A Talk with John Chan on education, funding for public safety, medical rights and big tech censorship

John Chan, a candidate for Georgia House Representative of District 97, talks with podcast host Rico Figliolini about state-level control of schools, sex education, police funding, taxes and regulations, and medical rights, and medicare expansion.

Resources:

John’s Website:  https://johnchan4ga.com

Time stamp (where to find it in the podcast):

[00:00:30] – Intro
[00:01:46] – About John
[00:05:19] – John’s Political Viewpoints
[00:08:53] – Working on Taxes and Regulations
[00:11:26] – Expanded Healthcare and Political Stances
[00:14:28] – Education Issues and Opinions
[00:21:58] – Issues with Crime
[00:26:17] – Big Tech Censorship and Accountability
[00:30:27] – Public Concerns
[00:35:24] – John Asks for Your Vote
[00:38:18] – Closing

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“In growing up how I did, kind of disadvantaged, poor, not speaking English, needing to work all the time… What I really realized through it is that the work ethic and the American dream is so alive, but it has to be used. And that’s kind of what’s shaped a lot of my thinking of how I’ve been able to succeed in life being quote-unquote disadvantaged.”

John Chan

Podcast Transcript:

[00:00:30] Rico: Hi everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life. I appreciate you coming out, joining us on this show, on this episode. My special guest today is John Chan. He’s running for Georgia House Rep District 97. Hey John, thanks for joining us.

[00:00:45] John: Hey, great to see you. Thank you for inviting me.

[00:00:49] Rico: Yes. No, I appreciate you coming out. It’s the election time, so we’re getting quite a few candidates on the podcast, so it’s good to be able to get a good course section of candidates to interview. But before we get into that, I just wanna say thank you to our sponsor, EV Remodeling Inc., And Eli, the owner. Great people, great company. He lives right here in Peachtree Corners, does a great job with the work he does, has a great website. If you’re looking to maybe design and build or remodel, you should go to his website, EVRemodelingInc.com and check out his Houzz account, if you haven’t done that. Most people will use that H-O-U-Z-Z and find out the portfolios of work he’s done. So check him out and let him know you found it on the podcast. So now let’s get to John. John, this is the first time, you haven’t held political office, if I understand correctly, right?

[00:01:39] John: No, not only haven’t I held political office, I’ve never run for political office. I’ve never really thought about it before.

[00:01:46] Rico: Okay. So start us off, tell us a little bit about John Chan. Tell us who you are, where you come from. I know a little bit of your story, but give us a little background about where you’re coming from.

[00:01:57] John: Sure. So, my parents fled China when the Communists took over in 1949. They went to Hong Kong and eventually found their way over here at the United States. And I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. English was a second language for me so, I had to go to summer school to straighten out my speech. And I grew up pretty poor. They came over here not having too much. So I got scholarships and loans and worked and got through school. I went to UCLA. Today, my brother and I own a construction company that does historic restoration work. And we do work all over the country and even some abroad. So we’ve worked on, gosh, I wanna say seven president’s homes, and numerous really, really fantastic old buildings. We’re right now working on the Maryland State Capital, which is our third state capital building. And embassies, and you name it.

[00:02:52] Rico: Wow. I’ve only met, I think one person, that has done any work on that type of stuff. It is like, that’s gotta be the most intensive work doing that renovation, restoration actually of historical places like that.

[00:03:06] John: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

[00:03:08] Rico: How’d you get into that? I mean, that’s unusual actually.

[00:03:11] John: Yeah, it was a summer job. I would come back from LA and work at a small, little fledgling roofing company in Columbus, Ohio. It was a Slate Roofing company, and we just kind of broadened from there. So into copper roofing, into historic masonry work. And we do a lot of different things now all over the country and even some abroad. We worked on the House of Parliament in Trinidad.

[00:03:35] Rico: Oh, wow. Alright, cool. Great background. I noticed that you were part of the Roofing, National Roofing Association or something like that. I was wondering about that, roofing organization is nonprofit?

[00:03:45] John: Yeah, so I’ve been a member and served as, different board members or different positions in different associations. Right now, as you can see, I’m in a hotel room because I’m in Saratoga Springs, New York. It’s the National Slate Association’s Annual Conference, and I’m speaking here.

