Jose Francisco Medeiros

About me:

"Before you read this page, if you are offended by some one invoking the name of God, please do not continue"

Thank God for the First Amendment and the power and freedom of the media to report the news and keep Government honest. That is what makes the United States of America so great!

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Exodus 20:16.

Some how people are being taken off my friends list and it appears that my Google voice mail has had message's deleted, and if you were removed, please let me know. If you prefer not to remain connected to me, please also let me know this, so I do not re-send you another request to connect. I am not a spammer, or do I send any thing pornographic or offensive in an email, if you have received some thing from me that you feel is inappropriate, please let me know this, as some one may have been logging into my email and or myspace account and trying to sabotage me or impersonate me. /p>

Hmm... about me? First let's just say, that writing is not my strength or what I enjoy doing, but I do the best I can with what talents that God has given me. I had a head injury as a child, and again in 1990, when I was attacked at my own home in San Jose by 4 Latino assailants with a Tire Iron at my home that I rented a room at 1582 Oneco Court, in San Jose, California, for giving the 18 year old attacker's so called girlfriend a ride on my Motorcycle. The assistant district attorney did not want to prosecute him or require that he pay restitution and told me that I should not have opened the door, and offered him a plea bargain were he only had probation, even though he broke my tooth requiring a root canal, and required hospitalization for my head injuries, and loss of employment for two weeks with out pay

.

My father told me, that I am an American of Portuguese descent and that my great grandparents migrated to the United States of America from the Azores Islands in the late 1800's. My Grandfather Francisco Furtado De Medeiros was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1894, however my father stated that during the Great Depression, his family lost their entire savings when the banks closed and his family returned to the Azores Islands to find work and help feed our family. In the Azores, he met my grand mother Maria Jose Cardoso , and they both lived on the island of San Miguel. My parents, sister and I, immigrated to the United States in 1966 when I was two. From what my green card stated, we entered at the port of Boston, Massachusetts, and we lived in Providence, Rhode Island until I was five. When my mother Telma Fraga Medeiros separated from my father for a short time in the early 1970's, my mother, sister and I went back to Portugual for several months, and later returned to the United States and took the train to Belleville, although we knew no one, and the three of us lived in a hotel room for several weeks, until she could qualify for welfare, and then in a small studio over a car garage that we rented from a family living in the main house on the same property in Belleville, Illinois. About two years later my mother and father got back together and we moved to San Jose, California in a U-hual. I never even had a chance to say good bye to the friends that I made, and if they are reading this page, thank you for your friendship, my first bicycle and Lionel train set that the local Baptist - Lutheran church gave me for Christmas. I have asked often for the names and address of who I could write too, but I am always told that they could not remember the street or their names for some reason or another.

I attended Catholic School at Sacred Heart in Providence, Rhode Island, and second grade at Cathedral Catholic School in Belleville, Illinois. The 3rd grade through 8th grade at Five Wounds Catholic School in San Jose, California and I attended Mt. Pleasant High School from the 9th through 12th grade in San Jose, California. I also attended several local community colleges along with San Jose State's Professional Development Program.

I was told, that my mother's family lived on the Flores Island in Azores, (It means Island of Flowers) and her parents had 20 children. Her parents could not afford to raise her and she was given to her uncle, Father Jose Louise De Fraga, a Catholic Priest at St. Michael the Arch Angel Parish on the Island of San Miguel, Azores, Portugal where he and his sister both had raised her. On Father De Fraga's first visit to the United States in the late 1960's to visit my mother, he died in car crash in the Boston / Rhode Island area.

In 1972 my family moved to San Jose, California, where my brother Louis was born, and my father went to work for Sylvania, which later merged with GTE. After the merger, he was laid off, and then went to work for Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Atari was later sold to Warner Communications, and later merged with Time to become Time Warner Communications. Both my parents became naturalized American Citizens in the early 1980's.

As for myself, I am some what shy until you get to know me. I do not claim to be perfect, and often make mistakes, as I am human. I do not smoke or do drugs, however I occasionally will have a drink with friends in a social setting or community event.

