John Giles: National frustrations hit high water mark
When I was first officially assigned a role in the public sector, Governor Guy Hunt appointed me in 1989, as Alabama State Small Business Advocate. I wasthirty-five years old, a team player, easy to work with, friendly to everyone ingovernment and the private sector, yet mission oriented to advance the cause ofthe Hunt Administration. I can remember having a much greater capacity backthen to take on more water, metaphorically speaking dealing with the slowbureaucracies, political non-sense and the inability to advance the ball down thefield. Just thirty years later, I find my capacity for this non-sense has shrunk, myflash point greatly lowered, and joining America’s escalating frustration. Wehave hit our high-water mark with the dramatic scenes being played out in DCand on the 2020 Democrat Presidential campaign trail. The “swamp,” as Donald Trump calls it, has existed all these years, but now has hit theexponential curve at the state and national level. I used to think my cultivateddiplomatic skills would allow me weave and navigate my way around thelandmines of obstruction for progress, and to some degree it worked. Lookingback on those days, I can clearly see now, if you had a total of ten moves in aday, eight of them were stroking egos, extinguishing little fires, petting theoffended and only two moves in the day was advancing the positive cause ofpromoting economic, social, moral and constitutional governing. If one spent alifetime in this public sector environment with pure motives, you should knowup front, you will only accomplish 20 percent of your capacity, or you will flame outearly. If you understand going in the rules of engagement will greatly hinderadvancing a conservative cause, the tactics of the southern gentleman diplomat,who wants everyone to like them because of their selfish desire of futureadvancement politically, will be guaranteed few earned scored points for thebetterment of mankind at the end of each day. Trump’s sense of urgency, lack of bedside manners, brassy, sometimes rudenessand New York style street fighting tendencies offends the southern gentlemanapproach to governing, but the fierce, out of control, violent, win at all cost andmaligning modern day Democrat behavioral style, can only be put in checkmate with one thing…a 2 x 4 brought to the fight. Unfortunately, the rules of publicdiscourse being changed by Democrats over the years, particularly since theNovember 2016 election, requires one to step in the ring swinging in order toadvance the will of the American people. But Giles, what about Christianity,and Christian principles; sure let’s discuss this point for a moment. Let us remember, Jesus physically cleared the decks in the synagogue of thegreedy merchants personally profiting in the sacred house. Jesus also had anoffensive tongue using words like, brood of vipers, serpents, foolish ones, blind(figuratively not literally), liars and he also called his adversaries hypocrites, justto list off a few. Trump is certainly no saint and definitely not the messiah, butdo we see some current modern day similarities. Jesus was falsely accused ofblasphemy; they held a kangaroo court and then executed him. In the 2016 election cycle, pollsters were trying to brute force a win for Hillaryover Trump. Late at night, on November 8, 2016, Democrats were wailing andgnashing their teeth at the Clinton Victory Party. Where was Hillary…pitchinga hissy fit and did not even show up. Trump well exceeded the ElectoralCollege threshold of 270 with 304 earned votes. Then they tried to override theconstitution bending the narrative around a popular vote. After theinauguration, the Washington Riot Style March filled the streets with womenwearing female genital hats. Immediately, the tone of impeachment echoedamong Democrats and the liberal media. They cranked up a fairy tale story ofRussian collusion, when Hillary was the one colluding with Russians. Comey,rogue FBI cops and some of his treasonist intelligence community colleagueslaid out a Trojan horse strategy for Trump’s removal, fueled by a false dossierpaid for by Clinton, DNC and Soros. Two years and forty five million UStaxpayer dollars later, the Mueller Report was a Big Zero. Then, the falseBrett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing fiction played out as choreographed and theywere caught again. Now we have an unidentified whistle-blower, launching animpeachment through surrogate hearsay, presumptions, and false testimonies,when all they had to do is read the conversation transcript. It might havehelped for them to watch the Ukrainian President on TV categorically deny anypressures of quid quo pro by Trump. If I was reading a novel and not living thisreal time, I would be thinking in these terms: brood of vipers, serpents, foolish ones, blind (figuratively not literally), certified liars and hypocrites. Soundfamiliar? For a minute let me rewind to the 