How it all started

May 22, 2002, started off like any other day.  Little did I know, that this day would mark the beginning of a nightmare comparable to the suffering endured by those in concentration camps.  I came home from teaching night school to find a message left on my machine, by Florence Smith, a fellow teacher (now retired.)  "Um, Deb, they're using your name on the West Wing show."  It seems that Aaron Sorkin had decided to introduce a character with my name - Deborah Fiderer.  Only one problem - I was the only person in the United States at that time with that name - a fact of which, Aaron Sorkin was fully cognizant.  The character, played by Lily Tomlin, was a drug addict, alcoholic, gambler, unable to hold onto a job - none of which was true of me.  Unlike Aaron Sorkin and Lily Tomlin, I have never used drugs, have never been arrested, have no criminal history, do not gamble.  Both Aaron Sorkin and Lily Tomlin have extensive criminal histories - just because they haven't spent time in jail for their crimes, does not mean they have not engaged in criminal behavior.  Both Tomlin and Sorkin have extensive drug histories, Sorkin having been a cocaine addict for over 30 years, and having been arrested by federal agents in April of 2001, for bringing cocaine and mushrooms to Burbank airport for his jaunt to Las Vegas.  - to be continued...