[00:04:05] Rico: Oh wow. Okay. So you’re active in the industry as well. So it’s not just doing the business, it’s actually educating in the business a little bit?

[00:04:12] John: Yes. I do, gosh, I’ve done seminars all over the country about slate roofing, copper roofing, and things like that.

[00:04:20] Rico: You did some of your studies or your schooling at UCLA with economics as a background or degree?

[00:04:27] John: That’s correct, yeah. I went to UCLA and graduated from there with a BA in Economics. That’s kind of like my formal background, yeah.

[00:04:35] Rico: Interesting. Before when you mentioned that English is your second language because I sort of am the same way. I was born here in the States. My parents came from Italy and I had the same issues. Yeah, some of the same issues. The principal called my mother in and said, listen, you’ve gotta speak English team only in, at home because he’s speaking to us in Brooklynese and Italian and we can’t figure out what he’s saying. So, yeah.

[00:04:59] John: Oh, that’s cool. What part of Italy were you from?

[00:05:02] Rico: Well, my parents came from a small village between Rome and Naples.

[00:05:07] John: Okay.

[00:05:07] Rico: A farming community actually. He was a mason, did some masonry work and stuff like that, but ended up not in that business. That was a tough union to break into in the United States, actually.

[00:05:17] John: Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure.

[00:05:19] Rico: Yeah. So, okay, so you haven’t run for office. This is the first office you’re running for. Let’s also give people a little bit of an understanding where that is. I’m gonna bring in this map. So prior to the redistricting that went on, the District 97 actually incorporated Sugar Hill, Suwannee, parts of Johns Creek I guess, Duluth. That’s the left side of that map, and the right side is actually the map that exists as of the new redistricting, which takes in parts of Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Burke Lake, and just a tiny bit of Johns Creek, mostly Duluth. Is that fair, I guess?

[00:05:55] John: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that Johns Creek on that map it’s a little bit off where the name is. So it’s just, probably like, 10 or 12 houses in Johns Creek.

[00:06:05] Rico: Yeah, that’s what I thought. That’s what we talked about before. So to give people a little understanding about where that district is. Let’s bring it back in. And you are running as a Republican, you had no contested primary. I think, correct?

[00:06:19] John: Correct, yeah.

[00:06:20] Rico: Cool. So, and you’re a bit of a conservative. Do you think that comes from your upbringing? , I tend to see that sometimes, depending where people come from when they’re first generation American, they tend to be a little.

[00:06:32] John: Sure, yeah. I would say that comes from my upbringing to a certain degree because I heard a lot about communism and the horrors of it growing up. And in growing up how I did, kind of disadvantaged, poor, not speaking English, needing to work all the time. Basically you know, I got a paper route when I was eight years old because the clothes that we would get were, you know, they were kind of strange. We’d get them shipped over from Hong Kong and they were irregulars. And so I got a paper route and bought my own clothes. And what I really realized through it is that the work ethic and the American dream is so alive, but it has to be used. And that, that’s kind of what’s shaped a lot of my thinking of how I’ve been able to succeed in life being quote-unquote disadvantaged.

[00:07:25] Rico: Yeah. I guess that background does help sort of shape your outlook, your point of view in the world, right?

[00:07:33] John: Absolutely.

[00:07:34] Rico: So even going to UCLA, which is probably a liberal school, if you will, to a degree. How so coming from there, I mean, did you find challenges? Did your beliefs evolve a little bit? Most young people tend to be somewhat liberal, it seems, right?

[00:07:51] John: So growing up, I wouldn’t say I was conservative or liberal. I felt like I needed to just learn things. Because going to school, like I said, early on in childhood, I didn’t know what little league was. I didn’t know really anything about the Bible or Catholicism, which is what many of my friends were. I didn’t know a lot about the American way of life. So I was more in the gear of, well, let’s learn everything. I don’t wanna make too many harsh decisions without understanding things. So that’s why I actually took a very broad spectrum of classes educationally. Everything from biology to linguistics to Japanese tea setting ceremony. I took all these really unusual courses, appreciation of jazz. Because I wanted to learn as much as I could about virtually everything so I could make an informed decision of how things worked.