2016 election cycle. Americans had hit theirhigh water mark on political correctness, watching Obama split the countryinstead of being the healer he promised. Remember “CHANGE,” we got italright. The DOJ, under Eric Holder became the largest Civil Rights law firm inthe country going after cops rather than criminals. Obama’s “Green Jobs”economic development plan turned into closed windmill plants and millions ofwasted grant dollars. Globetrotting on expensive golf vacations and apologizingto the world that somehow America was guilty of some abusive behavior.Obama had strategically weakened our military to an all-time low. The finalresults of this eighth year behavior, Trump and the deplorables dumped theObama-Clinton machine. Now let’s fast forward to the 2020 elections. You would think they would learnfrom 2016, but some folks tend to walk back through the same yard where thedog bit them last time. America is experiencing historic low employment, jobcreation, capital investment, stock market is unprecedentedly soaring, worldnow respects us, balancing the trade defects, rebuilding the military, taking careof our veterans, reining in illegal immigration, building the wall, respecting andsupporting law enforcement officers, appointing constitution originalist to thefederal bench, sticking to the list of twenty three for the U.S. Supreme Courtvacancies, moving the U.S. Embassy for Israel to Jerusalem, opening updomestic oil production and leading globally in oil exports, stepping up NATOpartners investment in protecting Europe, pulling out of the fake science drivenParis Climate Accord, renegotiating NAFTA and GATT for a new balancedtrade relations between Mexico and Canada,
John Giles: Qualifications? Meeting a payroll
Governor Guy Hunt once told me, “John, before anyone runs for office or becomes a journalist, they would be well-served to have met a payroll first. What a profound statement and I agree 100 percent. If you have kept up with my resume, I worked for the Hunt administration in economic development during the late 80’s early 90’s. I worked primarily in the area of Small Business and later with all exiting business and industries. My father was a small business entrepreneur and that mantle passed down to his family. My father taught all of us what it meant to meet a payroll. We all fully understood and appreciated what Governor Hunt was saying. For those who have not had that opportunity, let me share with you what has to happen before you can write a payroll check. First, you have to have a product or service. Then, you have to get in the market place and find your niche among a field of competition. You have to convince the buyer you are qualified to deliver, best in the business and your price has to generally meet your competitors. After getting the order, now you have to deliver as promised, satisfy the customer, invoice and then collect. In addition, one must price the invoice with an adequate margin to meet your overhead, expenses, maintain raw materials and finished inventory, carry accounts receivables, payroll and payroll taxes, and then guess who is last to get paid. Entrepreneurs are often over glamourized, they really work to keep their team employed and in most cases, the last one to get paid. I can tell you from personal experience, on more than one occasion; we had to put our paycheck in the drawer, while paying employees and other obligations first. Entrepreneurs often go to bed and wake up in a sweat, frequently can’t sleep from the financial, physical and emotion load of carrying a business. This same owner is often faced with a tsunami of problems that seem to be insurmountable, and somehow finds a narrow path of escape from total disaster and business failure. At the end of the day, this small business person is responsible for the engine of our economy, and creates 75 percent of all of our new jobs. Prayer, vision, work ethic, tenacity, grit, tough, mission oriented, making one dollar do the work of three dollars, negotiating skills and not having can’t or quit in your vocabulary are the traits that embody a small business entrepreneur. Most people cannot handle this kind of sustained pressure. For an elected official who never met a payroll, it puts them at a great disadvantage in solving problems and getting projects completed. Often, without the skills to find solutions or make very tough decisions, a non- business background officeholder quickly find themselves outside of their expertise. All too often they are tempted with very weak solutions throwing taxpayer money at problems, like raising taxes, toll roads or legalizing gambling, all of which are very regressive ideas. Another example, let’s build bigger prisons rather than fight recidivism. Being successful in business also requires a high level of common sense, which is generally not the order of the day in government solutions. Rarely does a journalist have a small business background, which means they