"With God all things are possible, however we can not always have what we want, just because we pray for it."

In 1994, I was appointed by the Honorable Santa Clara County Supervisor Ron Gonzales to the Alcohol and Drug Advisory Board which was responsible for a 17 million dollar budget of the Bureau of Drug Services and served as a steering committee member on the City of San Jose Mayors Alcohol and Drug Free pledge day, where I focused on finding entertainment for the yearly event. I enjoy working in Information Technology with computer servers and fibre storage systems hands on, and I also enjoy attending community events. You can probably call me an egg head or nerd it really does not bother me. I was in the Electronics Club in High School and took courses in Technical Drawing and Electronics as my electives.

What do I like to eat and do? I love all kinds of foods, from various Ethnic groups, such as Portuguese Carne Asada, Italian Lasagna, Enchiladas, Adobo, Gumbo, Shrimp Creole, Tiki Masala, Sushi, BBQ ribs, to PHO. I am not into the younger party scene, but I occasionally attend community events and political functions on the weekends and volunteer when I can helping my personal friends with their computer related issue's.

My first car, a Blue 1965 Mustang Fastback

I love driving classic 65-70 Mustang's and my very first car was a 1965 Mustang Fastback that I bought with all the money that I had saved delivering newspapers for 1500.00 dollars on my 16th birthday in 1981. After several years of hard work making near minimum wage jobs, in 1984 I finally had the car painted Slate Grey Metallic with Black Metallic stripes, and had 16" x 8" inch wheels that I purchased at Supershops, along with Pirelli P7 tires that were given to me used by the general manager of the Anderson Behl Porsche Dealership in Santa Clara, California that was next door, and unfortunately a few weeks after having it painted, I along with two friends named Gustavo Mota and Armin Nasciemento that I had gone to high school with, hydroplaned into a tree one night while it was raining near a construction site near Aborn Road in the Evergreen area of San Jose. Fortunately, each of us were not fatally injured. I had Farmers Insurance which required an appraisal for full coverage, and which I did not complete as my Mustang had just been painted and I had not completed re-installing the interior and trim. The paint, body work and custom metal flares, took nearly six months to complete, and I lost nearly 20,000 dollars that I had invested over a 4 year period in my first car that I so loved. I realize that a car is not always the best investment, but I wanted to win back my ex-girlfreind, and thought that once it was done, I would have some thing nice to take her out in. I stripped down what I could off the car, and gave the body and title away for free to a race car driver that I met at the Speed Merchant ( Now it's Goodies speed shop ) in Santa Clara, California in 1985.

In 1986, I found another 66 Mustang Fastback project car that was not running, in Napa, California, and with the help of my brother in law Steven Silveria Sr who also painted my first Mustang, towed it back to San Jose, California as an ongoing project. I love riding motorcycles, although I do not currently own one and dislike working on them. My first motorcycle was a 1988 750R Ninja that I bought used, and my second and last motorcycle was a 1990 Kawasaki ZX6 Ninja that I purchased used from Jim Hansen who I went to High School with, and was his best man at his wedding. Although, I had to learn how to build my own Ford 289 motor by reading the Ford Shop Manual, and do my own mechanical work because I could not afford to pay to have the work done professionally, I really have no desire to ever become a mechanic, and after my neck and back injury, really dislike even working on my own car, other then changing the oil.

Now let's go back to 1988 which was a critical time in my life. I decided to make a career change from Automotive sales and retail sales, which I no longer enjoyed. I was working weekends selling cars at Capitol Ford in San Jose, and Larry Hopkins Honda in Sunnyvale and it was straining my relationship with my fiance. We each started becoming distant. It seemed that the love we had was fading because of a lack of quality time together. Several weeks before my court trail for assault after a driver attempted to run us off the road, my fiance decided to move out of our apartment. This was my first Jury trial and was a very stressful, emotional and a difficult period in my life. After the trial was over and I was acquitted for assault, my ex-fiance and I tried getting back together, however she was behind on several car loan payments for a new car that she had bought while we were apart. Being the fool that I was, I allowed her to take advantage of my love for her and loaned her the money to help her catch her up on her car payments, but made her promise that she would repay me once she was caught up on her bills, thus preventing her car from being repossessed. To my surprise, a few weeks later, I caught my fiance with some one that she was being intimate with at a Night Club in San Jose, California.

