Wading In

In 1947, a Republican Senator once said that "politics stops at the water's edge." He meant that America was united against its enemies. There would be no politics played at times of war. Little did he know about where this country would go. One of the best memories I have, one of the memories that moves me, that causes my ches tto swell with pride in this country is in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Members of the U.S. Congress, Senators, Representatives, Democrats and Republicans gather on the steps of the Capitol and issue a defiant statement against the perpetrators of this horrendous act of terrorism and talk about how unified we are as a Congress and country. And then, when the press conference is over, they spontaneously break into "God Bless America." Makes me cry to watch it today. See it here . Fast forward to December 2009. A terrorist boards a flight to Detroit and tries to set off a bomb. Passengers and crew grab him and hold him for the authorities....

Grandfathering in the gays By Kelvin Wade December 30, 2009 3:31PM It will truly be a happy new year for some gay couples. Without much fanfare, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 54, a new law that will go into effect in the new year, recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages with California benefits as long as the nuptials took place before the passed of Proposition 8. So, gay couples married out of state before the passage of Proposition 8 will be considered married in California. Also, according to the new law, same-sex couples married out of state on or after Nov. 5, 2008, 'shall have the same rights, protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law' as married couples 'with the sole exception of the designation of 'marriage.' ' So if same-sex couples married out of state prior to Proposition 8's passage, they're considered married in California. If they marrie...

The War on Santa By Kelvin Wade The Other Side, Fairfield Daily Republic December 24, 2009 Have you heard that Santa Claus is a bad role model for children? It seems that some people worry that Santa promotes obesity and he sends the wrong message to today's youth. Some argue the iconic figure should be updated to promote a healthier lifestyle. For a man who drinks 37,500,000 gallons of milk and eats 1.2 billion cookies in one night every year just be thankful Santa isn't bedridden, on oxygen and the North Pole Fire Department doesn't have to knock a wall down from his house just to get him out to his sleigh. Santa is supposed to be plump and jolly. When he laughs his belly is supposed to shake like a bowlful of jelly. Santa with six pack abs is just disturbing. He's not supposed to be a Twilight werewolf; he's supposed to be a kind, rotund, white-haired, old man. A recent Washington Post story interviewed members of Santa America, an organiza...

Kids live in a texting world By Kelvin Wade December 17, 2009 One in seven teens 12-17 years old say they've received nude or near nude photos on their cell phones, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project survey. But when the study looked at just 17-year-olds, the number of them who admitted to 'sexting' was closer to 1 in 3. And the numbers are probably higher considering this study consisted of focus groups of teens and their parents. How many kids are going to admit to this in front of their parents? My 12-year-old granddaughter Lauryn is itching to add texting capability to her phone but I've convinced her mother not to do it. I've already discovered an inappropriate photo of her on her Myspace page and had her remove it. Having seen the kinds of videos and photos Lauryn's friends post, there seems to be some kind of obsession with kids taking 'sexy' pictures of themselves and inviting commentary on them. I can...

Nonprofit targets domestic violence By Kelvin Wade December 10, 2009 2:25PM My introduction to domestic violence came at the age of 9 when I was playing football with my friend Paul in his front yard. A scream from within his house stopped the game cold. Suddenly, the front door swung open and Paul's mother stood in the doorframe, blood trickling from her nose. Behind her, Paul's dad grabbed her by the hair, pulled her back inside and slammed the door shut. Watching the police arrive and take Paul's dad away, I was shocked. Paul was a good friend. My mom had coffee with his mom. They were the all-American family, at least on the outside. I never suspected that anything so awful was going on behind closed doors. One in four women has or will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates 3 million women are physically abused by their partner every year. Councilman John Mraz recently put m...

How do we counter sleaze in local politics? The Other Side by Kelvin Wade November 05, 2009 12:08PM So does someone really believe that what it takes for political victory in Fairfield is popping online masquerading as your own supporters heaping praise on yourself, flat-out lies, and last-minute anonymous attack mailers? It's a shame that someone or someone's supporters felt they couldn't compete on ideas, on solutions, on enthusiasm and experience and decided to go the Tonya Harding route. What integrity-deficient politician would stoop to such low last-minute dirty tricks? So, whoever sent out those two anonymous, last-minute, lying attack mailers, was it worth it? I would ask if he or she is proud of their part in sustaining the politics of anything goes but the fact they didn't have the stones to place their John Hancock on their work says it all. It's honorable that most City Council candidates either signed a pledge or agreed...

