The many heroes of Joe Fitzgerald

Published Aug 16 2007, 02:39 PM by Adam Reilly

Pretty much everyone who writes a lot develops little tics--patterns you fall into when you're being lazy or just not thinking. Ideally, you realize what your tics are and try to avoid them when possible.

And if you don't? Well, you end up like Herald columnist Joe Fitzgerald--who, according to Boston magazine's Joe Keohane, has a troubling tendency toward hero worship. Explains Keohane, writing on BoMag's shiny new blog:

Fitz’s column yesterday—titled "The counsel of heroes stays with you for a lifetime"—did it again. We thought this called for a two-year retrospective. Here then, is Fitz’s Hall of Heroes:
8/20/05: “Millie was a hero to a lot of people.”
9/7/05: “Tom Reilly has a chance to be a hero to a lot of disenfranchised people, and all it would require is for him to do the right thing.”
10/8/2005: “More than a few of them, he was told, came to regard him as a personal hero. ‘It’s interesting you use the word hero,’ he said. ‘I believe one of the things young people still need is heroes, and frankly I’m not sure some of the heroes they’re looking at today are going to be the true heroes of their future, the ones they’re going to want to thank when they look back years from now.’”
12/7/05: “Two Boston homicide detectives had called on his behalf, asking if he could meet his hero, Reggie Lewis, the late Celtics star.”
1/16/06: “If you want a crash course in what made [ML] King a personal hero at this address, read Taylor Branch’s ‘Parting The Waters,’ a breathtaking biography.”
1/23/06: “That column was followed by a piece on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a personal hero at this address.”...

If you're a Joe Fitz connisseur, Keohane provides many, many more examples.

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2 Comments

Just a guy said:

Hey, Joe Fitz writes from the heart on people exorcising their demons one day at a time. Friends of Bill W. and people who know and love friends of Bill W. draw inspiration from it, despite it seeming maudlin at times. I hope when he retires they let him write once a week. Yeah, the people he writes about tend to be middle-aged or older, and yeah, he would be more effective if some of the kids struggling with narcotics were featured as much as old boozers, but winning the battle is still about surrendering and taking it one day at a time, for a 70 year old drunk or a 19 year old meth freak. But never EVER underestimate the good that Fitzie's columns do for people. And this for someone who didn't care for him as a sports columnist. Thank you Joe Fitz, for recognizing that heroes come from everyday life and from everyday struggles.

August 22, 2007 7:54 AM
center drug rehab treatment said:

I love everything Joe Fitz writes hes my favorite. This post is so great. I think that everyone likes at least one thing that he wrote.

November 8, 2007 9:14 AM