About waynestrnad.info

For Wayne's personal bio, please click on this link.

Nearly everything is FREE or Costs about a dollar.

waynestrnad.info was set up to help the community-at-large with issues that affect their lives and well being.  We focus on many items and have, in the past, provided research to government officials in Congress, the State of Illinois State Board of Election, the Chicago Board of Elections, the Cook County State's Attorney, and numerous aldermen for the City of Chicago.  Various aspects of this research can be found online at our main website.

In 2008-2009, research was completed and issues were brought forth to the community regarding our water supply, H1N1 virus, Cancer, the Bailout, to mention a few.

Many of the items you'll find either in our main website or within the Strnad Exchange that can be downloaded freely or for a minor charge.  Nearly all of them are FREE.

What's Not FREE?

Reprints of our past newsletters range in price from $1.00 - $4.00.  The price is dependent on the amount of research involved and the length of the newsletter.

Links to other sites that do sell products.  Sometimes in our research we find products that we believe may be beneficial for our readers.  Many of the linked sites do charge for their products.

Our personal recommendations.

Before I tell you a little bit about my personal recommendations, you might like to know about my expertise.

Author, Publisher, Teacher, Software Developer and Community Activist

Authored and Published Works

Mastering Mathematical Skills, published by Addison-Wesley

Introductory Algebra, published by Prendle, Weber and Schmidt
Visit http://algebramath.net

Numerous materials for a Learner Center environment.

Coauthored the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI).

Professional Organizations

Mathematical Association of America (MAA) - over 25 year member.

Teacher/Professor/Program Developer

While involved in the education of our children, I developed the first Learner Center in Chicago located in the West-Town area of Chicago.  It's purpose was to supplement the learning experience in the classroom with materials that were written for specific subject areas and for specific areas within the subject.  It was a highly successful program leading to the culmination as an "Exemplary School" in the United States.

I have since retired from education, at least the formal setting, and now work to help others in business and the community.

Author and Publisher

Recently I have focused my attention on the economy.  Part of our economic problem is high unemployment, jobs being sent abroad, jobs being totally phased out for the American worker, and so forth.  These are three of the major concerns that I have for America.

In order to help people, in my small way, I have authored and published a newsletter that talks about saving money.  After all, part of our problem is spending money, so all of us need to learn or relearn how to cut back on our expenses to save our money.  You can download this document for FREE by clicking on this link.

We need to address our constant use of credit cards.  The banks, no matter which one you choose, have shown from past history that when you put something on credit, they will increase your rates later.  This is without exception.  Stop using your credit cards NOW and if possible, make about 50% more than the minimum payment.  This will drastically reduce the amount of money you pay in interest.  After you're done paying off the credit card, destroy it.

STOP being CREDIT CARD Junkies!

STOP YOUR DEPENDENCY NOW!

Software Developer

One can turn one's skills to create profitable things, based on money, or utilize those same skills to help straighten out the ills of our society.  The latter is not based on money but ideals.  I'll flat out tell you that if you do things for the "me" and not the "we" then you are definitely in the wrong place.  I put "we" before "me."

A little over a decade ago I turned my skills in the direction of fighting corruption - specifically, voter fraud in Chicago.  I designed and implemented a database that maintained all the data for Absentee Voters in a particular ward.  Absentee Voting turned out to be the way one alderman here in Chicago actually won an election; sanctified by the Chicago Board of Elections.

The 5000 or so page report was submitted to the Cook County State's Attorney, who sat on it and did absolutely nothing except change the name of the department that handles voter fraud - he changed the name three times to cover up how much voter fraud was actually being reported.

Over the last 30 or so years I have designed several databases for business and community based organizations.

It may be interesting to you that ever since I published those findings, the Chicago Board of Elections has outright refused to hand over any data and thereby violates the Freedom of Information Act.  If you know of any lawyers that are willing to do some pro bono work, then please send me some feedback.

Community Activist

I don't believe anyone's life is complete unless they get involved in their community.  Simple involvement, such as talking to your neighbors or having a cup of coffee at their home, is important to both you and the neighbor.  When two or more of you get together and do something about what goes on in the neighborhood then you are, by definition, a community activist.

