Published in the January 28, 2021 edition.
By MARK SARDELLA
Allow me to be the one to break the sad news.
The Wakefield Warrior logo is history.
Oh sure, the School Committee paid lip service Tuesday night to the lofty notion of having a “community-wide discussion.” But you didn’t need a degree in “English Language Arts” to read between the lines. There would be no need to go through a “process” if the intention was to keep the logo.
No. The Warrior is a goner. Sorry there isn’t better news, but there isn’t.
I base this conclusion not just on what was said at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, where they couldn’t heap enough praise on the Youth Council, which is pushing hard for the elimination of the logo. The fact that they felt the need to apologize to the Youth Council for the delay in acting on the logo speaks volumes. Sorry kids, we’ve been busy dealing with a little thing called COVID.
School officials announced confidently, however, that by late March they will finally have time to deal with the one truly important issue – the Warrior logo.
In the meantime, the School Committee said all the right things about wanting to hear from “the whole community.” And by that they mean the activist community.
Trust me, there will be an orchestrated, coordinated campaign of emails, letters, texts and phone calls designed to give the impression of an avalanche of support for eliminating the Warrior logo.
Meanwhile, those who like tradition and history tend to be less apt to get in your face and make demands, and are less inclined to badger public officials with emails and phone calls. I would submit that those who want to keep the logo are greater in number. But those who want to get rid of it are louder in volume. And those are the voices that the School Committee will choose to hear.
Not that their minds aren’t already made up. They are. But they’re going to need cover for what they know will be an unpopular decision. They’ll want to be able to point to a “groundswell” of public opinion in favor of eliminating the Warrior.
That’s also where the Youth Council comes in handy. The School Committee and administration can point to the Youth Council, throw up their hands and say, “What could we do? It’s what our students want.”
Except it isn’t what the students want.
The Youth Council’s own survey of the Wakefield High School student population showed a 50-50 split in opinion regarding the logo. Considering that the more political, activist-minded students are more likely to take the time to fill out and return such a survey, I’d wager that the true student majority is probably tilted more toward keeping the Warrior logo or not caring either way.
But none of that will matter. Facts won’t matter. Truth won’t matter. The unique historical origins of Wakefield’s Warrior logo won’t matter.
All that matters is ideology and the self-satisfaction that comes with the belief that you’re part of the in-group and that together you’re on the “right side of history.”
It must be a comfortable conformity.
