Peek Inside My Head This Week

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 that we're a 231-year-old country, the world's premier democracy, and we can't design an accurate, reliable way to vote. Fourth graders have already designed the most foolproof method. A single sheet of paper with the words, "I like you. Do you like me?" with two boxes labeled YES and NO. It's worked in schoolhouses for generations.

XXXXX

This Friday, Sacramento's last Krispy Kreme donut store will close. At one time Fairfield was in the running to get our own Krispy Kreme. That was before the company expanded too quickly and began a painful contraction in the midst of low-carb diets and obesity reports.

I once waited in line 40 minutes for a box of hot glazed at Krispy Kreme. Americans will complain about waiting in line at the DMV and the post office but will gladly wait 40 minutes for hot donuts. No wonder so many of us are shaped like bowling balls.

XXXXX

Tuesday night, a thousand people stood outside right field at AT&T Park with gloves, nets and bare hands ready to catch Barry Bonds' 756th homerun ball. Another two hundred floated in boats, kayaks and rafts in the cove.

When Bonds launched number 756 into the centerfield bleachers it set off a bloody brawl of fists, elbows and diving bodies. It ceased to be a baseball marking a historic moment and became a spherical lottery ticket launched into the crowd. Only in America can catching a baseball bump you into a higher tax bracket.

XXXXX

On the home front, it's not surprising the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on City Finances only garnered the public input of two citizens. Whether it's a homeowners association meeting or student, city, state or federal government, too often the public just can't be bothered for their input prior to financial decisions. But let there be a fee increase or a service cut and watch the complaints come in.


XXXXX

Just a quick question for candidates running for City Council. Will you pledge to voters that if you're arrested for a felony while in office, you'll either resign or temporarily step down to deal with your legal troubles?

XXXXX

Fairfield resident Brent Finger wrote a letter to the editor this week about the "Dateline To Catch An iJacker" show that aired last week on NBC. Dateline left a brand new iPod on a bench at Fisherman's Wharf. Hidden cameras showed two young brothers taking it. The thieves unfortunately live in Fairfield and reporter Chris Hansen confronted one of them about the theft.

The most disheartening but predictable part of the episode was the fact that the parents declined to comment. How about showing us that you give a crap?

After my column on bad parenting last week, several people wrote lamenting the fact that such bad parents probably wouldn't read that column. Maybe in the future, you can clip out columns like that and leave it on their windshield or drop it anonymously in the mail to that clueless neighbor. Let them know their dereliction of duty is not going unnoticed. Peace.


Now, I'm cool with the first line he cut out. The column works without it. But how do you chop out an entire idea like the second thing? Editing for clarity or space is something I understand. A good editor can make me look much, much better. Editing for content is a no no in my book. And that's what I think I'm a victim of here. Someone didn't like my idea. That's bullshit.

Fairfield has had two Councilmen arrested in office. Arrested and charged with felonies. Both refused to step down. One is still on the Council right now. Why shouldn't the public expect City Council candidates to say what they would do in those circumstances? I think it was just chickenshit politics that resulted in this question not being run.

That's why I like having the outlet of this blog. I've got no editor who thinks he knows better than me how my work should be presented.

It is amazing to me all the crap we go through trying to vote. We are supposed to be the best example of democracy on the planet. We like democracy so much, our President tries to export it with tanks, bombs and cruise missiles. But we can't even hold free and fair elections in this country and that's pathetic.

Speaking of pathetic, it's amazing how many of us complain about the DMV and the post office and other lines we wait in but nobody's complaining in that Krispy Kreme line. People are all too willing to waste time standing in a Lotto line.

The people fighting over Barry Bonds homerun ball looked foolish. One mad left his 4 year old daughter alone and literally dove into the fray. While it's easy for me to laugh at them from a distance, what would I have done if a half million dollar ball came whizzing towards me. Sad to say that I'd probably be throwing left hooks and elbows and whatever to get to that ball too. It's pathetic, but I ain't crazy. I'm not passing up on that ball.

It's just been a week of thoughts.