I know there are those who hate of others because they are different. I vividly recall standing at the corner of Savin Hill Avenue and South Sidney Street with a couple of guys who were as they say “on the dole” having some type of allergy to working for a loving.

This day a black man left Savin Hill T Station about 50 yards from where we were standing. He was carrying his metal lunch pail as I had seen him do on other days. He wisely crossed the street to the other side, and walked down past us. He obviously had been working and was returning home. He was part of one of the few black families in our neighborhood.

One of the loafers upon seeing him sad in a somewhat loud voice: “Hey! Look at him! He wants to be like us!” I recall thinking that was the last thing he wanted. He didn’t want to hang around the corner and live off some government largess. He wanted to work and was working.

This man was looked down upon simply because of his color. That was so American where tradition has it that white people think they are superior to black Americans merely because of the accident of their birth to parents who were White.

I suppose you must figure it is around that amount from the publicity that surrounded him. We all read how he terrorized the City of Boston  and environs for 25 years. We read about it even though we were residents in those areas and were not terrorized ourselves but surely most of the people were and we just did not realize it. The question that must be answered is whether you can be terrorized without knowing it.

I should mention the form of the  title to this post is taken from an advertisement that used to be played on Boston’s radio stations although the words are changed When asking the question about Whitey it is necessary that it be done by using the tune of that ad by Adams and Swett Carpet Company.

The advertisement asked: “How many cookies did Andrew eat? Andrew ate eight thousand.” That was the telephone number of the company doing the advertisement , AN8-8000. AN was the abbreviation for Andrew. My first home telephone number was Geneva 6-5173 or GE6-5173.

Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants died on September 14, 2020, at age 65. He suffered a heart attack on September 4, went to the hospital where he was treated with two stents, made a  decent initial recovery to the extent he planned on returning to work in a limited manner within days, and then something went wrong. May he rest in peace.

I met him once. I was standing outside the federal courthouse in Boston the summer before last talking to an old colleague, Sarah Hartry. I was attending the memorial services for Judge Joseph Tauro. As he approached Sarah waved at him and he walked over. She introduced him to me as Ralph Gants. I knew I had heard the name before but could not place it. I said hello. We exchanged a few pleasant words. He seemed like a nice guy. He continued on. I asked her what does he do. She told me. I felt chagrined not having immediately known it when I heard his name.

When Trump imposed the travel ban on China – which did not ban everyone from traveling from there – it exempted Americans and their families as well as citizens of Hong Kong and Macao who were coming from China. There was no ban on people coming in from Europe until March 12. That allowed people to come in from overseas to attend business conferences such as the the one who attended the international business conference held in Boston from February 26-27 by Biogen at the Marriott Long Wharf hotel which infected thousands.

That ban was imposed as we now know from Bob Woodworth’s just published book which is supported by Trump’s own words recorded over 18 interviews and which recordings have been made available to the public.  On February 7 Trump told Woodworth that he had spoken to XI about the virus in China. He said he knew the virus was at least five times worse than the flu and that it was very dangerous and could be transmitted through the air. He noted to Woodward how dangerous it was because of that.

Last Thursday I was beating the old drum telling how one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated on the gullible American public, you know those people who like gangster stories like those in the Godfather series, or the Sopranos, or the Goodfellas, was that Whitey Bulger was the real deal gangster.

One of the most intriguing parts of his story is that he bought into the con himself. He believed he was this big mobster when he was only a guy who carried a gun and liked to threaten people when he had a helper by his side. Unlike most Southie guys who were tough,  he never got in the ring to fight one against one. I noted yesterday he had no mob. His gang was Steve Flemmi, Kevin Weeks and himself, and perhaps a guy in Florida named Martorano.

The latter wrote a book proclaiming himself on the cover as “Whitey Bulger’s Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld.” How could that be when he was in Florida during the time Whitey operated in South Boston. There’s not one case he can point to where he enforced anything for Whitey. Some may suggest the murders of Paulie McGonagle and Tommy King who were Whitey’s rivals in South Boston. But Whitey was not his boss at the time, it was Howie Winter. And, a close look at these murders suggest it was not Martorano who did the murders but another guy from Southie who betrayed his buddies to become Whitey’s Southie partner.

Here is what occupies Trump: Harassing a private citizen.

Is this what you  believe a president should be doing on a Sunday?

Every time I think of the book Whitey, The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss” I marvel at how some local Boston media folk could turn a mid-level gangster who murdered probably less than a dozen people, and none by himself, and who never ordered anyone to be killed,  and turn him into a “Mob Boss.” It was not only Gerard O’Neill and Dick Leher acting as if it were true, it was the whole mob of reporters in the Boston area and beyond.

Not only do they make him “America’s Most Notorious,” these self-styled experts on James “Whitey” Bulger, O’Neill and Lehr,,- ready – are you sitting down — state this: “In the annals of crime in the United States, Whitey Bulger today stands at the front of a line that include John Dillinger, Al Capone, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and more recently, John Gotti. His list of victims matches or exceeds that of any other crime boss . . . .”