There is a difference in remarking about a political machine, the personalities involved in the corruption and controversy, and the high crimes and midemeanors they have or are alleged to have committed. The fact that the name of a city is used as an adverb is not the same as the city itself (and all who live in it) being chastised.

I admit to considering "Chicago politics" as being rough and tumble, and very much wrapped in controversy and favoritism. The corruption and voter scandals are legend, whether Chicagoans like it or not. The same can be said for "Boston politics" and a host of other cities which had a history of ethnic favoritism, crime boss rule, and turmoil. So what!

Whether we all want to accept it or not, we are no longer Chicagoans, Bostonians, New Yorkers, Denverites. Tulsans or any anything else. We are now "Villagers" and "Floridians." It's time to live in the present and the future, not the past. Our immigrant ancestors learned that when they got off the boat at Ellis Island or the airplane at JFK or wherever. Perhaps, we should follow their wise example.

If those other places are so great, then why did we leave there and come to TV? We came to TV because it IS better here. It is a new start and an opportunity to be rid of old baggage.

MY city is now The Villages. Boston is the "old country" to me, as Central Europe was for my grandparents. Boston, as good as it was (and is), it's not "mine" any more - TV and the surrounding area is. I can "see" Boston clearer now with some distance and time between it and me, and the finer points and the warts are more visible now than when being close up. I don't care what anyone says about Boston - good, bad or indifferent - because it's the "was" while TV is the "is."

There's a great bumper sticker that's been around in FL forever. It says "We don't care how you did it back North!" Good words to live by.