Imagine that

Published in the July 23, 2020 edition.

By MARK SARDELLA

I’ll say one thing for the mob that is currently calling the shots across the country: they’re not shy.

They are asking us — strike that. The woke mob doesn’t ask. They are ordering us to “re-imagine policing.” Of course, “re-imagine” is a euphemism. What they really want is to de-fund and dismantle the police. They tried saying that openly at first, but it didn’t go over so well. So, now we have to “re-imagine” that defund doesn’t really mean defund.

That’s not the only thing we are being asked to re-imagine. We’re being asked to re-imagine sports with no live spectators as well as football games with two different national anthems (separate but equal, of course). Has the LGBTQ community gotten wind of this? I’m sure the NFL can make room for one more.

Speaking of the National Anthem, these same folks have seriously advanced the idea of making John Lennon’s “Imagine” the United States national anthem. (Re-imagine “Imagine” as the national anthem. Are you beginning to detect a theme here?)

In the song, Lennon imagines a utopia with no countries, no religion and no possessions. (He forgot “no police.” Oh, well. I suppose he had to leave something for his grandchildren to do.)

You wouldn’t know it from “Imagine,” but Lennon was a pretty good songwriter. He was also a smart guy. He knew something that today’s wannabe revolutionaries haven’t figured out: You don’t give away the game.

In a much better composition, “Revolution,” Lennon warned, “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”

But today’s junior Che Guevaras don’t get it. They follow openly Marxist organizations that call for defunding police and then attribute any pushback to “racism.”

I’ve been doing a little “re-imagining” myself of late.

First, I re-imagined Wakefield without a Human Rights Commission, which wasn’t hard because until 2015 the town had somehow managed to survive 371 years without one.

But times have changed and now every upper middle-class suburb must have its own Human Rights Commission.

So, I tried to re-imagine an inclusive Wakefield Human Rights Commission that actually represents the entire community, not just one narrow ideological slice of the town.

I’ve been re-imagining a Human Rights Commission with the checks and balances that come with broad representation, so that meetings don’t descend into a glib groupthink of shared prejudices, where mockery of those whose presumed beliefs differ from their own is an acceptable amusement.

This is an opportune time to re-imagine the WHRC because by happy coincidence, there are suddenly four open positions that need to be filled.

I recall a few years ago members of the Town Council declaring that it was not enough to simply accept the candidates who volunteer to serve on appointed committees if those who come forward don’t adequately represent the make-up of the community. To get broad representation, we must actively recruit, they told us.

Now would be a great time to actively recruit citizens who represent the full range of diverse ideological and political viewpoints in town to serve on the Wakefield Human Rights Commission.

An inclusive and ideologically diverse Human Rights Commission whose mission is to promote the civil and human rights of all people in Wakefield.

Imagine that.