A very well done piece in the Sunday Boston Globe looked into the life and times of the Cinelli family of East Boston.
Obviously, this was a dysfunctional family whose parents tried their best to bring their children up in such a way, as they would be decent people.
But this wouldn’t be in the cards for the Cinelli’s.
What is important to note is that not everyone living in the Maverick Projects (where the Cinelli’s lived) when the Cinelli’s were coming of age were doomed to drug addiction and violence.
And yet, the Cinelli’s turned to heroin and to robbery and to violence.
All of this is made ironic because the elder Mr. Cinelli, the leader of the family, was a Boston police officer with a good reputation.
The Maverick Projects proved to be a curse for many families.
Many families could not escape the downward tow of poverty and ignorance and what the lack of opportunity could do to people.
But for many, many families, the Maverick Projects were home – a poor home but a good home nevertheless.
The Maverick Projects were not about families only like the Cinelli’s.
Heroin and crime were not the basic bill of fare for the vast majority of families who struggled to achieve the benefits of the American Dream growing up there.
It was a poor place but a decent place, with strong families working together, loving together, praying together to gain what they wanted out of their lives.
The Globe makes a mistake stereotyping the Maverick Projects as the Cinelli Projects.
They were anything but that.