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Wednesday, September 11, 2019

September 11 In My Life


Madame President:
     Your morning briefing..23 years ago today I was on a Greyhound bus. It started in Houston, went to San Antonio, onto El Paso, Phoenix, Indio, California and Los Angeles. My bus ticket went all the way to San Jose, California. I was tempted to get off in Los Angeles because I knew that city. I stayed on the bus. I had to find a newspaper reporter named Gary Webb. I knew that my ex-wife Maria was there and hoped that the kids were with her. As the bus pulled into San Jose around three in the afternoon, I had an old-fashioned transistor radio. I listened to a Portuguese music station. I had no job and less than $200 in my pocket. I was 47-years old and starting my life over. On September 11, 1998, I was having dinner at the Crowne Plaza Mexican Restaurant in the Willow Glen section of San Jose. Six US Marshals arrested me for contempt of court for failing to obey a judge's order. This cost me 6 months in jail. On September 11, 2001, we had the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC. As I watched on television, I was sure that a major war was starting. I called my stepson Pedro and wife Elena to make sure that they were OK.
   Today at 17:00 I go to the memorial service for Reverend Fernando Carvalho. He was the man who died on his 58th birthday at the pool last Friday morning. He leaves behind a wife, two children, and four grandchildren. The late President John F. Kennedy had a favorite saying as follows:

    "Life is always unfair."


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