To make matters worse, the money I used to help my ex-fiance with her car payments, made me short on making my own car payment, and Home Federal Savings and Loan repossessed my 1988 Honda Accord 2Dr Coupe, even though I was only 15 days late on my sixth payment, and had called their loan department and told them I was sending them the money with my next payment. Having a car repossessed at a young age, was traumatic, and I felt that Home Federal Savings and Loan was using extortion, as they told me they would only return my car, if I refinanced it as a used car, even though I bought it new, and only had it six months. Home Federal also wanted me to have my parents co-sign, pay 20 percent interest, and pay nearly 2,000.00 dollars in repossession fee's. Of course, to me this seemed like black mail, and I told them to keep the car.

A few months later Home Federal Savings and Loan filed for Bankruptcy during the Savings and Loans scandals of the late 1980's, under the Reagan administration era. Home Federal later became Washington Mutual Bank. I paid for the Banks extortion by having bad credit for seven years, and had to rent rooms, from families that I had never met, and that I found in the local newspaper. I also lived with a few friends that I had grown up with, as my credit rating would not even let me qualify for another apartment. in 1991, I was eventually able to rent a home with several room mates over the years, at 3236 Kimlee Drive, in the Berryessa district of San Jose, California. My room mates then were George Brown, David Stephens, Andy Platini aka Muhammed Sayeed, Curtis , Angela Val Verde, Gayle Kumavong, Bob Traverse, Santos Armaderiz and my younger brother Louis P. Medeiros.

The incident of having my 1988 Honda Accord repossessed made me realize that any thing can be taken away from you at a moments notice and with out warning, and it was time to start over again in a new career that I could have a honest life, a job that I could be proud of, and could retire from.

Then in 1989, my 1984 Honda Prelude that I had bought new, and was still making payments on, was hit head on by a drunk driver at the intersection of Hostettor Rd and Four Oaks in San Jose. The Driver fled the scene, and although my engine stalled, surprisingly after several attempts to start it, I was able chase the driver, and obtained his license plate number. To make matters worse, the insurance company only wanted to offer me half of the car's value, and by California State law was required to provide me a rent-a-car. After 30 days had passed, I was contacted by the rental car agency, and asked to return the car or have the insurance company re-issue a new purchase order. I contacted the claims adjuster and stated that we need to agree on a settlement, and left several messages, stating that I had done a market survey and several Honda Preludes with similar millage were selling for several thousand dollars more then what they were offering me (It's called low balling). With out my knowledge, the rent-a-car company reported the rental as stolen to the Police Department and filed a false police report. A few days later I was pulled over, and arrested by the Santa Clara Police Department for driving a stolen vehicle, even though I showed the officers a copy of the rental car agreement and gave them the claim adjusters contact information. Of course, after I was released on my own reconnaissance, I contacted several attorneys to file a suit for Defamation of Character, however with out any money and a past arrest for assault even though I was acquitted, none would take on my case.

With a history of past arrests with out convictions, finding a good job is near impossible to find and I still wasn't sure what I really wanted to do as a career. In 1986, I had worked as an apprentice electrician at Mayfair Packing in Santa Clara under Carl Caldwell, a former journeyman electrician with the Navy, installing a Walnut Fumigator, that was a converted Rail Road shipping container, along with a Electronics Control Panel, sensors and evacuation system, so I thought I would try and join the IBEW Union, however the Union Hall would not accept me into their apprenticeship program, and told me that my High School GPA in math was too low, even though I had taken Geometry and Algebra 2, (my grades dropped in High School when I was working at Alpha Beta as a courtesy clerk, as I needed the money to paint and restore my 65 Mustang Fastback).