I encourage everyone to become an activist and work to change things.  Experience has dictated that the elected officials don't really care about you or the community, unless it's election time when they come out begging for your vote.  Personally, I do not care what political party is involved - they're all the same.

Get rid of the mentality that says, "I'm only one person, what can I do?"

Everything starts with one - you!  You must come to the realization that you, as an individual, can change things for yourself and your fellow human beings.  Start simple but by all means start!  Do something to address an issue in your community.  Whether it's a drug problem, poor education, gangs, whatever.  Don't back down from anything!

I could get hurt, right?  Wrong!  I say this because in my community the youth that are involved in gangs know what I do.  Fact:  one night the gangs were painting their symbols on people's garages.  Every single garage around me got "tagged" including several down the block.  Mine was left alone.  The gangs knew who I was and acted accordingly.  I do have pictures showing this if you are interested.  Just give me some feedback and I'll be glad to send you the proof.

Gangbangers are simply misdirected people.  They are our children.  They, believe it or not, are our future. 

Some may think that this is a scary thought.  I don't because they also are people that you can reason with.  Try this:  if you see a gangbanger try to start a conversation with them.  More than likely, they'll be afraid of you and might not like to talk.  However, your attempt at conversation shows them that you at least were concerned enough to talk to them.  I can almost guarantee that the next time they see you they'll at least nod and might even say hello.  You see, you took the first step for being concerned enough to do something - just talk.  Many of these gangbangers need just that - conversation with other people who are not in a gang.  Do you think you can help influence this misguided youth and get them in the right direction?  I bet you can and I don't even know you.

It's not my job!  The police department should handle it.  Hey, it's everybody's job.  In case someone does not realize it, we are all in this mess together.  Putting people behind bars because they stand on a corner is not an answer to anything, in fact, it may even be a violation of the Constitution of the United States of America - the right to peaceably assemble.  But I'm not a lawyer and do not practice law but I can read and interpret what I read, just like a lawyer can.  Just because a lawyer has a JD behind his name doesn't imply he knows or can interpret the law correctly!  Maybe that's why they call it a "practice."  Heck, one would think that by now throughout the history of law, they would have perfected something!

Take Action!  Just sitting and complaining about something does not provide one iota of constructive action to help people.  Get out of the living room and do something.  Turn off that mindless box called a TV.  All the news you see is pretty much filtered anyway.

Don't like what some politican is doing?  Say so openly.  What are they going to do to stop you?  If they're smart, they'll do nothing.  On your end, just do something.

I'm going to get in TROUBLE.  Then they better spell it with all caps.  Do not accept injustice at any level, whether it involves you or your fellow human beings.  Remember, once the application of the law applies to one, it also applies to you because you and everyone else are not part of the exempt group!  That's the truth about laws.

What should you take home after reading this?

I, hopefully like you, work for the betterment of humanity.  There is no one perfect way to get things done but just a variety of paths to take and try.

If you run a business then you can help the community in many ways.  For example, if there is a local sports team you can offer to buy the children hats, bats, balls, or whatever.  It may be sort of costly but you'll get something in return that you might not be able to get otherwise - community trust.  Obviously, the parents know you did something for their children.  Other teams that play against the team you sponsor know of you - as do their parents.  Teams are usually photographed at some point or another so your logo, which might appear on the childs chest, will be visible in the photos.  You can even get more "mileage" out of your kindness if you have a winning team.  Winning teams usually play in city or state championships.  There is no price on this because out of the one time investiment, you'll gain in advertising for a long time to come.  Also, and this might be very important for you, you help keep a child involved in productive things and not "hanging" on a street corner or worse, selling drugs.

The ways I try to help varies from issue to issue.  You need to find your own path that works for you and your community.

I am always open to suggestions.  Just leave me some feedback.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  I hope it has some impact.

Sincerely,

Wayne A. Strnad

PS.  Browse over the other parts of this website to see how I get involved or have been involved in the past.  Your purchasing anything helps me retain my involvement and mere survival so that I can help others even more.