By Catherine O'Neill

Didn't ya know the minute you heard about the victory parade plans for the New England Patriots that we were going to lose the Super Bowl?

The same way you knew in 2003 when you saw the Red Sox made Fenway Park ready for the World Series without winning the Pennant that the only ball we'd catch during the World Series would be if one hit us in the face in stands of Yankee Stadium.

We must have angered the football gods. The small "g" gods get mad when we mortals are hubristic. Hubris is a term the ancient Greeks gave us and "according to its modern usage, is exaggerated self pride, arrogance or self-confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal retribution." I love the Greeks. Anything about your behavior and the behavior of others in the last two weeks you may recognize there?

I'm sorry we lost but I'm so glad the madness is over.

One of the things I'll be happiest about is I won't have to watch Ed Harding of WCVB TV read the news with his sunglasses on. Oh my God, can someone get Natalie Jacobson and Paul LaCamera back?

It's total habit with me flipping on Newscenter Five. Quite honestly, I skip it most nights, but last Friday there were sucide bombers in Baghdad, and while my nephew Anthony breaths Iraqi air I try to keep as informed as possible about a war everyone seems to have forgotten. So I had the crazy thought Friday evening to put on the local news to get some information. What I watched was a very bad version of Entertainment Tonight with only one topic that took little breaks to tell us about the weather. Wow, 75 people killed with bombs put on the backs of unwitting women, but did ya know you too can get a Patriots diamond sequenced mirror for a mere $300? I wonder how much those mirrors are selling for today? When did reality TV hijack our local news?

Over the last several days I could not stop thinking about Moses when he climbed Mt. Sinai for the Ten Commandments. When Moses came back down to his people they had all gone mad worshiping false gods and "partying like it was 1999", and the God with the big "G" was not happy, and neither was Moses.

Haven't we behaved like the Israelites of old over the last fourteen days?

I took my mom grocery shopping Super Bowl Sunday and the frenzy of men and women looking for chicken wings (sold out) was worse than when the Doppler radar suggests there may be a storm coming up the east coast and if the barometric pressure remains the same we could get six inches of snow but if it goes up a degree we'll get showers, and if the low tropical pressure drops a half of a degree we could get sleet mixed in with snow and the seas may rise to create another storm that could be reminiscent of the 1991 No Name Storm (The Perfect Storm, got it in) that we never forecasted, or it may miss us all together. But in any event get out there and get those provisions! Whew!

The story of the 2007-2008 New England Patriots is the same story that has been told since Homer. The handsome warrior leads his soldiers to victory after victory and becomes adored by the people of the land. In the final battle the handsome warrior, his soldiers, and the people of the land are so sure of victory…well you know how it ends. You just lived it.

Letter to the Editor
Nothing normal about young men being murdered on our streets

To the Editor:

Recently there have been letters to the editor and articles in the Dorchester Reporter telling people that we must not fear the violence in the Dorchester community and that people should go on with their lives as usual.  Have we desensitized ourselves to the fact of a young black man being murdered on our streets is the norm?

How dare you tell us that we do not have a right to fear what's going on with the murders in our community? People are being shot and killed and we are supposed to ignore it and go on with life as usual. Am I missing something here?   Should we just step over the bodies, say a prayer, and wait for the medical examiner to pick up what's left of the young man who meant something to someone. Should we be celebrating that fewer kids were killed in Boston last year than the year before? When did it not become a travesty when a kid gets murdered?  One death on our streets is too many.  I am not saying we should let the violence cripple us. I am not saying that people should shut themselves in their home forever. But we cannot just move on.

Two weeks ago a young man was shot and killed at the end of my street. Some people rationalize it away, because the boy was known to the police. Should that fact mitigate the killing, and citizens have nothing to fear? 

I sent out an e-mail asking people to be aware and maybe stay off the Dorchester Avenue for a while because I feared there would be retaliation for this killing. Unfortunately this fear was realized. Three young men were struck by gun fire coming from the murdered boy's funeral. One of these men died and another is in critical condition.

When did fear become such a terrible thing? I personally believe that it is fear that keeps us alive. It is fear that stops us from putting our hands in the fire so we not will get burned.  I am not a coward and neither am I a nut that goes around alarming people to false pretences. I am a person who deeply cares about all the people who live in my community.

There is no easy solution for the violence in our community. But we must not get to the point where being ignorant to the violence will keep us safe. There is no norm to people getting murdered on our streets.

I get so angry when I hear people say we must take back our streets. You cannot take back something we never gave away.  My biggest fear about these shootings is that some of them recently happened in the middle of the day, and that someone will be shot in the crossfire, or even worse, witness shootings. The City and the court system have not done a good job keeping witnesses safe. I believe witnessing these crimes could be as bad as being the victim, if not worse.

Barry J. Mullen

The writer is an organizer of the St. Marks Road/Glenrose Road/Semont Road/Florida Street Neighborhood Watch.


Letter to the Editor
Why Carney Hospital should remain open

Dear Editor,

We support the continued operation of Carney Hospital as an acute care hospital. The reasons are many:

• The emergency room provides 30,000 visits annually in a neighborhood that needs these services;

• The hospital draws primary care physicians to locate in our neighborhood;

• Carney has a much-needed psychiatric service;

• As a community teaching hospital, Carney offers excellent services at rates significantly less than the larger academic centers. In a time of rising health care costs, it is short sighted to close a lower cost facility;

• Local residents rely heavily on Carney for emergency, diagnostic, inpatient and specialty care at a cost that our patients can afford.

• There are 950 full time equivalent , well paying jobs at Carney.

Carney Hospital was the first hospital in Boston to offer full admitting privileges to community health center doctors, allowing our doctors to care for patients in the hospital. Carney is a critical part of the health care safety net for Dorchester, South Boston and Mattapan. State and local officials, working with the community need to find a solution before a needed resource is lost.

Daniel J. Driscoll, President & CEO

Paulette Shaw Querner, Corporate VP

Harbor Health Services, Inc

Joel Abrams, President & CEO

Dorchester House Multi-Service Center

Marva Serotkin, President & CEO

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