My friends thought that if I worked at a Night Club it would help me try and get over the feelings I still had for my ex-fiance, so I took a part time job as a security person at the Oasis Night Club in San Jose, and a part time position at Orchard Supply Hardware in Milpitas, California. I also enrolled in a few courses at Mission College in Santa Clara. Of course working minimum wage jobs, was not some thing I planned on doing all my life, and I applied for several positions with the City of San Jose for a Telecommunications equipment technician with the San Jose Police department, and Purchasing agent with the City, although I scored in the top 15 in both exam's competing with several hundred others, the City would not even bring me in for an interview. During this period, I rented a room from Marc Freitas who had purchased his first town home in Berryessa at 1582 Oneco Court, located in North San Jose, California. Marc was a former class mate at Five Wounds Catholic School and Mt. Pleasant High School, and was a Electrician for the City of San Jose. One day Marc saw an opening for a Maintenance Worker posted at City Hall and suggested that I apply for the position. Although, I really wanted a better job then a Maintenance worker, I reluctantly applied and took the exam, and scored number 12 out of several hundred others. Several months later, I was hired by the City of San Jose Parks and Recreation department as a part time Maintenance worker making 9.15 an hour with no benefits at Lake Cunningham Park in San Jose. My daily duties consisted of cleaning the bathrooms and BBQ pits daily, as well as maintaining the park by trimming the grass and trees, and picking up trash. One evening after work, I took two friends, Maryann " Maria" Scrofani and Cathy Dias, to a local night club in San Jose, that was next to Original Joe's restaurant on first street, and still remember some one telling them both, " What are you doing with him, I saw him at Lake Cunningham park, he's just a janitor ". My self esteem hit rock bottom that night.

Honestly, I really did not like the maintenance worker position, but I thought that I could eventually earn the respect of the City management and my co-workers, and prove that I had the skills and intellect to hopefully move into a better paying job as an Electrician or HVAC technician, (later my goal changed to becoming a Fire Fighter). I met some good people working for the City, but soon learned that people are people in any industry and Government workers are no less perfect then those in the private sector. The City of San Jose just does a better job of covering things up and railroading employees that decide to be whistle blowers. As a Union shop steward, I even caught the City of San Jose mail Skelly hearing notices to the wrong address then hold the hearings with out the employee or union representation, and state the employee was terminated for not appearing at his own hearings, and often insinuate that you have to be a real screw up to lose your job with the City.

My first electronics project was a personal hand held lie detector kit that I purchased at Radio Shack in the sixth grade, Project Number #28-182, the kit came with the case, components and a printed circuit board, and my mother who was a teachers aide at Ann Darling School in San Jose, worked as an assembler in the summers, taught me how to Solder the components to the circuit board. The lie detector did make a tone, similar to a tone generator, when the finger straps were attached, but usually, I would just play with the volume, and make the pitch go up and down as a joke with my class mates. That project taught me quite a bit about transistors, capacitors, resistors, potentiometers and how to solder electronic components.

In High School, I built a Radio Frequency FM / TV Jammer, from a schematic that my electronics teacher, Robert E. Lillo gave to me, and that I have posted using the hyperlink www.sjpc.org/medeiros/tvjammer.jpg . The Radio Frequency Jammer project taught me how to make my own printed circuit board using trace tape, and acid dip the circuit board to remove the excess copper. I also had to purchase the 7404 Integrated Circuit (IC) from Schad Electronics in San Jose, and Solder the components. .. Overall, it was a fun project, and I used the RF jammer often to scramble the TV signal at home when my father would take over the family room TV to watch his favorite TV shows, which were "All in the family", and "Maude". Mr. Robert E. Lillo liked my TV Jammer so much that he entered it into the Santa Clara County Fair, and then kept it for his class room display for several years.

