Wading In

Arm bullies with cameras Fairfield Daily Republic | June 28, 2012 By Kelvin Wade Like millions of others, I was horrified by the viral video of 68-year-old bus monitor Karen Klein being taunted and harassed by middle school students in Rochester, N.Y. Watching it, one can’t help but wonder if this is how the bus monitor is treated, what hope does an individual student have on that bus? Still, what the video has wrought has been inspiring in many ways. The nation is suitably outraged over an important subject. We’ve taken to Facebook, Twitter, blogs and bar stools and have denounced these cruel kids, questioned their parents’ ability and poured out sympathy (and dollars) for the victim. One thing we haven’t done is thank the youngster who filmed the abuse. Thanks to the kid who thought his friends would get a kick out of the video when he posted it to Facebook. (And thanks to “CapitalTrigga,” who had nothing to do with the abuse, who posted it to YouTube.) The idea of filming themselv...

Against taxes? What would you cut? Fairfield Daily Republic | June 21, 2012 By Kelvin Wade Fairfield is between a rock and a hard place. Do we cut another $7.75 million out of the budget somehow or try to pass a tax in November? Or do we make more cuts and pass a smaller tax measure? A 1 percent sales tax increase would raise our 7.375 percent tax rate on par with Vallejo’s.  But maybe a smaller increase would be easier to pass. We’d still have to make some tough cuts that are going to affect the quality of life in Fairfield. One of the biggest hurdles to a tax measure is the fact that there will be several other tax measures on the state ballot this November. Are Fairfielders going to want to vote for a local tax measure and, in the same election, vote to increase the state sales tax as well? When is the last time voters elected to tax themselves twice in a single election? We just passed Measure L, the library tax, but that was a unique case. It wasn’t a new tax. If we pass a ne...

Tickets for potty mouths? Fairfield Daily Republic By Kelvin Wade   | June 14, 2012 The city of Middleborough, Mass., is taking flak for passing an ordinance that allows police to issue $20 citations for public profanity. They made the change because under the old law, public swearing was actually a crime and the law was never enforced. They made it an infraction so they could combat swearing by teens downtown. Before we scoff at the nanny-state-Massachusetts liberals trying to tell people what they can or can’t say, look at the city code of the city of Fairfield Chapter 12, section 12.3 under Disorderly Conduct. You will find that it says, “No person shall maliciously or willfully . . . use any vulgar or profane language within the presence of hearing of women or children in a loud or boisterous manner.” That’s right. You can be cited in good ol’ Fairfield. Now I don’t know when the last time Fairfield police cited anyone for profanity. I can’t imagine it’s been done recently (...

Celebrate Measure L by reading Daily Republic June 07, 2012 By Kelvin Wade "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." ---- Ray Bradbury Thank you, voters! You did an awesome job passing Measure L, which ensures our library system will continue to provide books and media, children’s programs and long hours for library patrons. Measure L co-chairwoman Ann Cousineau and all of the people who spread the word, posted signs, walked neighborhoods, donated their time, money and endorsements have a reason to be proud. People of all different political viewpoints concurred on this issue and the communities in this county came together. So how do we celebrate this great victory? For one, we should use our libraries. Summer is the perfect time to make sure your kids have a library card and see how many books they can read over the break from school. There are DVDs, CDs and children’s programs as well. What’s cool is the whole virtual...

Why the cigarette tax is a bad idea Daily Republic June 01, 2012 By Kelvin Wade Proposition 29 on next Tuesday’s ballot will add a $1 per pack tax to cigarettes sold in California. The money will fund smoking-cessation programs and cancer research. California is 33rd in the nation in cigarette taxes. The new tax will move us to 16th. The measure is expected to generate $735 million annually. So why am I leaning toward no? It’s usually a no-brainer. When Phillip Morris and R.J. Reynolds help bankroll opposition to a ballot measure to the tune of $40 million, you vote for it. And supporters of Proposition 29 say we need the dedicated revenue for smoking cessation programs because a Centers for Disease Control study came out last week showing that of the billions raised by settlements and tobacco taxes in California between 1998 and 2010, only 6 percent has gone to curb smoking. Ouch. But opponents say we’ve seen this movie before. In 2004, we approved Proposition 71, allocating $3 bill...