Notes / Facts / Biographical Information
Frank Perdicaro
September, 1998
General
Frank Evan Perdicaro
12256 Calendula Avenue
Fountain Valley, California 92704
(714) 775-2304
Born June 29th, 1965 in Brookline, Massachusetts
Married to my high school sweetheart, Cynthia.
Education
Tewksbury Memorial High School 1983
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Valedictorian
Zero days missed in high school
Bowdoin College, Brunswick Maine
Major in Physics, Minor in History, 1987
Also studied studio art and computer science.
Graduated with departmental and collegiate honors
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Master of Science, Computer Engineering, 1995
Attended part time while working full time
Orange Coast Community College, 1997
Welding course at night
Profession
Design, implementation, testing and installation of software
for the prepress market. I work on software that makes it
easier and cheaper to design and print all types of printed
material.
Hobbies
Mountain climbing
Bicycling (commuting to work)
Motorcycling
Old cars
Furniture design
Target shooting
Law
Ham radio
Politics
Philosophy, in general
Live by the Golden Rule, but realize that all men are imperfect.
Use available resources thoroughly and completely.
Hard work cures most problems, but there exist some
problems with no reasonable explanation or conclusion.
Philosophy on government
Government is inherently evil. As George Washington put it
centuries ago, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence -
it is force!". Yet every society in the history of the world
has had a government, so government can be classified as a
required evil.
As citizens we need to keep always in our mind that government
has one purpose, to secure the liberties of the people. As
leaders or ordinary taxpayers, we have to judge each action
of government by this simple rule. Government has no inherent
rights or powers; as a society we deed some of our rights and
powers to government so it can work to secure our liberties.
Despite its flaws, the government of the United States is the
best government in the world. History, even recent history,
shows us there are many forms of considerably worse than our
own. It is the duty of each of us to sure our government
remains true, just and operates under the rule of law.
Skipping a long discussion, I feel it is safe to conclude that
in recent history government in the United States has strayed
from its original, small, boundaries and has grown large. Too
large. A large government might not, in itself, be dangerous
to liberty, but in our present situation there are two broad
issues that are cause for concern.
The first was best summed up by Nobel Laureate Freidrich
Hayek: "In government, the scum rises to the top." Today too
many elected officials are politicians, not leaders. Yes,
there are honest, intelligent, hard-working people in government
today, but such people are the exception rather than the rule.
As a result, our leadership is too often poor.
The evils of the professional politician oft discussed. But
the other, more serious, threat to liberty remains too well
hidden and undiscussed. James Madison foresaw the problem:
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are
made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous
that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be
understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are
promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who
knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be
tomorrow."
What caused me to seek elected office
Though not new to the game of politics, I am new to task of
running for an elected position. Virtually every time it is
mentioned that I am seeking office the question comes up "Why
would you want to do that?".
My response is there are two general reasons, the duty and the
disgust. Though the idea might be unfashionable today, I
realize each citizen of this great land has a duty to work to
preserve and expand the liberties each of us enjoys. John
Kennedy made an eloquent statement of this idea around the time
I was born; Bowdoin College commencement, 1987, was the first
time I hear, and listened to, a speech that said as much. It
meant little then, but over the intervening decade
circumstances and events proved to me each of us has to work
to keep what we all enjoy. If nobody works at keeping it pure,
our system of government will no longer serve to secure our
liberties, but will grow to do the opposite. In short, for evil
to triumph, good men need only do nothing. I do not want to
sit idly by and do nothing.
This concept is perhaps best illustrated by a quote from a
justice of the US SJC. "It is not the function of our
government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is
the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling
into error." (U.S. Sup. Ct. Justice Robert H. Jackson, 1950)
The duty is an abstract concept; it took incidents of disgust
to spur me to action. Below are four important examples.
1) Fountain Valley: The city council and the mayor decide that
the people of the city of Fountain Valley would best be served
if the car tax remained. Not one of the MANY people in the
city that I spoke with expressed any desire to have the car tax
remain. Not one. Both the mayor and the city council are out
of touch with the average Fountain Valley resident.
2) Fountain Valley: At a city council meeting a few years ago,
the city decided to pass an emergency resolution prohibiting
antennas. The resolution was so broad and vague as to be
meaningless, but nobody on the council seemed to care. Having
studied physics as an undergraduate, and being an amateur radio
operator, I was a bit disturbed. The council had just banned
from the city any thing that conducted electricity. People,
cars, light bulbs, wiring, buildings, pencils, rain, moist
air.... all of it. Not one member of the city council even
pretended to understand high school level science.
3) California Department of Motor Vehicles: We all know the
DMV has problems, but this incident shows just how ignorant,
belligerent and immoral a state agency can be.