The very first computer I ever used was an IBM PC based on the 8088 CPU in my high school electronics class, but sadly never really learned DOS until 1994. My Electronics teacher Mr. Robert E. Lillo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC received the computer as a donation to the Mt. Pleasant High School Electronics Department in my senior year. A few years later my father gave my younger brother Louis and I an Atari 800 computer, which we mainly used for playing games along with our Atari 2600 which we already had when it was first released in the 1970's. I built my first computer in 1995. I was a youth group leader at St. John Vianney Parish in San Jose. Chris Stampolis was our former director and had added a hard drive password to the parish 286 computer. Our new youth group director, Maryann Andrade asked me if I could some how retrieve the data on the 286 computer, and transfer it to her Macintosh computer. I convinced Maryann and our Pastor Father Barry Freyne to allow me to upgrade the computer to a 486 dx2 80 MHZ, and install Windows 95 and then networked both computers.

Why did I stand in front of San Jose City Hall in 1993 with a sign that stated "Laid Off City Worker, Will Work For Food?"

In 1993 the City of San Jose attempted to lay-off 500 city employees. I was one of the individuals that received a lay off notice by City Manager Les White. I was also a Union Shop Steward with Operating Engineers Local 3 and decided to protest the lay off by standing in front of San Jose City Hall with a sign that stated, "Laid off City Worker will work for food", my hope was to have other Union Members join me, nut when both my Union Rep and my fellow union members thought it would be a waste of time,and I had to stand alone. I was fortunate that the local Television news stations and the San Jose Mercury News reported what I was doing, and I received several calls the next day from other employees who had also received notices asking that we protest together at the next council meeting. Fortunately, with all the negative publicity the City of San Jose faced by the local media, the San Jose City Council was able to accommodate the 496 of the 500 workers that the City was planning on laying off, including myself.

Why I did not take a mutual separation from Cisco Systems in April of 2000?... "Even the ancient pharaohs of Egypt gave their Hebrew slaves a day of rest", "Observance of the Sabbath", Jeremiah 18:19-27

"Joining the Free Mason's."

Over the years I have had several friends ask that I join the FreeMasons that I consider good and respectable people in our community. Back in 1992 or so my next door neighbor John that lived next to me, at the home that I rented at 3236 Kimleee Drive in San Jose, and who I liked very much, was a FreeMason and a fine neighbor. John was the first to ask that I join the Free Masons. John also told me that in the early 1950's he had invented the process to increase Tensile strength in concrete by adding fine metal shavings into the mix, he sold the patent, and used the money to buy his house on Kimlee Drive when it was new. Several years later the metal shavings were replaced by fiberglass which is still used today in high strength concrete. I gave it some thought and I asked my Catholic Pastor Fr. Barry Freyne if it was okay to join the Mason's as several of my role models, who signed the declaration of Independence were Free Mason's and God fearing men such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. With further research I discovered by word of mouth, that "When you join the Freemasons they take an oath to a supreme being, which can be God or if they are an Aethist, then a higher power, however he was told that they do not " denounce Satan and his evil works", some people who may worship Satan may feel he is a Supreme being, with God like powers. I can not verify that what I read is true, but if it is I am sure that is the reason why one of the previous Catholic Pope's stated that Catholic's are not allowed to become Free Mason's, although most Masons are good God Fearing men and women as were our country's original founders, and I do know several Catholics that are Free Masons.

Also, my understating is that when the Free Mason's created their oath, the intention was to include people's of all cultures, nations and religions as one brotherhood. Even the Hindu's believe that Shiva is the Supreme God above all other God's, and that he can bring you his blessing's or when angered, or his wrath. The other God's that they pray to are below him, which in concept is really much diffrent then my Catholic believes? The Catholic's believe in only one true God and his son Jesus, but also pray to our Angels and Saints, who do God's bidding, and ask that they intervene on our behalf with our one true God. Christians believe that Jesus was reincarnated, and walked the earth after his death, and the Hindu's also believe in reincarnation, but in a diffrent form. Is there believe in reaching enlightment, much diffrent then my catholic believes in going to heaven if I live a good life?

