Wading In

Diligence necessary after Vacaville explosion By Kelvin Wade March 31, 2011 3:58PM This week, we were horrified to learn that when an 85-year-old Vacaville man attempted to pick up a newspaper on the lawn Sunday morning, a bomb exploded, leaving him in serious condition in the hospital. We can only hope law enforcement finds and arrests the perpetrator(s) soon. While most Vacaville and Fairfield residents reacted with horror at news of the explosive device, what I fear is there's a number of people, I can't tell you how many, who reacted with fascination. And those people went online to learn how to make their own bombs. While I hope there isn't, it wouldn't surprise me to see a copycat. Years ago, when I was on the board of the Bay Area Survivors of Suicide reading about suicide prevention and aftermaths, I came across the Werther Effect. Researchers use the term to explain the phenomenon of copycat suicides. After a publicized suicide, there is usually an uptick in im...

The high cost of ignorance By Kelvin Wade March 24, 2011 Newsweek gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. citizenship test and 38 percent failed. On one level it's surprising the majority passed the test. But how can we hope to build a strong nation and thriving citizenry when four out of 10 don't have a grasp of civics? For some reason while writing this I can't help but hum Green Day's song, ' American Idiot .' There are some questions that aren't surprising that people missed. Only 4 percent knew the Constitution has 27 amendments. Only 20 percent knew Woodrow Wilson was president during World War I. And just 12 percent could name one of the authors of the Federalist Papers. Then come answers that make one think Mike 'The Situation' and Charlie Sheen are in charge of education in America. When asked what happened at the Constitutional Convention, 65 percent didn't know the Constitution was written. That's a Grant's tomb question. Can you belie...

Standing up to bullies By Kelvin Wade March 17, 2011 On the Internet, a video has gone viral of 10th-grader Casey Heynes from Sydney, Australia, body-slamming another kid who was bullying him. In the video, a smaller kid is seen taunting Casey and punching him. Casey suddenly lashes out, grabs his tormentor and picks him up and bodyslams the boy to the ground. Then he calmly walks away while the bully hobbles around in a daze. Unfortunately, both Casey and the bully were suspended for four days for violence. Many schools have this policy that suspends both students no matter who started the fight. What kind of message is that? What kind of society deems self-defense as the equivalent of attacking someone? I know school officials, whether in Australia or the U.S., would say the proper response is to walk away and tell a teacher. And I agree that if a child can get away from their bully and alert school officials that would be the proper step. But the reality isn't so easy. When I wa...

Name correction or pick a name By Kelvin Wade March 10, 2011 What's in a name? When my mother thumbed through a baby name book and named me 'Kelvin,' she doomed me to a lifetime of name correction. I can't count how many times I've been referred to in person or in print as 'Kevin.' The best was when one young woman said, 'Oh, I thought the L was silent.' Why would the L be silent? Why would I include it if it was supposed to be silent? To doom MYSELF to perpetual name correction? My mother told me the clerk messed up my birth certificate typing 'Kevin' as my given name. My mother pointed out the mistake and the woman said, 'It doesn't really matter.' What? How many people born in Virginia in the '60s are walking around with different names because a clerk was too lazy to type the correct one? My mother let her know that it did matter. 'If I wanted to name him Kevin, I would've named him Kevin!' I can hear my mom...

Playing the race card when game is rigged By Kelvin Wade March 3, 2011 Recently, my girlfriend Cathi, who is white, was rear-ended while driving home. When the other driver, a young black girl, refused to share information, Cathi jotted down her license plate and called police. She overheard the girl on her cell phone telling her mother, 'The only reason she called the police is because I'm black.' As a property manager, Cathi manages several homeowners associations in several cities. When enforcing association rules in the past she's heard similar lines from a Middle Eastern man and a Hispanic woman, both claiming they were being singled out for their ethnicity. And Cathi's fed up with that excuse. What is impossible to know by looking at Cathi is that when she was a young girl living in Mountain View in 1959, her parents fought a neighborhood petition that was trying to prevent a Japanese family from moving into the neighborhood. Her family...