Wading In

Save Fairfield; Fight the Filth The Other Side , June 30, 2011 Kelvin Wade I’m outraged. On Tuesday night, three young black men in a brown or tan Honda-like vehicle robbed and killed the 70-year-old owner of the Travis Dairy, which was the former Holland Dairy. Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. Three young men against a 70-year-old man? You jackasses couldn’t just take the money and leave? Sadly this past January two young thugs robbed the owner at gunpoint. Fortunately, they were arrested. At least he escaped with his life then. It’s an outrage that a man described as gentle and loving is no longer here but his waste-of-a-human-body killers are walking around sharing our air. I’m hopeful the scumbags who did this will be apprehended. First, there are three guys. That’s three mouths that aren’t going to be able to stay closed. Someone is going to tell a friend what they did and it’s going to get around. And if we catch o...

Graphic warnings won’t deter smokers Fairfield Daily Republic June 23, 2011 By Kelvin Wade On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration unveiled nine new graphic images and warnings that will be required to appear on packages of cigarettes by September 2012. There are graphic photos such as diseased lungs and gums and a corpse . The warnings will say things such as “Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease;” “Cigarettes cause cancer” and “Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease.” Each pack will also sport an 800 number to help smokers quit smoking. The intent is to lower the 20 percent of Americans who still smoke. Unfortunately, this latest gimmick is doomed to failure. When I was younger my dad smoked big fat stinky cigars . The worst was when we’d be riding in his car, windows up, and the heater on while he puffed on his nauseating stogie. In junior high, at Grange in Ms. Hall’s health class, she showed us gruesome images of diseased lungs from smoking. And there were anti-smokin...

Fathering lessons from my father Fairfield Daily Republic June 16, 2011 Kelvin Wade As the only Wade brother who doesn’t have kids, I’ve been fortunate to be a “grandfather” to Cathi’s grandchildren, 14-year-old Lauryn (who I’ve known since she was 5 months old) and 6-year-old Kawika. Since the kids’ fathers have been in the military and/or working overseas, I’ve had a lot of time to interact with and influence them. A lot of how I am with them is due to my father. From my dad I learned to be consistent with discipline. If my dad took off his belt, you were getting a beating. Johnnie Cochran couldn’t have talked his way out of a whupping from my dad. The most we could do is turn state’s evidence against our brothers to lessen our punishment and get them in trouble. My father spoke in such a way that noncompliance was just not an option. I couldn’t imagine telling him, “No, I’m not doing it.” I have no idea what would’ve happened if we tried that but I suspect you wouldn’t be readin...

Keeping felons confined Fairfield Daily Republic June 9, 2011 By Kelvin Wade In a recent 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered California to release 33,000 prison inmates due to overcrowding and violations of the 8th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishments. The result of our Three Strikes Law and truth-in-sentencing measures is that we have 143,000 inmates in 33 prisons designed to hold 80,000. The most damning and obvious impact of dumping such a large number of inmates back into society before their original release dates is that someone, somewhere is going to be victimized who otherwise wouldn’t have been. There is a plan. Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 109 that would allow those convicted of nonviolent and nonsexual crimes to be sent to county jails so none of these felons are released. Solano County Sheriff Gary Stanton has said we can handle that. The Claybank jail is...

Toying with a game of cell phone roulette Daily Republic June 2, 2011 By Kelvin Wade It’s amazing how fast we get attached to new things. Take cell phones, for instance. If I leave the house and forget my phone, I’m a wreck. I don’t feel right. It’s crazy because for most of my life, I didn’t have a cell phone and was fine. Now most of us couldn’t imagine not having one. Now comes word from the World Health Organization that radiation from cell phones is “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The WHO has placed cell phones in the same category as lead, chloroform and DDT. This comes on the heels of a National Institutes of Health study that showed increased brain activity in the area nearest the cell phone antenna. Perhaps the tinfoil-hat-wearing whack jobs one spots from time to time on the street in the City are onto something. But how are we supposed to know if there really is a threat to our health? Do we take precautions while ...