My Hindu friends also told me that there are certain parts of India, where it's people pray to Satan, which they consider a God and or a Supreme being. In my opinion, Satan worship is not a religion, but a cult, and should be categorized as such. I realize that this may not be politically correct, but I have to be honest to myself, and to my believes, and I have a right to my opinion and believes in the United States of America, and a right to voice them with out persecution. I even volunteered at the Masonic Retirement Home in Union City, California when I was a member of the Kiwanis, and have respect for all Mason's who are good, truthful and honorable, but I can not join until the Mason's change their oath and ask their members to denounce Satan and his evil works, and or evil in all it's forms. If and when they do, then I would be honored to become a Free Mason.

I was unemployed for nearly six months after leaving Cisco Systems in April of 2000, and out of the blue, one of my former IBM co-worker's named Larry Gee who sat in the office across from me at IBM's building 26, located off Cottle road in San Jose in 1997, emailed me and asked if I would be interested in a part time teaching position at San Jose City College. I submitted my application and was hired to teach Microsoft Exchange 5.5, Microsoft NT 4 server and Microsoft Windows 2000 server. I taught a total of seven courses and soon realized that what I was doing was adding to the pool of workers so employers could lower wages, and lay off older higher paid workers. I also noticed that several friends with Masters degrees where unemployed, and having a difficult time finding employment. Companies were only hiring younger workers and laying off older highly skilled workers. I then decided that teaching in a class room was not a career that I had a passion for, and although it was a good experience, it is a profession that you must love doing, or it is a disservice to your students. During that period, I also realized that our colleges had little concern for alumni that were unemployed and were still pumping out engineers, when companies were laying off hundreds of thousands of workers and moving jobs overseas and exploiting the H1B visa program.

Becoming an educator is a calling, it's just not mine. ....James 3:1-3: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers for you realize that we will be judged more strongly "

In my opinion becoming an Educator is a calling, in other words it is some thing that you do because that is what you love, and it is your passion. The bible states to honor farmers and teachers, for they are noble professions.

Please understand that I have never made a six digit salary and do not have millions of dollars in the bank from stock options and have had to cash out my 401K with Cisco Systems in 2000 and Intel in 1999 and again in 2007 after I was let go, and also my 5 years of City of San Jose retirement in 2003 in order to pay my mortgage during my long period of unemployment from 2001 -2004. What is every ones else's opinion on becoming educators and teaching as a profession? If that is what you love doing, then God Bless you for it, as we really need great educators.

Why did I stand in front of the Knight Ridder Building in 2001.

Fast forward to the year 2001, many technology companies laid off hundreds of thousands of workers in the United States of America over a 5 year period, and finding work that paid a fair wage, where technology companies didn't expect you to have the skills and do the job of three or more employees was difficult or nearly impossible for many to find and in 2001, I also stood in front of the Knight Ridder Building with a sign that stated " Unemployed High Tech Worker Will Upgrade Your NT 4 Servers to Windows 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 for food "? in protest of the mass layoffs that companies were having

Even a few non profits and government agencies tried taking advantage of the labor market by offering positions that paid very low rates for the experience that they expected,(They consider it the law of supply and demand ). Unions often limit new workers into their apprentice programs to prevent Journeyman workers from losing their jobs to lower paid less skilled workers. I know many people in their 50's and 60's with a master degree that were forced to find low paying jobs if they could even find one at all. Although our Nation's unemployment statistics showed that less then 15 percent were still collecting unemployment benefits in 2002 & 2003, they failed to take into account many of the people that took low paying jobs just to survive, or their benefits had just expired, and they were no longer being counted.

