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Keller @ Large: We Have No Business Laughing At Atlanta

BOSTON (CBS) --- Were you one of those who enjoyed a good, sarcastic laugh at the expense of Atlanta-area residents over the monumental traffic gridlock they suffered the last couple of days during a freak southern snowstorm?

Listen to Jon's commentary

Keller @ Large: We Have No Business Laughing At Atlanta

That's not very nice, but it's understandable. Just a few inches of snow fell, the Boston equivalent of pedestrian dandruff.

But that was enough to paralyze the metro Atlanta area. There were hundreds of accidents, scores of abandoned cars, horror stories of 20-hour commutes, children trapped on school busses, people sleeping on lawn chairs in hardware stores.

What a bunch of rubes, I bet some of you were thinking. They just don't know how to prepare the roads, say smug New Englanders, and haven't a clue how to drive in bad weather.

But I say, gloating is bad form here.

May I remind you of the December, 2007 Boston snowstorm, when a few fast inches during p.m. drive-time locked up Greater Boston? We made the same mistake then that Atlantans made Tuesday afternoon – everybody left work and school at the same time, and the normally bad rush-hour traffic turned nightmarish.

According to local experts, the Atlanta mess quickly turned into a free-for-all, with selfish behavior complicating the problem as people caused accidents, left their cars blocking traffic, and so on.

Hey, we've been known to indulge in free-for-all behavior ourselves from time to time.

In fact, when you consider what happens around here on summer Fridays and Sundays, maybe we don't have any business laughing up our sleeves at Atlantans at all.

Yes, let he or she who is without sin cast the first snowball.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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