Forget dying, get flu shot to avoid being sick By Kelvin Wade October 28, 2009 5:36PM I had the flu not too long ago. It started with a sore throat but soon progressed to a hard cough that hurt my chest every time one burst from my mouth. Next up were chills like mini arctic blasts down my spine that no blanket could alleviate. Aches and pains gripped my neck and joints. Then came that feeling like I'd been run over (and backed over) by a bus. Every step I took required superhuman strength and seemed like I was walking in molasses. Food into my stomach quickly reversed itself. And what scraps stayed down, moved through my system much too quickly. A sudden brutal cough coupled with loose bowels makes for a miserable experience. Was it H1N1 or seasonal flu? I don't know. I didn't much care at that point. That virus knocked me out of commission for nearly 10 days. According to a recent Associated Press-GFK poll, 38 percent of parents don't w...

Mraz, Courtemanche good fits for City Council By Kelvin Wade October 21, 2009 4:50PM It's hard to go wrong choosing among the candidates for Fairfield City Council for the two available seats. We have some great candidates. The first person I'd consider voting for is John Mraz. It was Matt Garcia who encouraged me to meet with John. Matt encouraged me to see the man behind the caricature. The criticism I hear about Vice Mayor Mraz is mostly style rather than substance. Yes, he rubs people the wrong way. Yes, he's the type of guy who'll tell you the dress makes you look like a hippo but that's because if you ask his opinion, you're going to get it. He walks the walk. He pushed for a youth center. He supported a gang injunction. He's been a hardliner when it's come to local crime. And the results speak for themselves. You want a curmudgeon in office especially during financially lean times. In Mraz, you'll have a public serv...

Kid is both annoying, endearing By Kelvin Wade October 15, 2009 2:35PM I've never wanted to have children. I've never really been impressed by the so-called miracle of childbirth. How can it be a miracle if it happens a zillion times a day all over the world? Aren't miracles rare? If two distantly related, half-educated, drunken hillbilly teens can make a baby by accident in the back seat of a rusted out Ford in their trailer park in the sticks, (pardon my grammar) that ain't no miracle. But through happenstance, my significant other has two grandkids, 12-year-old Lauryn and 4-year-old Vika. Lauryn is her own Chinese puzzle box but this column is about Vika. I met Vika when his family moved here from North Carolina when he was 17 months old. In no time, I found myself tasked with changing his diaper. The last time I'd seen anything that remotely looked like that diaper, it was coming out of Linda Blair's mouth in 'The Exorcist.' Matters di...

Secure your guns, and peace of mind By Kelvin Wade October 08, 2009 10:06AM A Vacaville couple was arrested this week on a variety of criminal complaints stemming from the tragedy last month when their 8-year-old son accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with a handgun he'd found on the couple's bed. Due to his parents' alleged irresponsibility, unfortunately, this little boy will have to live with this horrific memory. There is no pain worse than losing a child and losing a child through one's own negligence must be unfathomably painful. But if the press accounts are true that there were multiple unsecured firearms in the house and that they shouldn't have been there at all due to the wife's felony drunk driving conviction, then it's hard not to feel contempt for that kind of recklessness. These kinds of incidents anger responsible gun owners because too often the focus is on the weapons and not the irresponsibility o...

Thank You, Mr. President By Joe Scarborough Count me as one conservative who is disappointed that President Obama's hometown will not be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. Chicago is a beautiful city that would have made a perfect backdrop for the Olympics. The President was right to fly to Copenhagen to try to land the games, not for the sake of his city, but for the good of his country. The fact President Obama failed makes me respect him more for taking the chance, and the fact many right-wing figures opposed the President's mission shows just how narrow-minded partisanship makes us all. For the better part of 20 years, a bitterness has infected our politics that has weakened our country. We Republicans spent eight years trying to delegitimize Bill Clinton. Democrats spent the next eight years doing the same to George W. Bush. Now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office again, it is the GOP who is trying to delegitimi...

Junk food tax is a step toward universal health By Kelvin Wade | | October 1, 2009 14:52 Last month, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced he'd be seeking a tax on soft drinks at retail stores to fight obesity. Now San Francisco has replaced Berkeley in coming up with nutty ideas but this one isn't bad. Kelly Brownell, an obesity expert at Yale University, and Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health are among many experts who advocate such a tax. According to a recent study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, adults who drink one soft drink per day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight or obese. For children, the risk of obesity increases 60 percent per daily serving of soda. It's no wonder we're a nation of porkers. But I don't believe a tax on soft drinks goes far enough. Being someone with excess adipose tissue, I'm all too eager to place my gelatinous posterior behind the idea of a 'fat tax.'...

Brazen burglar shouldn't be so cocky By Kelvin Wade | | September 24, 2009 17:26 The crime issue gets a lot of attention in Fairfield. Sadly, we've become used to gunshots and gang violence and we applaud measures like the gang injunction to help curtail it. We know what streets and neighborhoods to avoid. We've seen crime both taint and victimize our own local government. Crime is the source of a lot of local fear. But right now there's at least one person, who happens to be a criminal, who should be more frightened than any Fairfield resident. I'm talking about the 'westside burglar,' a fiend suspected of committing more than 30 burglaries in Fairfield. Westside burglar, what are you thinking? You usually break into homes on the west side of Interstate 80 between Waterman Boulevard and Oliver Road between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. You boldly break into occupied homes. Well, since you usually enter through open windows and doors, we...