have never met a payroll. Most come from academia where research projects are theory based and not applied real time research. Journalist by most polling data, generally vote Democrat and typically lean leftward in rationale and on issues. As I have written before, journalism and editorial opinion departments have merged, which is unfortunate. In my experience over the years, if you have an elected official offer an idea as a solution like, raising taxes, passing gambling, open borders, free healthcare and college, adding illegal immigrants to the entitlement rolls and allowing them to vote and the like, generally journalist are drooling all over these ideas as if they are a stroke of brilliance. One recent example, Obama’s economic development plan was summed up in two words: Green Jobs. The media treated this notion as astounding. Common sense knew at the outset, this was a flawed concept. Wind energy, solar, and electric cars are not cost effective, so the market potential for these ideas are in the deficit before you wake up in the morning. Government subsidized plants promoting these concepts catastrophically failed on a flawed theory, not applied science. Let’s discuss academia for a minute. I have often proposed that we need corporate business minds running academia, not academics, particularly as College and University Presidents along with Superintendents of Education. You can hire academics to run your educational programs. Education is like any other enterprise, you are in the people business so they have to be led, have budgets, need long term strategic plans with measurable outcomes and who better to address this kind of leadership than a business professional. If you do not have a PhD. behind your name, you can forget about being a university president. Motivating people, being goal oriented, raising funds, selling programs to the public, leadership, making tough decisions and so much more are second nature for a business person. Academics in this environment are at a great disadvantage, because of not having the hard core problem solving skills earned from recession injected experiences, there is just no comparison. As a side note, lawyers often find their way into public office. There are two kinds of lawyers, strict constructionist constitutional originalist (Conservative) and those that believe the constitution is a living, breathing every evolving and changing document (Liberal). Ambulance chasing plaintiff trial lawyers (Liberal) generally are those if elected or appointed as judges practice judicial activism. We do not need these types in any public office. On the other hand, strict constructionists (Conservative) generally make great judges and compliment the business minds in the legislative process, keeping ideas constitutionally driven. Business people have to finish the project or service to get paid; non-business minds are
John W. Giles: Charles A. “Kayo” Sipper – one man sawmill – last generation
As we travel down the road of life, we often meet extraordinary people, who enrich our path beyond measurable standards. This is an amazing story about a rare, yet simple man named Kayo, who in my estimation is a legend. One day his skills, trade and livelihood will be extinct like so many other rural treasures, when he passes on. I have wanted to commit this story to paper for quite some time but needed to ensure the timing was right and did not want overlook any of these rich details of this story steeped in the traditions of the Deep South. This allegory is truly a message of living out the gospel as a Christian, touching so many. The contents here should be a book, but I will try to compress this into a short story mega-blog. Seventy-two years ago, Charles A. (Kayo) Sipper was born in a one room farmhouse (now Kayo’s Cabinet Shop), located in central Crenshaw County. His father nicknamed him Kayo inspired by the newspaper cartoon. Today on Sipper Ridge stands a cluster of homes, barns, sheds and sawmill where three Sipper brothers currently live. Four of Kayo’s five siblings were also born in this one room home, in addition, his father and his nine siblings who were born here as well. The Sipper family has occupied these seventy acres of promise land in Crenshaw County since 1860, when his great-great grandfather came to these parts to homestead. Crenshaw County is fertile concentrated ground for Churches of Christ. Kayo’s childhood dream was to preach the gospel and have a family. That he did. He attended and graduated from Alabama Christian College in Montgomery where he met his bride Olivia in 1967; they married in 1969 (50 years), have two sons, Josh, Sam and five grandchildren. Kayo has been preaching the Gospel for over 50 years and was at one church alone for 30 years. I first met Kayo when we bought our farm in 2004; we were looking for someone with a large wood planer to dress out wood we accumulated after Hurricane Ivan. I am not sure why, but even today he