[00:08:53] Rico: Okay. Fair enough. And that makes sense. Having a broad pallet of experiences makes a lot of sense when you’re trying to shape policy even, right? , So let’s get into some of the issues. To some degree, I’m going off your website, right? Some of the bullet points, because these are your beliefs. These obviously are front and center on your website. So I wanna be able to let people know a little bit about who you are and the way you believe on certain issues. So one of them, for example, let’s take lower taxes and regulations, for example. Very broad. Let’s try to bring that down to the State of Georgia maybe, or maybe even down to the county level. So what does that mean in the state of Georgia when you have a Governor like Kemp already doing some tax cuts to some degree. Giving money to like the state, like the AARP, similar to what the federal government did, the American Registry program he did on a statewide. To some degree he gave back some money. How do you believe lower taxes and regulations would work for an area like the city of Peachtree Corners or Gwinnett County?

[00:09:54] John: Well, first of all, I wanna say that I think Governor Kemp has done an incredible job economically. We’re like number one, eight or nine years in a row for the top state as far as economics. So I think he’s done a great job at that. But on the more local level there’s still a lot of waste. And what I mean by that is, if you look at, say the study that Gwinnett County did. They paid about $300,000 for a study on the mall. And that was basically poured down the drain. Why? Because there’s several different owners of the Gwinnett Mall. Your anchors are owners, so you’ve gotta really go in and talk to the owners and get some kind of an idea or agreement of all the different directions that it could go before you do some kind of a study. So when you pay for a study that costs $300,000 and you don’t consult the owners, well, it’s gonna get shot down immediately. So you’ve got things like that where I feel that government spends money without thinking. They don’t operate it like a business. You know, we grew our business from virtually nothing to 120 employees. And to do that, you’ve gotta be fiscally responsible. And I feel like government really needs to be fiscally responsible, especially on the federal level. But this is more on a local level. But yeah, Governor Kemp overall has done great on that front.

[00:11:26] Rico: Yeah, government is, is a hard thing, right? So if you operate as a business, it’s good in some respects. In some respects though, then some other things happen, right? So, like, for example one of the aspects of helping out citizens, giving like medical coverage, expanded healthcare, let’s say. That’s another big issue that people talk about. That’s a big issue here in Georgia because we don’t have an expanded healthcare, right?

[00:11:51] John: Right.

[00:11:52] Rico: So, and part of that is, I had this discussion with a couple of other candidates, right? Federal government’s going to pay 90% of that, but only for a couple of years. Then the state has to take over that budget after that. Hopefully they have the money then at that point, but how do you feel about that, about expanded healthcare?

[00:12:09] John: I like the idea of expanded healthcare, to a degree. So I think that citizens should receive that, but I don’t feel like any illegal aliens should be paid this money through taxpayer dollars. So again, I think that healthcare is very important and we need to be able to fund some of that, especially because we’ve got a surplus. So I think some of that surplus money needs to be put in to help the citizens of Georgia. But yeah, not people that are here illegally.

[00:12:44] Rico: So you’re okay with expanded healthcare then?

[00:12:48] John: Yes.

[00:12:49] Rico: Okay. Because some Republicans aren’t, for some of that same reasons I explained before.

[00:12:54] John: I am conservative and I am running as a Republican. But in many respects, I’m a little bit more down the middle in that, the whole reason why I’m running is that I feel that a lot of fingers get pointed from the right to the left and the left to the right, and nothing really gets done. And what I mean by that is that look at society today. We’ve got men in women’s sports, we’ve got inflation spiraling out of control, the crime is creeping up here, and you get a lot of finger pointing. And that’s kind of where I feel like my background is really beneficial. I’ve been able to work with a lot of people from all different parts, of all different walks of life, I should say. And basically get them to look at a goal and get that goal attained. And I feel like a lot of politicians are more interested in pointing the finger than getting the job done. And that’s where I was saying, I think the business background is really helpful because it’s been done and achieved in the physical real world. So yeah, it’s like I may not agree with all the Republican ideas, but I am pretty much conservative, yes.

[00:14:14] Rico: So less of an idealogue right wing, more of a practical middle of the road, then. Sounds like to me.

[00:14:21] John: Yeah, you could say that. I’m more of a practical type of person, like what’s going to work?