About two years ago I purchased a used vehicle. Due to its age
and construction if fell into a very narrow classification for
license plate fees. Naturally, the DMV misinterpreted the law
so it could charge me the higher fee. Our disagreement
eventually ended up in court. I had right and the law on my
side. Having spent quite a while at the law library, research
that went to the 1940s. Since case law was thin in the area, I
spent the time to research the bill that originate the law in
the early 1970s, consulting the Senate and Assembly
Transportation Committees. After some difficulty, the original
author of the bill was located and interviewed.
With the facts and the law on my side, I appeared in court.
The assistant district attorney representing the DMV could not
argue the facts, so he lied! (It is a serious thing to allege
an agent of the state lied in court. Luckily the proceeding was
caught on videotape so any interested party can view it.) The
acting judge was happy to permit the State to lie and he was
happy to ignore the facts in the case. He was so drunk with
arrogance, in addition to finding against me, he fined me.
As might be expected, I was, and remain, disgusted and
disturbed by the outcome. My letter to the Governor had no
effect, neither did the letter to the presiding judge. The
California State Bar sent me a letter telling me it could not
do anything to one of its members found lying in open court.
This is not the justice system envisioned by our founding fathers.
4) CA Senate: While speaking with a college classmate of mine,
I found out one of his co-workers had become a lobbist in
Sacramento. In a phone conversation to the gentleman up in
Sacramento, the subject of lawmaking came up. We were speaking
about irrational and unreasonable laws, and I asked if, when
proposing a law, any sort of checking is done. Specifically,
is the Senator or Assembly member required to, or even
encouraged to, check if the state has the power under its
Constitution to enact any particular law? What about the laws
of physics, mathematics, or even common sense?
The answer is, in practice, no checking is done before a law is
proposed. No checking is done when the bill is passed and send
to the Governor. The lawmakers of the State of California
currently do not feel bound by the state's Constitution or the
laws of nature and certainly are not constrained by common
sense.
In talking to friends, neighbors and co-workers, I found my
experiences are somewhat common. We read in the newspapers of
the many faults of elected officials, and there is no shortage
of bad ideas flowing from every level of government.
So why not run for office? Elected officials can lie in court,
ignore the state Constitution, disregard the laws of nature and
insult the general population and still collect a paycheck!
Nothing I could do possibly be worse than what we have now.
Rather there is every chance that an application of honesty,
respect for law and common sense will improve the situation.
I believe we have a fundamentally good form of government gone
adrift, and with work we can bring it back on course.
Notes / Facts / Biographical Information
Frank Perdicaro
September, 1998
General
Frank Evan Perdicaro
12256 Calendula Avenue
Fountain Valley, California 92704
(714) 775-2304
Born June 29th, 1965 in Brookline, Massachusetts
Married to my high school sweetheart, Cynthia.
Education
Tewksbury Memorial High School 1983
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Valedictorian
Zero days missed in high school
Bowdoin College, Brunswick Maine
Major in Physics, Minor in History, 1987
Also studied studio art and computer science.
Graduated with departmental and collegiate honors
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Master of Science, Computer Engineering, 1995
Attended part time while working full time
Orange Coast Community College, 1997
Welding course at night
Profession
Design, implementation, testing and installation of software
for the prepress market. I work on software that makes it
easier and cheaper to design and print all types of printed
material.
Hobbies
Mountain climbing
Bicycling (commuting to work)
Motorcycling
Old cars
Furniture design
Target shooting
Law
Ham radio
Politics
Philosophy, in general
Live by the Golden Rule, but realize that all men are imperfect.
Use available resources thoroughly and completely.
Hard work cures most problems, but there exist some
problems with no reasonable explanation or conclusion.
Philosophy on government
Government is inherently evil. As George Washington put it
centuries ago, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence -
it is force!". Yet every society in the history of the world
has had a government, so government can be classified as a
required evil.
As citizens we need to keep always in our mind that government
has one purpose, to secure the liberties of the people. As
leaders or ordinary taxpayers, we have to judge each action
of government by this simple rule. Government has no inherent
rights or powers; as a society we deed some of our rights and
powers to government so it can work to secure our liberties.
Despite its flaws, the government of the United States is the
best government in the world. History, even recent history,
shows us there are many forms of considerably worse than our
own. It is the duty of each of us to sure our government
remains true, just and operates under the rule of law.
Skipping a long discussion, I feel it is safe to conclude that
in recent history government in the United States has strayed
from its original, small, boundaries and has grown large. Too
large. A large government might not, in itself, be dangerous
to liberty, but in our present situation there are two broad
issues that are cause for concern.
The first was best summed up by Nobel Laureate Freidrich
Hayek: "In government, the scum rises to the top." Today too
many elected officials are politicians, not leaders. Yes,
there are honest, intelligent, hard-working people in government
today, but such people are the exception rather than the rule.
As a result, our leadership is too often poor.
