Keller @ Large: A Different Type Of 'Year In Review' List
BOSTON (CBS) - This is the big week of the year for year-end lists, the year in review, the best and worst of the year gone by, and so on and so on, and I don't blame you if you've already heard enough of them.
But this is also a time of year for homecomings. So bear with me while I give you a very short list of the biggest local homecomings of 2011.
As we saw along the victory parade route last June, the Stanley Cup returning to Boston after 39 years away from home was a very big deal.
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Hockey isn't just a popular pastime around here. It's a major part of the social life of neighborhoods and families, and a source of community pride. All of that went on independent of the Bruins winning, but their sweet triumph was a needed boost for the game and the fans.
Seeing the old footage of the Boston Garden back in 1972 was also a reminder of how much our home, supposedly so resistant to change, has changed since the Bruins last won. The old Garden is gone, and the Big Dig got dug, for better or for worse.
As homecomings go, they don't get much more dramatic than that of the most wanted American criminal, Whitey Bulger, accused of being one of the worst serial killers and predators in our history.
His return home evoked memories too: of the denial culture that enabled his crime wave back then, the folks who even now claimed he kept Southie safe even though we know he did the opposite; and of the federal agents who sold us out so cheaply, and turned our city over to a vicious criminal and looked the other way.
And one other homecoming makes my list of the year's most important.
There's a lot of them happening right now, the homecoming of our men and women serving overseas.
They are a welcome sight. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude and support. And their sacrifices make the rest of any homecoming list seem smaller by comparison.
Maybe they deserve a very short list of their own.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
