Published in the April 22, 2021 edition.
By MARK SARDELLA
It’s not just about the Warrior logo anymore.
The ballot question on Tuesday’s election is also a referendum on cancel culture.
Tuesday’s election is a chance for the normal people of Wakefield to push back against those who are tearing down our traditions left and right. It’s an opportunity to strike a blow against cancel culture by voting to keep the Warrior logo.
But you have to get to the polls on Tuesday and vote.
The anti-logo forces are hoping that you’ll stay home. They’re praying that you’ll conclude that the issue is a done deal because the School Committee already voted 5-2 to eliminate the logo.
The School Committee took their vote before the election because they didn’t want your voice to be heard. They’re hoping you’ll now conclude that it’s a settled matter and stay home on Election Day.
Are you going to let five people who never attended Wakefield High School cancel 75 years of Warrior tradition? Five people who have zero understanding of what the Wakefield Warrior logo represents?
As I pointed out in my last column, the anti-logo forces are putting an awful lot of resources behind defeating a ballot question that they want you to believe is unnecessary and irrelevant.
That’s because they know that something much bigger is at stake than the Warrior logo. What’s at stake is their ability to control the narrative and to cancel anything and anyone who gets in their way.
That’s why it’s important for Wakefield to send a loud and resounding message on Tuesday by voting to keep the Warrior logo.
But it’s not going to happen if you stay home.
Those of you on Facebook may know that last week my Facebook account was suspended for some unspecified violation of Facebook’s “Community Standards.” The all-powerful Facebook never gives a reason or explanation for their actions because they don’t have to. So, they leave us no choice but to use our human intelligence to weigh the evidence and draw our own conclusions.
I post every one of my columns on Facebook and everyone knows where I stand on the Warrior logo. I believe a group of people filed multiple phony reports against me with Facebook in an effort to get my account taken down just as we enter the home stretch before the townwide vote on the Warrior logo.
If you think they wouldn’t stoop that low and the timing was purely coincidental, you’re being very naïve. I don’t violate Facebook’s rules. In my 13 years on Facebook, I had never before been suspended or even warned. Nor have I ever been banned from any of the countless Wakefield Facebook groups, although that doesn’t stop my detractors from constantly trying.
These are the same people who regularly try to pressure my employer by writing letters, not just to the editor, but privately to the publisher and to advertisers in an effort to get me silenced because they don’t like my opinion columns.
At the same time, they insist that cancel culture is a myth. Irony escapes them.
Fortunately, my Facebook account was restored 36 hours after I filed an appeal, again with no explanation. So, I can only conclude that after a review Facebook determined that the alleged “violations” were baseless.
But if they can do it to me, they can and will do it to you.
I know that there are many Warriors out there who have been reluctant to take a stand publicly because they don’t want to put a target on their back. I can understand why.
That’s why we vote by secret ballot, and Tuesday’s election is the chance for those people to be heard.
Those who want to save the Warrior don’t have a committee raising money for them. They are a loose, grassroots movement of ordinary individuals who believe it’s important to stand up against the cancel culture that is bent on destroying our local and national traditions.
A vote to save the Warrior is a vote against that cancel culture.
But it won’t happen unless you actually get out and vote.
It’s not just about the Warrior logo anymore.