[00:14:28] Rico: Alright. Thinking about that and talking about control and such, one of the issues is education and bringing control of education back to the state level, is what you’re pointing out. Whereas, I would imagine a Republican would want to keep as local as possible, like down to a county level even. And obviously Gwinnett County is one of the largest school systems, if not the largest in the state. So how would that affect then if you brought, if there was a department, if the state had control of education, like that?

[00:15:00] John: Yeah, I think we want to bring a lot of things back from the federal level. I prefer things to be more controlled locally. And as far as education, I’m 100% behind school choice. I think that the money should follow the child. Because what happens is, let’s say you’ve got a poorly performing school and they just keep on getting money. Well, they have no incentive to do any better. Whereas if the money follows the child, the child can go to whatever school, and then the schools that are performing will receive more of the money, and it just works out that way. Because you’re going to have schools like right now, where they’re underperforming and nobody cares.

[00:15:47] Rico: Interesting on that one, John, because I understand that, and I personally don’t have a problem with that. I think I agree with you to some extent on that. My problem is, is the amount of money that gets back. Because most private schools cost a bit of money. Even on the very low end, we might be still talking 10,000 a year. And that’s a very low end actually, because private schools, the median is probably closer to 16,000 a year. Or 12,000 somewhere around there. So how much you know, government money can be given back to let the individual actually practice their choice?

[00:16:23] John: Well, it would be however much they’re spending on kids, whether it be 7,000, 10,000, whatever. Let’s say it’s 10,000 and you’re sending your child to a private school that costs 16. Well, you’re going to have to make up the difference. You can’t just, that school’s a business.

[00:16:40] Rico: Okay and what about then the loss of that budget money to the local schools like Gwinnett County School, for example?

[00:16:47] John: Well, they lost it because they weren’t performing. And they’re going to have to do something to figure out how to perform, to maintain and keep their kids. And that’s the thing, when a business is shrinking, you’ve gotta be able to look at it and go okay, what is the remedy? Is it the economics? Is it our teaching? What’s happening here? And in any business, when you see the downturns, you’ve gotta be able to look at it and fix it. So when you have that loss of money, as the school district, you’d have to say, okay. Well this school, this particular, I don’t know, junior high school is having difficulties, but not our senior high school. So what’s happening here in the junior high school? And then you fix it.

[00:17:35] Rico: Okay. What about well, one of the bigger subjects has been training high schoolers. Either given them, creating an apprenticeship program, or giving vocational classes to high schoolers that may not want to go to college, may not be able to go to college, may prefer doing a vocational like HVAC or something along that line. Do you think the state should help with some of that? With funding of some of that or?

[00:18:02] John: 100%. Yeah, 100%. There’s a big lack of qualified people in your blue collar trades. And if they were able to learn things like wood or sheet metal or HVAC just a little bit as they grow up and have these apprenticeships, I think it would help society so much. Because as you can see, there’s a lack of qualified blue collar workers. That’s really needed.

[00:18:33] Rico: Yeah, for sure. And I see like sometimes, like even one of my kids had asked me, they said if I do this subject, I’m only going to max out maybe this amount of money, but if I become an HVAC person, I could be making a hundred grand a year, maybe. And that’s, that is that dilemma, right? Do you go spend a hundred thousand on your education and then not make the money?

[00:18:55] John: Yeah, right. There’s a lot of vocations, sheet metal, HVAC, being an electrician, a plumber. There’s a lot of those types of vocations that you can make a really great living at. And I think that it should be helped in the school system so that students can choose those vocations.

[00:19:15] Rico: Do you think, John, that there should be a public private partnership with certain industries to be able to promote that within the school systems?

[00:19:24] John: 100%. You know, if you look at a lot of your European countries, for instance, like Germany. For roofing, for instance, you’ve got this coexistence of the schools and businesses where they sponsor the kids and they can get a lot of this education for free. Or they even get paid learning it and doing it. So I think that if you could get businesses to buy in and actually help fund that, that would also relieve the schools to a certain degree.

[00:19:58] Rico: Cool. Totally agree with you there. Some of the other things that you pointed out, for example, and it probably all ties in, right? Sex education in the schools, gender equality, or gender identification. What is your core beliefs on that, John? How do you feel about that aspect?

[00:20:15] John: Well, I feel like the school should pretty much zero in on reading, writing, and arithmetic. And a hundred percent against all the gender reassignments and things like that. Because when you’re a kid, one minute you want to be a fireman, the next minute you want to be an astronaut, the next minute you want to be a writer, the next minute you want to be a basketball player. And when you get kids, they’re full of imagination and I think that kids should look and see all the different things such as like I said, HVAC, plumbing, whatever, or Japanese tea setting ceremony. But they should experience a lot of different things. But when I see things about like gender reassignment surgery, that’s shocking to me. It’s like now you’re stuck for an entire lifetime and that’s just horrible. So that’s my viewpoint on it.

[00:21:16] Rico: So within the education system though, and we’re not maybe talking about elementary school and middle school, because those are challenging years, although some people would want to take it down to that grade level. But even high school to be able to provide I guess safe areas, the ability to be identified the way you want to be identified. Do you think that’s reasonable within a school system? We’re not talking about necessarily, education versus acceptance or tolerance or something along those lines.

[00:21:47] John: Yeah. No, I don’t. I believe you’re born a male or a female, and there’s two sexes. I don’t believe in however many sexes that people come up with.

[00:21:58] Rico: Okay. Alright, fair enough. We talked about crime before, god knows here in the city of Peachtree Corners, we had a really bad shooting at a local QT station. Although, there’s been some violence even at some long stay hotels and such within the area. But the shooting at the QT was nerveracking for many people because it was a young man, 29 years old, had gone to Norcross High School. And it was simply a carjacking that went bad, it seemed. Three people decided that they wanted to take this pumped up car and the kid didn’t wanna let it go, and he died for that reason, likely. So these three were finally arrested, but they were arrested because they were followed through using technology. License plate camera readers, all the video cameras along the escape route, if you will. They finally were able to build that case. Do you think that the state should be able to help some of these cities get online to have like these crime centers in the cloud? Where do you think the state should be in creating a high tech environment for more effective crime prosecution? And being able to make public areas safety for our citizens safety.

[00:23:12] John: I think they should to a certain degree. I’m against government, big government, watching you all the time. But this is where it was very helpful. I think in curbing crime, you’ve got a much better opportunity to do that by having fully funded police. Police being very visible. If police are very visible you more than likely not have that crime. Whereas this, you’re catching them after the fact. If police are always around and they’re interacting with the citizens, they’re at the festivals and people feel comfortable with the police, the criminals are less comfortable and there’s gonna be less crime. But if you just have the cameras and everything, well now you’re kind of catching everybody after the fact. So that’s kind of how I feel about that.

[00:24:07] Rico: Well, some of it, like for example, fusūs is a company here in the city of Peachtree Corners. Actually they’re based here, but they’re a national company. Their systems have been signed onto cities like ours, like the city of Atlanta, other cities. Even across quite a few counties in California. Where they’re intredicting the crime, they’re actually being used while the crime is happening almost. That’s the idea, to be able to chase down the criminal almost in that live moment to be able to get them. It’s almost, it’s impossible unless you do like minority report, right? Like that movie?

[00:24:41] John: Right.

[00:24:42] Rico: Where you like get them before they do the crime. That unfortunately it doesn’t.

[00:24:46] John: A precog.

[00:24:47] Rico: Yes. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen. So you either get them while it’s happening or you get them post happening, but you don’t want get them like three weeks later if you could get them a day or two later. Because the same criminal is gonna do more crime during that time, right?

[00:25:01] John: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:25:03] Rico: So and the fact that, for example, I don’t know what the exact numbers are, but most police departments have budget for more cops, for more police on the beat. But they cannot fill the position with qualified people. It’s like everything else. There’s just not enough people wanting to be police officers. What do you do there?

[00:25:23] John: Well, I think you have to make it more enticing in many different ways. One is respect. I mean, we have to be able to say we respect and we back our police officers and we don’t have anything like the defund the police going on. So I think a lot of it has to do with respect and also with training. If the police officers feel like they’re very well trained and they’re also out on the beat in the community where the people really respect and admire them. I think you’re gonna have a whole different idea with the police. It’s hard to fill right now because it’s a little bit controversial. There’s the whole defund the police, there’s all the eyes on the police. I think that you have to make it more appealing for people. That’s one way. Pay is another way, but there’s a lot of different ways to make something more appealing.

