Is QUADALAJARA Worthy of the BIG Screen???
The letter that follows originally got Lost in (Cyber)Space but was well received by the author :)
Jack,
Jack,
It’s been so long...I may be the last one to congratulate you with your book but, when I received it, I couldn't put it down. I’m sure people who read it got different perspectives. For me there were many. I finally found out just what happened to my cousin at a time in my life where no one in our house talked about anything in any detail. I was just told who not to talk to anymore.
Those first 100 pages enlightening my reality to what I never knew and was afraid to ask. The drive you had as a young man is what I could relate to. To me it was, “Be a burden to no one and do what I have to do from here on.” But how you did it, under your circumstances, is beyond me.
I lost my dad, but I could go wherever I wanted. You lost your mobility, that's what I had thought at that time. “What will he do?” Well, now I know what you did and still do and it’s far more than I could have ever imagined. How modest you are. This true story has very little about what you had to go through to live each day.
This story, your words pulled me into the world that you intended it to. You introduced me to the PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America) as will others who will read this book. Its inspiration is not just to disabled people but to ones who ask, “What can they do now?” You did a great service to your comrades as you name them all and the honor you give to them for their courage not to conform and give up on life and showed a way to continue on --- the real true grit.
I have run into many people who have been to Guadalajara in the past few years and talk about what a nice place it is.
Time changes all...a book is timeless...You made us all proud of this work you've done. And Jack, no bull#$%, this is movie material.
Your 'little' cousin, Ken
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Is my 'little' (6 ft 5 or taller) cousin right? Does a story about spinal cord injured veterans post World War II who, for the first time in history, survived long enough to be discharged from military and veterans' hospitals into a world not yet ready to receive them merit preserving in film? Not to mention the fact that these nomadic paraplegics and quadriplegics discovered their utopian paradise of freedom and adventure in a foreign land? I've been told that since before I even wrote, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, and many times since by neighbors, others who read the book, and even by judges from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival, 'Celebrating books worthy of greater recognition by the film and TV industries!'
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"In the fall of 1998, when I was a social work intern talking to you, someone who had lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, I clearly remember standing at your hospital bed and telling you, "You are part of a remarkable moment in history. You should write a book to tell this story. There's a screenplay in there." After reading parts of that book, now I realize I had no idea at all about just how truly remarkable that moment in history was. I knew it was very important for you, as the youngster of the group, to tell the story.
"M.O. Social Worker
posted by Jack at 3:47 PM
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