Keller @ Large: Rio Olympics A Reminder Of What Boston Avoided

BOSTON (CBS) - When the Summer Olympics start this weekend, I'm sure we will all be admiring the skill and dedication of the athletes and pulling for our U.S. and New England competitors.

They deserve our support.

I wish I could say the same about the Games themselves, but I can't.

The news that along with tons of raw sewage, the waters off Rio's famous beaches also contain high levels of drug-resistant bacteria, the so-called "superbug," is appalling. But the real virus infecting these Games is the arrogance and greed that permeates Olympic management.

We all remember the sniff of it we got last year when they tried to con Boston into bidding for the 2024 Olympics.

The muzzle they wanted to put on city employees; the indifference to established community practices for approving development; the onerous burdens they wanted to impose to pamper themselves and their high-roller buddies; and worst of all, the grotesque financial risks they expected us to shoulder, even as they compulsively lied about the extent of them.

If the whole Boston 2024 balloon hadn't gone flat, we would right now be in the heat of a referendum battle on whether or not to go forward.

And I'm pretty sure the spectacle of what's going on in Rio wouldn't be a boost for the pro-Olympics crowd.

The vile, disease-ridden water is really the least of it, once you learn about the violations of human rights, the wasted and stolen spending, the shoddy construction, an Olympic pageant of collusion, incompetence and fraud.

There but for the grace of God – and the well-justified skepticism of Bostonians – go we.

Good luck to our Olympians.

Whatever you do, don't go near the water.

Listen to Jon's commentary: