Well, maybe it's a pretty minor honor, since I think there's also a National Pickle Week. But if nothing else, this is a time for both insiders and others to step back and think about the profession of an engineer. Even without the push of National Engineers Week, the profession has gotten some media attention from nontechnical reporters, with daily newspapers and news magazines running articles about the high-tech worker shortage and the related low U.S. unemployment rate.

It would be quite easy, scanning these reports, to assume that the skilled workers who read this newspaper must be sitting pretty in terms of working conditions. Not perfect, but at least as good as those of other professionals.

For most EEs, that's true. Sure, there's stress related to the industry's rapid pace-but probably not a lot more than that facing a teacher a few days before those antsy kids' long vacation is about to begin, or a doctor trying to bring someone back from death's door. Pay may not be as good as the doctor's, but it's better than most teachers'.

Though things seem good looking at the big picture, there are definitely pockets where improvements need to be made. That point was driven home when engineers struck Boeing earlier this month, a surprising move that occurred on the same day as another event that undoubtedly raised the blood pressure of many engineers. Four U.S. senators proposed loosening the H1-B visa restrictions on high-tech guest workers. Many, though not all, who write us at EE Times feel that's just a way for politicians let companies hire technically skilled workers at lower cost.

A number of engineers' jobs are anything but cushy. I got a letter from an engineer at loggerheads with his boss for refusing to wear a beeper and be on call 24 hours a day. Another observed that everyone cites high salaries in Silicon Valley, where living costs force high wages, but elsewhere wages are usually lower.

Others wonder about all the openings we describe in our weekly features on job opportunities. They correctly ask why there's widespread talk of a worker shortage when human resources people say they're overwhelmed with resumes.

Maybe it's time for them, and others, to focus their complaints and questions. Whatever engineers can do to improve this profession, now is a great time to do it. It's always difficult to go on strike, like the folks at Boeing; contacting your congressional representatives to oppose something like the H1-B program is less arduous. Those who feel strongly that things could be better should make at least some attempt to be heard.

Maybe it's fitting that Engineers Week and President's Day come at the same time. Like Abe and George, today's engineers have to stand up for what they think is right. And that's something that's true not just for seven days every February.