Today many technology companies still will not hire full time employees and pay for health benefits, claiming that it is too expensive for business, and often use contract agencies that pad a contractors rate by 50 % or more, while companies are making record breaking profits at the expense of the workers. I thank God that I was one of the fortunate few to find work in my career field again even though I had to take a substantial pay cut, and the first company that hired me back in 2002, to put in their Microsoft Exchange 2000 Mail Server Cluster and migrate them from their NT 4 domain to Microsoft Active Directory 2000, filed for bankruptcy and did not even pay me for the two weeks of work that I completed, and caused me to fall behind on my BMW payments, which forced me to turn it in to the Santa Clara County Credit Union as a voluntary repossession, where Jim Desmond did not even give me notice of the auction, sold the car for 10,000 when it was only 4 years old, and cost me 36,000 and I only owed a 12,000.

Recently I spoke to an individual that is member of the Vintage Mustang Owners Association, who's wife is a Director at San Jose State, he has had a long career in electronics and with technology companies, and has worked for Atari, Maxell, and several other High Tech companies. He is 59 years old, has a Bachelors of Science degree in engineering and a double masters in business, and is now working at Comcast in customer support making 20.00 dollars an hour, which is not a bad rate for an entry level person, however some one with 20 years of experience and a double masters is not entry level.

What message does that send our college students, when individuals with such skills are forced to take low paying jobs? Why should some one even go to college and spend nearly 100,000 dollars to graduate, when a trade such as Electrician, HVAC Technician, Medical Nurses and other highly skilled trades pay 48.00 dollars an hour plus, with a pension?

A Union is not just a building made of sticks and stones, it is when workers stick together for the common good, fair wages and equal treatment under the law.

I support labor unions and our trades 100 percent, and I am glad that they are paid middle class wages, as it forces employers that are non Union and that provide white collar jobs to keep wages comparable or better then, in order to retain quality, skilled workers. What many people forget is that a Union is not just a building, or a team of lawyers, it is when workers stick together for fair wages and equal treatment under the law, and a Union is powerless if it's members do not stand up to injustice by unscrupulous employers. I even flew to Washington D.C in 1995 at my own expense to attend the Buildings Trades Conference and protest the repeal of the Davis Bacon Act. I support the Davis Bacon Act 100 percent. The People of the United States of America should make good wages based on their trade, experience and skill set, Americans are not lazy, we are innovative and we take pride in our work.

When the Honorable President of United States, John F. Kennedy and the first lady Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy, were in the Whitehouse the media stated that we were in an era of Camelot, I'd like to think of our Public Safety Officers, Military Personnel and Government workers, as Knights of the Round Table, sworn to fight evil in all it's forms, uphold justice, exemplify Valor, Bravery, Honor, Integrity, Honesty and respect for each that are good that dwell in our kingdom, the United States of America. Granted each of them are human and often make mistakes, please don't judge all by the actions of the corrupt few as many are good and honest.

May God Bless us all in this world who are good, honest, decent, and do the right thing and may each of you have peace, prosperity, good health, and the greatest gift of all, love, for a life with out love is not one worth living!

Jose F. Medeiros Former Volunteer Vice President, Postmaster and Web Master NT Engineering Association - Silicon Valley ( NTEA ) www.medeiros.org/senate

Bits & Pieces, a publication by The Economic Press, and felt inspired by it, so I thought I would share it with you

Most Employees are pretty much the same on their approach to their work. But, as every leader knows, a few in every group will be originals. Their approach will be unconventional, and sometimes extremely valuable. They apt to have a unique, fresh, even naive way of looking at things.

One such character used to spend a great deal of time just sitting at his desk staring out the window. A new employee finally complained to the boss: "Why is it that Smith just sits there and stares out the window all day? Why isn't he made to work like the rest of us?"

The boss put his finger to his lips. "Shhh," he whispered, "one day when Smith was staring out that window he thought of an idea that made the company a million dollars."

If you also like this story, please visit the Bits & Pieces website.

If you want to find out more about me, please visit my web site http://www.sjpc.org/medeiros/

Why can't we all just get along?
Get this video and more at Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: All Things Digital ******

The reasonable man adapts himself to world, the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." ...George Bernard Shaw