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Articles written by Chris Beeker Jr


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  • Alabama The Beautiful

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Sep 1, 2018

    The beginning of summer is approaching and we are nearing my favorite time of the year. Summer in the south brings with it vacations, weekends spent outside, outdoor activities, and a multitude of other opportunities. It is a great chance to get out and enjoy our wonderful state parks. I am certainly biased to Alabama but some of the world’s most beautiful natural sites can be found within our state and many of those are at Alabama state parks. Alabama is home to 22 state parks, each having a...

  • Never Stop Learning

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Aug 1, 2018

    Recently I was asked to address a classroom of young students on what makes a good student a responsible citizen. As I sat down to write some notes, I was inspired and felt led to share this with others as well. Even though the intended audience was 15-16 year old’s, I feel that no matter the age, we can all take away something from this. The process from “good student” to “responsible citizen” all starts within the classroom setting in my opinion. From the very first years of school, you are l...

  • Alabama the Beautiful

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Jul 1, 2018

    The beginning of summer is approaching and we are nearing my favorite time of the year. Summer in the south brings with it vacations, weekends spent outside, outdoor activities, and a multitude of other opportunities. It is a great chance to get out and enjoy our wonderful state parks. I am certainly biased to Alabama but some of the world’s most beautiful natural sites can be found within our state and many of those are at Alabama state parks. Alabama is home to 22 state parks, each having a...

  • Readiness, Response, and Action

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Apr 1, 2018

    There are three dates that many of us in Alabama will never forget. The most prominent being those of April 3, 1974, April 27, 2011, and most recently March 19, 2018. On each of those days portions of Alabama were devastated by tornadoes ranging from categories F3 to F5. Lives were lost, people were seriously injured, and homes and businesses were destroyed. Compounding those tragedies was the fact that some communities lacked electrical service for several days. Even those who were not...

  • 58 Million

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Mar 1, 2018

    In the 1973 landmark ruling of the case of Roe v Wade, it allowed taking the life of an unborn child acceptable and permissible under the law simply because the woman had the ultimate right to make that choice. In this discussion and argument by those judges, was the future ever considered before rendering that ruling? The Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right m...

  • We The People

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Feb 1, 2018

    At 12:01a.m. on January 20, 2018, a dually elected group of Senators with the mandate of representing their United States constituents in their states failed to remember who elected them and what their purpose is. Instead, they used an important opportunity reflecting fiscal responsibility to its citizens by creating an unfair and un-American tactic meant to obtain benefits and opportunity for people who never elected them to their position in the first place. The very people who used their...

  • Hopes for the New Year

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Jan 1, 2018

    “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” Hebrews 11:1 (English Standard Version). It was difficult to accept the loss of a Republican seat in the United States Senate special election; it is never good to lose any seat to a democrat. After the results of that election came in, I found myself in a whirlwind of emotions, but then I remembered that God’s plan is greater than mine, even when I don’t understand it. I trust and believe that His plan is so g...

  • I Am Thankful

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Dec 1, 2017

    In November we celebrate two holidays that cause us to reflect on our history and the need to remember the sacrifice of so many. Those holidays are Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. The month of November also reflects fall in its full array of colors, which serves to remind us of the need to be thankful for things we mostly take for granted every day. I hope that you paused on Veterans Day to give thanks for those men and women who were brave and selfless enough to fight for our freedom. My...

  • A Tale of Two Responses

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Nov 1, 2017

    On October 1, 2017 over 500 people were injured and 58 people lost their lives when Stephen Paddock opened fire on concert goers at a country music festival in Las Vegas from his hotel room. This catastrophic event is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. As usual, when the responses came out following the shooting, the nation was shown honesty and compassion from the right and lunacy from the left. The debate over gun control and the second amendment have long been a point of...

  • Rescuing, Relieving and Responding

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Oct 1, 2017

    A heartwarming story took place in Florida just before the arrival of Hurricane Irma. Pam Brekke was next in line at a Lowe’s when she burst into tears as the last generator was given to the person ahead of her in line. “My father is on oxygen and I’m worried about this storm,” she said. Ramon Santiago, who was that next person in line, saw Brekke’s tears and handed over the generator he was going to purchase. “He’s an angel from God is what he is,” Brekke said. “She needed the generator. It...