The evils of the professional politician oft discussed. But
the other, more serious, threat to liberty remains too well
hidden and undiscussed. James Madison foresaw the problem:
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are
made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous
that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be
understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are
promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who
knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be
tomorrow."
What caused me to seek elected office
Though not new to the game of politics, I am new to task of
running for an elected position. Virtually every time it is
mentioned that I am seeking office the question comes up "Why
would you want to do that?".
My response is there are two general reasons, the duty and the
disgust. Though the idea might be unfashionable today, I
realize each citizen of this great land has a duty to work to
preserve and expand the liberties each of us enjoys. John
Kennedy made an eloquent statement of this idea around the time
I was born; Bowdoin College commencement, 1987, was the first
time I hear, and listened to, a speech that said as much. It
meant little then, but over the intervening decade
circumstances and events proved to me each of us has to work
to keep what we all enjoy. If nobody works at keeping it pure,
our system of government will no longer serve to secure our
liberties, but will grow to do the opposite. In short, for evil
to triumph, good men need only do nothing. I do not want to
sit idly by and do nothing.
This concept is perhaps best illustrated by a quote from a
justice of the US SJC. "It is not the function of our
government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is
the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling
into error." (U.S. Sup. Ct. Justice Robert H. Jackson, 1950)
The duty is an abstract concept; it took incidents of disgust
to spur me to action. Below are four important examples.
1) Fountain Valley: The city council and the mayor decide that
the people of the city of Fountain Valley would best be served
if the car tax remained. Not one of the MANY people in the
city that I spoke with expressed any desire to have the car tax
remain. Not one. Both the mayor and the city council are out
of touch with the average Fountain Valley resident.
2) Fountain Valley: At a city council meeting a few years ago,
the city decided to pass an emergency resolution prohibiting
antennas. The resolution was so broad and vague as to be
meaningless, but nobody on the council seemed to care. Having
studied physics as an undergraduate, and being an amateur radio
operator, I was a bit disturbed. The council had just banned
from the city any thing that conducted electricity. People,
cars, light bulbs, wiring, buildings, pencils, rain, moist
air.... all of it. Not one member of the city council even
pretended to understand high school level science.
3) California Department of Motor Vehicles: We all know the
DMV has problems, but this incident shows just how ignorant,
belligerent and immoral a state agency can be.
About two years ago I purchased a used vehicle. Due to its age
and construction if fell into a very narrow classification for
license plate fees. Naturally, the DMV misinterpreted the law
so it could charge me the higher fee. Our disagreement
eventually ended up in court. I had right and the law on my
side. Having spent quite a while at the law library, research
that went to the 1940s. Since case law was thin in the area, I
spent the time to research the bill that originate the law in
the early 1970s, consulting the Senate and Assembly
Transportation Committees. After some difficulty, the original
author of the bill was located and interviewed.
With the facts and the law on my side, I appeared in court.
The assistant district attorney representing the DMV could not
argue the facts, so he lied! (It is a serious thing to allege
an agent of the state lied in court. Luckily the proceeding was
caught on videotape so any interested party can view it.) The
acting judge was happy to permit the State to lie and he was
happy to ignore the facts in the case. He was so drunk with
arrogance, in addition to finding against me, he fined me.
As might be expected, I was, and remain, disgusted and
disturbed by the outcome. My letter to the Governor had no
effect, neither did the letter to the presiding judge. The
California State Bar sent me a letter telling me it could not
do anything to one of its members found lying in open court.
This is not the justice system envisioned by our founding fathers.
4) CA Senate: While speaking with a college classmate of mine,
I found out one of his co-workers had become a lobbist in
Sacramento. In a phone conversation to the gentleman up in
Sacramento, the subject of lawmaking came up. We were speaking
about irrational and unreasonable laws, and I asked if, when
proposing a law, any sort of checking is done. Specifically,
is the Senator or Assembly member required to, or even
encouraged to, check if the state has the power under its
Constitution to enact any particular law? What about the laws
of physics, mathematics, or even common sense?
The answer is, in practice, no checking is done before a law is
proposed. No checking is done when the bill is passed and send
to the Governor. The lawmakers of the State of California
currently do not feel bound by the state's Constitution or the
laws of nature and certainly are not constrained by common
sense.
In talking to friends, neighbors and co-workers, I found my
experiences are somewhat common. We read in the newspapers of
the many faults of elected officials, and there is no shortage
of bad ideas flowing from every level of government.
So why not run for office? Elected officials can lie in court,
ignore the state Constitution, disregard the laws of nature and
insult the general population and still collect a paycheck!
Nothing I could do possibly be worse than what we have now.
Rather there is every chance that an application of honesty,
respect for law and common sense will improve the situation.
I believe we have a fundamentally good form of government gone
adrift, and with work we can bring it back on course.
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