Manuel Luciano da Silva, Medical Doctor
16 Brooks Farm Drive,
Bristol, Rhode Island, 02809-2717, U. S. A.
Tel. & Fax
401-253-5326
July 9th, 2003
Honorable
Donald L. Carcieri
Governor
of the State of Rhode Island
State
House, Room 115
Providence,
Rhode Island 02903
Dear Governor Carcieri:
You are doing an excellent job for Rhode Island! Congratulations!
Because you are very much interested in the good image of our State, I am sorry to bring to your attention an unfortunate episode that happened on July 6th around noon time at the Newport Bridge on the toll side.
Sea Captain Emanuel da Costa Duarte, from Vancouver, Canada, is finishing a book about the early discoveries of North America. He came to the New England area and I took him to see the Dighton Rock Museum, brought him to Bristol for the Fourth July Parade, and took him also to the Newport Tower, the Touro Synagogue and the Portuguese Discovery Monument at the Brenton State Park. He was very impressed not only with the beauty of our State but also with its historical meaning connected with the early discoveries and also with the maritime traditions of our State.
Because Captain Duarte is a direct descendent of the Portuguese navigators John, Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real, I took him to the toll side of the Newport Bridge so he could see the Coat of Arms of his family and obtain a photo with his digital camera to publish on his forthcoming book. We parked my car on the small parking area near the police station of the bridge and proceed to take the photo of the Coat of Arms of the Corte Reais, when a lady officer came dashing out and told us that “we were not allowed to take the photo because of the new terrorism rules”. We were shocked and disappointed! I identify myself but the lady officer told us that “those were the orders from her superior”. I apologized to Captain Duarte for this unhappy episode! He told me that this reminded him of the trips he made to Russia several years ago when the police there even removed the film from his camera!
I do not know if Captain Duarte is going to describe this episode on his book. However, I am going to inform the general public of this event on my radio program, every Thursday morning, from 7:30 to 8AM on WHTB, in Fall River, (entitled ‘Ask the Physician’), and also on my television program (Medical Tribune) – Portuguese Channel, shown every Thursday from 9:30PM to 10PM.
I did not bother to tell the lady officer that the Coat of Arms of Corte Reais is there on the Newport Bridge because myself together with the late Senator Taylor from Newport, we created enough interest for the Bridge Authority to place it there on the front of the building at the time of the inauguration.
I remember with nostalgic and patriotic sentiments, when fifty seven years ago I came to this great country, there was much harmony and we could relate with the police authorities with much more human understanding.
Thanking you very much for your attention, wishing you continue success, I remain with best regards,
Respectfully,
Manuel
Luciano da Silva, M. D.
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