FOR RELEASE    IMMEDIATE

CONTACT:        JERRY TRUDELL  802-922-2145
                email: jerrypilot2000@yahoo.com


I was born an Army brat on Dec. 20 1953, to two Vermonters at the Fort Monmouth Army hospital in New Jersey.

I owe much of who I am today to both of my parents. My father worked for NASA developing weather and communications satellites, including Nimbus, Tiros and ATC. He then created and became project director of SARSAT the search and rescue satellite that has been credited with saving more than 20,000 lives by helping search teams locate stranded victims before they died of exposure. My father took pride in saving lives through innovation, rather than ending them with brute force. He believed that our common heritage as Americans was best exemplified by our innovations.

After raising the family, my mother went to college and got a degree in history.

I believe that a study of history is essential to understanding what's going on today. We might not be in the mess we are in now if  Congress, at least once in awhile, applied history and critical thinking to the problems we face today. Instead, they seem to be best at taxing us to death while they are asleep at the wheel regarding transportation policy.

My background is diverse, ranging from aviation ( I am a licensed pilot). to photography, to community organizing. I have worked for a wide range of groups, including SANE, NYPIRG and other community groups,  on issues such as housing, and community gardening. Most of this work was voluntary community organizing .
Currently I am a freelance aerial photographer, shooting properties as well as publishing my own notecard series of aerial landscape scenes of Vermont, and the Northeast.

 As a small businessman, I have extensive contact with merchants in the retail sector and am aware from personal experience what they are going through to stay in business, amidst an ecomonic downturn and an energy price "upturn."
 I have also been involved in promoting public transportation issues long before it became fashionable. Five years ago I organized a press conference and "songfest" at the Cherry Street bus depot in Burlington to protest the proposed elimination of the Williston line from CCTA service. Even though Burlington's local newspaper did not cover my event, other media outlets did, including Channel 22. Several months later the local paper reported that funding was restored to the Williston line.

 When I ran for Congress two years ago, I proposed a statewide public transit system. Although gas prices were dropping at the time, the automobile was the second largest expense for the average family in America, as the The New York Times recently reported,. Unfortunately, the elites, who spend a small percentage of their income on auto ownership, just don't get it.

The public transportation system I proposed two years ago is needed even more today with daily robbery occurring at the gas pumps.
 
If you have any questions regarding my background, please ask. References and resume  are available to the press upon request.
 
 
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