Wading In

Thursday, August 29, 2013 FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA Time to restore respect for 1st responders By Kelvin Wade From page A11 | August 29, 2013 | 5 Comments On Sept. 11, 2001, 341 firefighters, 60 police officers and 10 paramedics were killed responding to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. After that awful day, firefighters and other first responders acquired a new level of respect throughout the country. People applauded as their trucks drove by. Americans thanked them ever opportunity they had. We placed firefighters and police on the same plane of respect reserved for soldiers. Traditionally, they’ve always been revered professions but 9/11 was a stark reminder of the sacrifice these men and women choose to make. But something happened along the way. When the financial collapse and Great Recession hit and people were looking to blame someone, police and fire unions took a big hit. Public employee pensions became the scapegoats across the country. During the 2012 pres...

Monday, August 26, 2013 FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA Accident convinces me to ditch my iPad By Kelvin Wade From page A7 | August 22, 2013 | 4 Comments I’ve been an insomniac for years. I used to embrace my insomnia by putting on a pot of coffee at night and doing some of my best writing while the stars were out. I wrote about having a sleep study a couple of months ago and one of the things the analyst told me is I have to stay off my iPad in bed. That hasn’t happened. But recently, my girlfriend Cathi stumbled upon a cure for my nightly iPad habit. So there I was in the middle of the night in bed with earphones in listening to an awesome version of Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die” while pummeling various victims in “Words with Friends” on my iPad when I heard a boom. I turned on a lamp and saw my Beagle, Theo, panting at the bedroom door. I thought he’d jumped against the door to get my attention. Lately, he’s had to go out a lot at night (a dog with the bladder of a mouse...

Thursday, August 15, 2013 No ‘What ifs’ in dog drowning incident By Kelvin Wade From page A11 | August 15, 2013 | Leave Comment In a horrific story, 21-year-old Bryan Cavanah was arrested for allegedly drowning a pit bull terrier in the Fairfield Civic Center pond. Witnesses say the man held the dog under the water until she didn’t resurface. In a televised interview Tuesday night with Fox40 News, Cavanah and his father, who owned the dog, claims Bryan had a “transient epileptic seizure,” and he has no memory of the drowning. A poster on the Daily Republic website claiming to know Cavanah confirms the man has epilepsy. If it’s true that this individual had some kind of seizure or medical issue that played a role in him drowning a dog, that doesn’t make the public feel safer. If he can do this to a dog and not know why he did it, then why can’t he do this to a child, several people have asked on the Fox40 website? It’s a valid question. What happens should this man be free and it’s yo...

Thursday, August 1, 2013 ‘Fruitvale Station’ destroys stereotypes By Kelvin Wade From page A11 | August 01, 2013 | Leave Comment Too often, young black men are seen as dangerous pit bulls in American society. And like a stray pit bull run over in the street, the lives of too many young African-American males are cut short through violent means. This is the message delivered in a controversial scene in the controversial new movie, “Fruitvale Station.” “Fruitvale Station” is first-time director Ryan Coogler’s film about the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by transit police on the Fruitvale BART platform in Oakland in the wee hours of New Year’s Day 2009. Officer Johannes Mehserle, who claims he mistook his firearm for his Taser, fired one shot into Grant’s back. The film focuses on the final day of Grant’s life. The power of the movie is in its ordinariness. It demolishes stereotypes and gives the viewer a realistic look into the life of a young African-American man struggling to get ...