things rattling around in my tiny brain this week. Last week, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen decided to approve most electronic voting machines for use statewide. However, Solano County sits in limbo waiting to see if our electronic voting machines, manufactured by Election Systems and Software, will pass a federal review. It's embarrassing...

Printed on: Thu, Aug 02, 2007 Parents letting us, kids down By Kelvin Wade I can't stand to see out of control little kids in public. You've seen them. Four-year-old kids racing around a store on their Heelys like a blind Dennis the Menace, a spoiled girl doing her best Veruca Salt impersonation in a store whining about something she wants, and kids mouthing off without the fear of having been brought into this world, that they can be summarily taken out. What they have in common are indulgent, weak-willed parents who belong on one of those nanny shows on TV. How do these kids turn out? Well, we end up reading about them in the newspaper. On Monday night, a 16-year-old teen was shot in the leg shortly before midnight while talking with friends on Pennsylvania Avenue. The assailants, who were wearing hooded sweatshirts drawn around their faces, haven't been apprehended, but I can tell you that these kids were no picnic when they were younger. And while ...

Now I don't mean parents should literally kick their kids' ass, though some of them definitely could use a boot up in their backside. But a lot of parents need that boot in the ass, too. These days people are too afraid to get involved in they see an out of control child in public. And i know why. They're afraid of some ignorant, wild-eyed parent screaming, "Don't you tell me how to raise my child!!!!" Well, somebody needs to. Now look, don't get it twisted. Everyone has the right to raise their child the way they see fit as long as its not harmful to the child. But if you're going to let your child run around a restaurant, that's not acceptable. If I'm at a buffet with a kid running around, I may be carrying a plate of hot food that I might spill on Jr. if he runs into me. Then his parents are going to be mad at me. It's not only a home training, etiquette issue. Its a safety issue. Went out for breakfast a while ago and there were two kid...

I'm tired of hearing how inexperienced Obama is to be President. The job is bigger than any man or woman. Every President we've had has brought strengths and weaknesses to the job. Its a job that requires vision, strength of character, discipline, understanding, compassion and restraint. A laundry list of jobs and titles and credentials mean little if the candidate is lacking in the aforementioned departments. We come to Barack Obama. I'm tired of hearing he's just a one term senator. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. His parents separated when he was two and his Kenyan father went back to Africa where he was killed in a car accident. Obama's mother remarried and the family moved to Indonesia. Obama lived overseas from age 6 to 10. After finishing high school back in Hawaii, Obama attended Occidental College for two years. Then he transferred to Columbia University majoring in Political Science with a specialization in International Relations. After receiving his B....