calls me John Giles. My friends call me John, but in this region of the south, I am generally referred to as Mr. G, Mr. John or Mr. Giles, but Kayo has always called me John Giles, to me it’s comical! Being a complete stranger to the area and seeking common ground, I mentioned I was friends with John Harrison, who I met in 1989. For years he was a local banker and mayor. That is all it took, from that point forward, I was immediately adopted into the family. He barely knew me when he delivered a wagon load of rough saw timber, we bought to wrap the outside of our home. He first showed me some tips on how to shiplap this pine and then he asked me if I had a compound miter saw, at that time I did not own one. After only knowing me for a just a few minutes, he voluntarily wanted to loan me his saw, I was speechless at his trust and for being such a giver to a stranger. He has over the years loaned me his personal tools that I did not have in my arsenal. In addition, he would always undercharge me for his materials, products and services; he is a role model giver. You must experience this to appreciate it, but Kayo will take a log, cut it on his one-man sawmill, stack it to dry, dress it out on his planer and make finished cabinets and furniture to perfection. From the woods, to the kitchen, amazing! Kayo recently helped me make some beautiful benches from a downed poplar tree; we sawed up the logs, dried it, planed and built beautiful Pinterest style benches for Deborah. These one of a kind benches will be heirlooms for my children and grandchildren. As a side note, Kayo always said it was a one-man sawmill that would work three men to death, he is right. While woodworking, he would tell me lets measure twice and cut once; and he purposely put me on what he called the idiot end of the measuring tape. Officially, Kayo is 72 and retired, but he works every day doing something. As a newly adopted member of his family, Kayo called me to come over on a Saturday night to the one room house, which is now his cabinet shop, he said “John Giles we are going to be making music.” I knew about playing music, but he called it making music. It was old fashion fun, much like the old Saturday night barn dances, but in this case, locals would come together, play instruments and sing music. As a hobby, Kayo and his brother would build from scratch handmade guitars, to date they have made 30, one of a kind guitars. Talking hospitality, they often wanted us to come play Mexican Train Dominos during a weeknight and then join them for music making on Saturday night. Before his mother passed, she would make her three sons a huge country breakfast every Saturday morning at 7 am sharp. I was invited to one of those historic Saturday morning breakfasts; I still remember Mrs. Addie Mae Sipper’s homemade biscuits and gravy. One Saturday morning I was over there making some gift trays with Kayo, and in walks his brother with homemade biscuits stuffed with fried salmon. His brother does this every Saturday morning and carries a batch down to the local hardware store for fellowship and some good eating. The Sipper family was consumed in being given to hospitality. One day, I called looking for Kayo and Olivia didn’t know where he was, mind you it was pouring down rain. About ten minutes later he called me, and I asked him where he was. He said, “I was sitting out on the porch John Giles, watching the rain
John Giles: Open letter to the Alabama state senate – HB 314 – human life protection act
Senator, I plead with you, if you are dug in, please take off your boxing gloves and put on your white gloves, hit the pause button and allow me five minutes. Dr. James Robinson (Worldwide Evangelist), Jesse Jackson (Civil Rights Leader), Valerie Gatto ( Miss Pennsylvania 2014), Kelly Wright (Former Fox & Friends Anchor), Janet Sheen (Martin Sheens wife), Ethel Waters (Actress & Singer), Eartha Kitt (Singer, Actress & Dancer), Zahara Jollie-Pitt (Angelina Jollie & Brand Pitt’s adopted daughter), Layne Beachley (Seven Time World Champion Surfer), Faith Daniels (NBC Today Show News Anchor) and Tracy Carter (Daughter of Nell Carter – Singer & Actress), just to name a few have three things in common. They were are all born Americans, all made huge impacts on society and all were children SURVIVORS of rape pregnancies. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men were created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted by men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” When taking the oath of office, constitutionally one is bound to use the full force of government to protect the rights given to man by God. In taking the oath of office, it is recognized God is the giver of life, how then can one assume to decide who lives and who dies except our creator, Almighty God. I was President of the Christian Coalition of Alabama (1999 – 2006). Early on, and having raised a daughter, I had to defend one of the planks in our organization platform, “Protecting Innocent Human Life.” I knew I was going to be assaulted by my critics if I took the hypocritical view that I was pro-life except in the case of rape and incest. I had to come to the hard-sobering truth and fact that human life begins as at conception, all human life. I concluded if such a horrific act of rape or incest infected my family, my wife and I knew we would have to see this through. We could not take the life of this child over the heinous crime and sins of the father. What I did realize though as a father, that I needed to step up the protection of my daughter from being recklessly exposed. Today, I have 9 grand daughters, ages 6 months to 20 years of age and their fathers and mothers protect them in the same manner. Around 1976, after three years of marriage, we gave birth to our firstborn. We saw an advertisement on WSFA one night promoting Beacon Abortion Clinic in Montgomery. I thought to myself, when did this become legal, how did this happen and why did I let this happen on my watch. I knew then I needed to get involved and do my part to end this horrific plague that was unleashed on our country. Since that time, eradicating abortion in this country has been personally our number one issue. If you campaigned in Alabama as a Republican for the State Senate during the 2018 election cycle, to get elected you showcased your pro-life position and openly backed President Trump’s quest to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Tuesday will be a historic and defining day in your public career. I can assure you there will never ever be a more important vote in your life. Like the fraudulent Russian Dossier against Trump, Roe vs Wade was a fraud. Norma McCorvy, whom my wife Deborah and I met, was the legal pseudonym as Roe. She was used by some liberal lawyers and as you may recall, she gave birth to this baby and put it up for adoption. Jurist activist on the bench created new law over the penumbra of privacy. Since the 1973 landmark case, 50 million children have died through abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute (a creation of Planned Parenthood), their own research indicated that less than 1% of all abortions performed were rape, incest or the life of the mother, the other 99% was birth control. If this bill makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court on the merits of its constitutionality, the courts will have to define that human life begins at conception until natural death. If the rape and incest exceptions are put back in this bill, the courts will through it out because of the hypocrisy that human life does not exist in the case of rape and incest. Human life is human life. Please keep in mind, Planned Parenthood spent 7 digits plus in Alabama trying to kill our Human Life Amendment and they used this argument of rape and incest because they know their industry will come to an end. The current bill has only one exception, life of the mother, like in the case of a tubal pregnancy. I have heard for years from politicians, how prolife they are, except in the case of rape, incest and the health of the mother. This is exactly where we are today, and under this notion, Roe vs Wade will NEVER be addresses on the merit of human life. This is right were Planned Parenthood wants you to park. In just a few days, on May 15th twenty years ago, we lost our son Micah in a car accident. We had to come to the hard conclusion that God is Sovereign, he was not asleep at the switch that night on I-65 just north of Montgomery when his car left the road. God was also not asleep when Dr. James Robinson, Jesse Jackson and these others were conceived during these acts of violence. All of us worked to pass the Brody Bill in Alabama making it a double homicide if an expecting mother was murdered. That child in the womb (regardless of how it was conceived), according to Alabama law is a human being and deserves protection by the state. Likewise, an unwanted
John Giles: Amendment Two — Choice vs. Life
November 6, 2018 is the mid-term election, and in addition to a slate of candidates, Alabamians will be voting on four amendments to the Alabama Constitution. Allow me to focus on Amendment Two. If passed, the Alabama Constitution will recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life. Generally, there are three visible sides to this debate: those who want unlimited abortion, those who want to protect the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death (except for the life of the mother), and those who are opposed to abortion (except in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother). In full disclosure, it is no surprise that I will be voting YES without blinking for Amendment Two. Please don’t hang up the phone on me just yet; let’s get into the facts on this, so you can make a sound, rational decision. Planned Parenthood (PP) is leading the effort to vote NO on this amendment. Why are