  • Alabama the Beautiful

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Sep 1, 2017

    The end of summer is approaching and we are nearing my favorite time of the year – fall. Fall in the south brings with it nights around a campfire, football games, more time spent in the great outdoors, and, thankfully, some cooler weather. It is a great chance to get out and enjoy our wonderful state parks. I am certainly biased to Alabama but some of the world’s most beautiful natural sites can be found within our state and many of those are at Alabama state parks. Alabama is home to 22 sta...

  • A Lifeline for the Lifeline

    Chris Beeker Jr|Aug 1, 2017

    A lot of songs, movies, and television shows have been about the trucking industry. That is because, as Merle Haggard sang in his hit song “Movin’ On,” “the white line is the lifeline to the nation.” Our economy would crumble if truck and taxi companies were not moving goods and people over our roads. A lot of people may not know that the Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC) helps those companies that help Alabama’s economy and people. One way the PSC supports the safety of those travelling...

  • A BETTER DEAL

    Chris Beeker Jr|Jul 1, 2017

    Anytime an individual or a group of people set out to accomplish an agreement that is meant to have a favorable outcome for all participants, you better be good at negotiating or you just might come out with a raw deal or even a bad deal. This is what happened to our Nation in the Paris Climate Accord. Fortunately, we now have leadership in place that has seen just what kind of deal the former administration made on our behalf which would be described by all standards, a very bad deal. In fact,...

  • It All Starts in the Home

    Chris Beeker Jr|Jun 1, 2017

    In his State of the Union address in January 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared “an unconditional war on poverty in America.” Since that time, our nation has spent trillions of dollars fighting a war it cannot win. That money has only given us welfare-dependent people who cannot see the importance of meeting their own needs. The “war on poverty” turned out to be another democrat debacle that has done nothing to eliminate poverty; in fact, there are more Americans living below the poverty...

  • A Time Such as This

    Chris Beeker Jr|May 1, 2017

    From April 19, 1943, to May 16, 1943, an event known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was fought. In November 1940, when the invading German forces built a wall around a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, 400,000 Jews were trapped inside. Because the Germans cruelly limited the amount of food that was allowed into the ghetto, starvation and illness claimed the lives of thousands each month. But the Jews weren’t dying fast enough to satisfy Adolph Hitler, who ordered the Nazis to deport roughly 2...

  • LIBERAL LUNACY

    Chris Beeker Jr|Apr 1, 2017

    “Male and female he created them ….” (Genesis 5:2) With those six simple words the Bible gives us all the information we need regarding the genders God created. People are born either male or female; there are no other options. But liberals disagree. According to Merriam-Webster, one definition of the word lunacy is “wild foolishness” or “extravagant folly.” In an incredible demonstration of liberal lunacy, the politically correct secularists among us have decided that there are now four gend...

  • Ready to Respond

    Chris Beeker Jr|Mar 1, 2017

    April 3, 1974. April 27, 2011. Those are two dates that many of us in Alabama will never forget. On each of those days portions of Alabama were devastated by tornadoes. Lives were lost, people were seriously injured, and homes and businesses were destroyed. Compounding those tragedies was the fact that some communities lacked electrical service for several days. Even those who were not directly impacted by those storms must have felt great relief when their electricity was restored. Severe...

  • Goodbye and Good Riddance Obama Godspeed President Trump

    Chris Beeker Jr|Feb 1, 2017

    In the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we're free at last." Barack Obama is no longer president and Donald Trump is. As further proof that a leopard doesn't change his spots, Obama spent his final weeks in office doing the same things he did throughout his presidency – displaying his utter contempt for America and trashing our Constitution. In a series of despicable displays of arrogance over his last few weeks in office, the lame duck circumvented Con...

  • COAL CLOBBERS THE COSMIC CURRENT

    Commissioner Chris Beeker Jr|Aug 1, 2016

    In boxing it is said, "To be the champ, you've got to beat the champ." In Alabama, coal is the champion of our natural resources. There is enough coal in our soil to produce electricity for hundreds of years. But, some people don't want us to do that. They want us to use only the sun or wind to produce electricity. We cannot and should not, however, abandon coal, our greatest and most reliable natural resource. Many of the wonderful Alabama citizens currently working in coal mines are...

  • New EPA Regulations Harm Alabama

    Chris Beeker Jr|Nov 1, 2015

    When a politician keeps a campaign promise, it is generally regarded as a pleasant surprise. But, when that promise is to dramatically increase electricity bills, breaking that promise will not disappoint many people. When he first campaigned for president, Barack Obama said that due to his energy policies, electricity bills would “necessarily skyrocket.” In August of this year, Obama made good on his promise as his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its latest overreaching reg...