This I Believe

I believe that the employment rights of skilled American citizens are worth fighting for.

As a 1973 natural sciences graduate of Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in Claremont, California, I learned that I could become a leader. I chose to pursue a biophysics doctorate at SUNY Buffalo, which I completed after 11 years of full-time work.

As my doctorate was nearing completion, I was learning how difficult finding employment was. Landon Y. Jones’s 1980 book Great Expectations clarified the highly competitive employment situation that would be surrounding the Baby Boomers for their entire lives. In response, I chaired and organized a symposium on the topic at the 1983-1985 annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. My first keynote speaker, the late John Crystal, (Richard Nelson Bolles’s mentor) affirmed that I was laboring on a worthy project.

I received comparable affirmations after organizing a second symposium on a related topic in Columbus, Ohio in 1991.

In early 19_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________0_________________________________________________________0_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ere part of the illegal behavior – they backed expansion in exchange for campaign finance contributions from employer interests. Details about this corruption are found at my website, http://www.AnAmericanScam.com I am also writing a book, An American Scam, about the national security harms of the special visa programs.

Unfortunately, some fellow activists have not been resilient. One of my colleagues, Ed Curry, who testified with me in the House of Representatives in 1998 succumbed to a stroke at age 40 in May, 1999. The stresses of unemployment and underemployment, combined with a lack of health insurance ended his life. Another programmer, Kevin Flanagan committed suicide at age 41 in the parking lot of the Bank of America Data Center in Concord, California in April, 2003 after losing his job to a H-1B visa holder. I believe it is important to keep fighting in memory of Ed and Kevin.