they so adamant about keeping abortion legal in America; could it be large sums of money and their core philosophy? Even in the disturbing wake of mounting video-recorded evidence of PP selling baby body parts, they are still receiving in excess of $500 million annually of federal tax dollars. In addition to the federal funding, PP charges anywhere from $350 – $950 for first trimester abortions and much more for second trimester abortions. PP is federally recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which excludes them from income tax. I am not sure how they do this, but even though nonprofits are precluded by the IRS from engaging in elections, PP is publicly reported to be spending $20 – $30 million supporting Democrats for Congress in this general election cycle. I ran a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, and while we could participate in voter education and lobbying, we could not engage in “express advocacy” or endorsing any candidate. Amazingly, the IRS attacked conservative Tea Party members, but they look the other way on PP, which is pouring huge sums of money into Alabama to defeat this amendment. PP was founded by Margaret Sanger (1883 -1996), who was a turn of the century birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. I challenge you to look her up yourself, because she had some very radical, liberal ideas. Most of her philosophical quotes are morally repugnant, even by the norms of her era, but they are imbedded into the molecular makeup of PP. Sanger formed PP to exterminate blacks. In 1939, she started: “The Negro Project” for the purpose of radically curbing the birth of black children. If this offends you, like it bristles me, check out this Sanger quote: “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Sanger had an abhorrent, horrific, belief system and appalling tone; but at least she was honest in the goals of PP, which are prevalent today. Three high profile Republican women, along with the Alabama Exchange (ad hoc group consisting of several pro-life organizations) are leading the vote YES effort in the state. Terry Lathan (Chair of the Alabama Republican Party), Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh (President of the Alabama Public Service Commission) and Mary Sue McClurkin (Shelby County Republican Representative) are leading the GOP get out the vote effort. Thank you ladies, for your leadership. This will be primarily a grassroots and social media driven outreach, and it will not match the well-funded PP opposition to Amendment Two. PP will showcase in their ads that voting YES to the amendment will eliminate access to women, who are pregnant due to rape or incest. One of the three categories mentioned at the beginning of this article are those opposed to abortion except in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother. Pay close attention to this statistic: The Guttmacher Institute, which is a research division founded by PP, by its own data, states that rape, incest and the life of the mother represents less than 1 percent of all abortions. So another perspective is the reciprocal, which means that over 99 percent of all abortions are emergency measures for birth control, and they are not cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother as marketed by PP. Liberal Democrats, PP, and the media will focus their entire attention on less than 1% of all abortions. The life of the mother discussion is a non-issue. When the life of the expecting mother is at stake, like a tubal pregnancy and the like, the tending physician will always put the life of the mother over her unborn child. Their argument is distorted at best, but now we take a close look at the deception around Roe v Wade. If you follow my writings, there is no misunderstanding about my feelings of judicial activism and making law from the bench. Roe v. Wade was a classic model case as the pinnacle of judicial activism. Norma McCorvey (9/22/1947 – 2/18/2017), whom Deborah (my wife) and I knew, was the legal pseudo “Jane Roe” in Roe v. Wade. Before becoming a Christian, McCorvey became a lesbian and ran an abortion clinic; her life was a wreck. McCorvey later in life repented, became an active pro-life Christian and our friend Reverend Flip Benham baptized her. Self-proclaimed feminist liberal lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee were seeking out the perfect case to make abortion legal in America. McCorvey, a single, divorced, alcoholic woman became pregnant with her third child in 1969, wanted to abort her child, but in Texas abortion was illegal, except for the life of the mother. Imagine that; except for California and New York, prior to 1973, abortion was illegal in America, except in the case of the life of the mother (like a tubal pregnancy). It was handled as a Tenth Amendment, states rights issue. McCorvey was not a pretty, eye-candy kind of girl, but rather a downtrodden alcoholic, so the lawyers kept her
