Wading In

Thursday, January 31, 2013 Rise of the machines By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | January 31, 2013 | 1 Comment A recent series of articles by The Associated Press highlighted the fact that middle-class jobs in America are being replaced in large part by machines. Machines can more efficiently and quickly do the jobs of many human workers. According to the articles, between 2000 and 2010, 1.1 million secretarial jobs vanished, replaced by automation. The number of telephone operators dropped by 64 percent in the same time. The number of travel agents fell by 46 percent and bookkeepers dropped 26 percent. Self-checkout at stores and libraries have helped speed customers through, but at the cost of jobs. Online banking and ATMs have greatly cut the need for tellers. Digital devices that eliminate the need to be read manually are replacing gas and electric meter readers. Machines aren’t just replacing humans’ jobs, they’re replacing other machines. Who uses an alarm clock anymore when you ca...

Thursday, January 24, 2013 FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA Martin Luther King Jr. a GOP icon? By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | February 15, 2013 | 2 Comments Every January, around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some Republican will try to claim King’s legacy. “Martin Luther King was a Republican” posts have made their way around Facebook while some nobody Republican strategist named Jennifer Kerns penned a column by the same title. Gun advocate Larry Ward recently made the asinine statement that Gun Appreciation Day honors the legacy of Dr. King. Why do conservatives want to claim King as one of their own? It goes back to one single line in the 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The right has seized upon it to offer up King as an anti-affirmative action conservative hero. Of course, anyone who has read King’s book, “Why We Can’...

Thursday, January 17, 2013 All-expenses-paid secret knowledge hunters By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | January 17, 2013 | Leave Comment So apparently Fairfield Mayor Harry Price, Suisun City Mayor Pete Sanchez and Suisun City Councilman Mike Hudson – three members of the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District board – are down at the Esmeralda Renaissance Resort and Spa in Indian Well at a conference put on by the California Association of Sanitation Agencies. The conference runs Wednesday through Friday at an estimated cost of $2,000 to $2,500 per person, but we won’t know until we get the receipts. Well, I guess we should be grateful that they’re down there at this stunning resort nestled against the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains to attend this conference and obtain information that could be learned nowhere else on this planet. I don’t want people to get the idea that elected officials go to these conferences for the amenities. First of all, it’s not suntan weather down there. They hav...

The responsibility of bearing arms By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | January 10, 2013 | During Sunday dinner, my 7-year-old grandson Vika told his mother that for his eighth birthday this Friday he wants to spend the night at a friend’s house. I told his mom to be sure there are no guns in that friend’s house or, if there are, to be sure they’re properly stored. I’ve told the frightening story before of my family coming to my house for Thanksgiving when my brother Tony’s 15-year-old daughter Kaci was about 3. At some point, I noticed Kaci missing and my girlfriend Cathi told me she had put her down on our bed for a nap. Startled, I immediately went to the bedroom and retrieved the handgun lying on the recessed headboard inches from my sleeping niece. The reality is many gun owners who don’t have kids (and sadly, many that do) keep a firearm in easy reach of their bed. It’s the first thing I thought of when Vika mentioned going to a friend’s house. Guns, gun violence and gun safety is o...

Thursday, January 3, 2013 No more government at gunpoint By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | January 03, 2013 | 2 Comments It’s sad having to ring in the new year ashamed of our Sword of Damocles government. For the uninitiated, Damocles was a courtier to King Dionysius. Damocles remarked how fortunate the king was to have such power and wealth. The king arranged for them to trade places. After Damocles sat upon the throne, the king hung a sword over his head, dangling by a single strand. Damocles quickly gave the king his throne back; the point being made how worrisome and dangerous it was to be king. Our government, since it cannot govern as the Founding Fathers intended, decided to hang multiple swords above our heads in the form of the “fiscal cliff.” Though the Senate, House and president dealt with the first sword by passing a deal at the eleventh hour should give us no solace. The expiring Bush tax cuts could’ve been dealt with last year. The Senate passed a law extending the tax cu...