Racism was behind remark By Kelvin Wade | | September 17, 2009 14:36 This week, former President Carter mentioned the elephant in the room. He feels that much of the hostility fueling protests against President Obama is generated by racism. The truth of that should not come as a shock to anyone. Of course, the majority of opposition to President Obama is ideological. His critics think that he's moving the country toward socialism or that he's too liberal. Those are legitimate arguments and opposition. After all, these same critics loathed Bill Clinton, too. Republicans will predictably and inevitably claim that the 'race card' is being played and that all opposition is being painted as racist. No one has claimed that but they'll attack that straw man with a vengeance. That there are people who dislike Obama because of his race cannot be disputed. During the campaign, people showed up at McCain-Palin rallies with Curious George dolls representing Ob...

Obama school speech illustrates confirmation bias By Kelvin Wade | | September 09, 2009 23:55 It's hard to understand how two groups of people can watch President Obama give a speech to millions of schoolchildren and come away with such divergent views of what was accomplished. One side sees a speech on personal responsibility, setting goals and working hard. Another side sees Chairman Mao-like communism. They see subversive propaganda in which all that was left was for Leni Riefenstahl to film it. I'm tempted to just caricature the Obama haters as knuckle dragging ignoramuses who are terrified of socialism yet can't spell or define it. It's easy to see a group of people who obviously don't have enough tinfoil in their protective hats that define themselves by opposing the four I's: illegals, infidels, immorality and intellectualism. But by doing that, I'm just as guilty as right-wing punditocracy who characterize progressives as nonthinking...

Champion the goals of Garcia By Kelvin Wade | | August 27, 2009 14:23 Next week marks the tragic one year anniversary of the murder of Councilman Matt Garcia. It boggles the mind that such a dynamic, imaginative, giving young man could be horrifically taken from us far too soon. Sometimes it still feels like a bad dream. But what a legacy he left. My brothers and I grew up in a Fairfield that had a bowling alley, roller skating rink, PAL and Pop Warner, and shootings were almost unheard of. It wasn't Mayberry, but it was different from the Fairfield Garcia grew up in. His community was just the opposite. But instead of cursing the darkness, he chose to bring light. By the time I met Garcia, I'd seen almost half a dozen local politicians stumble and embarrass themselves. I didn't expect much from some kid. During the course of two hours at Joe's Buffet, he made me believe. There are few experiences more transformative than someone being capable of offe...

Nazism should never enter the argument By Kelvin Wade | | August 20, 2009 14:09 Addressing the Wehrmact and Schutzstaffel (SS) troops in the summer of 1941, Adolf Hitler told his minions, 'Close your eyes to pity! Act brutally!' And they obliged. In camps like Dachu, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen and others, Jews and other prisoners were starved and worked to death. In hellish camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and others, the SS murdered millions of Jews by gassing and burning them. More than a million of the victims were children. The Nazis murdered two-thirds of the Jews in all of Europe. Adolf Hitler's Nazis also targeted and killed the physically and mentally disabled, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, communists, Christian Poles, Slavs, homosexuals and others they branded deviants. There were hundreds of African-German children who were forcibly sterilized so as not to contaminate the Aryan race. And of course th...

Festival improved by VIPs | | August 14, 2009 16:27 This weekend Fairfield hosts the 18th Annual Tomato Festival and Sixth Annual West Coast Barbeque Championship. Forget the garlic, onion and asparagus festivals other cities put on, with the addition of the barbecue championship, Fairfield has the best smelling festival hands down. It's big. It's tasty. It's entertaining. And there's something for the whole family. Fifty thousand people attended this awesome event last year. There will be three stages featuring live music and entertainment. There will be fun activities for kids including a block of inflatable slides and bouncy thingamajigs. More than 200 kinds of heirloom tomatoes will be on hand to sample and buy in Tomato Alley. There will be arts and craft vendors. And of course, there will be all manner of food and drink to satisfy the rumbly in the tumbly of thousands of festivalgoers. Scores of barbecue teams will square off in the largest barb...

When cooler heads don't prevail By Kelvin Wade | | July 30, 2009 23:36 It's been interesting observing the national debate over the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest. Some see racial profiling. Some just see the race card played. Still others see police abusing their authority. People want apologies. And every group seems to be using the incident to push their agendas. I just see a stupid event. And I agree with Gen. Colin Powell that 'adult supervision' was necessary. Was it racial profiling? Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley taught a class on racial profiling alongside a black officer at the police academy. He certainly doesn't fit the stereotype of the racist white cop. Likewise, there are many who seek to portray the 58-year-old Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor who graduated summa cum laude from Yale, studied at Cambridge and was the first black to receive an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, as a rabble-rousing Al Sharpton type. Th...