[00:26:17] Rico: Okay. When we come to big tech. I know that part of your fight is against censorship. I don’t know how that would apply to, what do you mean by the censorship part of big tech? Do you mean like how the way Google and Facebook presents news or works with political viewpoints?

[00:26:37] John: Well yeah. I think it happens in many different venues whether they be political or any other way. But the ideas that they wanna shift and shape how you think. And I don’t think that that should be allowed. I don’t think that they should ban a certain type of expression or one side of a political campaign or anything like that. I think that things should be open and free.

[00:27:04] Rico: Do you think Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his statement that he would let Trump back on Twitter, do you think that’s a good thing?

[00:27:14] John: Yeah, actually I do. I think that every person, unless they’re in some kind of criminal activity ought to be able to have free speech. I don’t see why he would be spent censored.

[00:27:26] Rico: Okay. Alright, fair enough. Because, I mean, we do believe in free speech, right? We are America.

[00:27:32] John: Absolutely.

[00:27:33] Rico: This is a republic, although most people think of it as a democracy, but we are republic.

[00:27:38] John: Republic, yeah.

[00:27:38] Rico: Right. So we want to make sure that people can put their viewpoint out. You might not believe in them, right? But that’s okay.

[00:27:46] John: So if I’m on Twitter and I don’t like Donald Trump, I block him. If I’m on Twitter and I don’t like President Biden, I block him. So, I mean, that’s how I think it should be. Not that Twitter should block somebody.

[00:28:02] Rico: Yeah. I think that gets a little complicated, right? Because they’re like a publishing tool, although they’re not the publisher of the news, they’re just the feed for it, the pipe for it. But when you throw in algorithms and the algorithm decides what you’re going to see as an individual whether it’s conservative, liberal, mean spirited, or whatever. Then is it Google that should be looked at and because maybe the algorithm is censoring what I’m gonna say. Right, I guess. Yeah, it’s a bit of that. That it gets complicated there, I think.

[00:28:38] John: It does.

[00:28:39] Rico: If we were all smart enough, we’d figure it out, I guess. So accountability. I guess that gets into the accountability and the false reporting and the misreporting and the misinformation and the disinformation and all that, right?

[00:28:52] John: Absolutely.

[00:28:53] Rico: So all that, I mean that happens within this. I mean, I could be on TikTok for 30 minutes and I’ll see things. I’ll be like, wait, I know that’s not, that’s just being put out there. There’s no explanation. And who knows if that was shot three years ago, that riot. And it looks like it’s just happening. So we should let that, I mean that’s part of free expression, I guess.

[00:29:14] John: Yep.

[00:29:14] Rico: Right?

[00:29:15] John: Yeah, it sure is. And it’s part of you know you’ve gotta be able to look at something and go, is that correct? Or is it not? And it should be the person’s own viewpoint, whether they want to act on it or not act on it.

[00:29:31] Rico: So, critical thinking should be part of every student, every person, right? Should have some sort of critical thinking?

[00:29:38] John: Yep. Absolutely.

[00:29:40] Rico: Alright, cool. Yeah, that’s one of the things my kids learned through the IB program, the International Baccalaureate was critical thinking. How to come, because that, if you’re familiar with the IB program.

[00:29:52] John: I listened to the principal of Norcross talk about that because I was over at 45 South speaking, as was he, so yeah.

[00:30:02] Rico: Oh, okay. Okay. So you got to know a little bit about that.

[00:30:05] John: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. It was, it was very enlightening.

[00:30:08] Rico: Yeah, it’s a worldview actually. It’s looking at education and topics with a worldview to some degree. A more global look at these issues and these topics. Math and world history can have some things that tie them together, right? They shouldn’t be just separated out as siloed subjects.

[00:30:26] John: Exactly.

[00:30:27] Rico: So where have you been actually, where have you been speaking lately? And and what do you find out there, when you’re speaking at like 45 South? That must have been the Norcross community meeting, I guess?

[00:30:37] John: Yeah.

[00:30:37] Rico: They do that. What is it that you are finding people are interested in? What type of questions are you getting at those meetings?

[00:30:45] John: The main things are pretty similar. It’s what you see out there in society. They’re worried about their pocket books. They’re worried that bacon’s gone up from $4 to $9. They’re worried about their gas, they’re worried about their property taxes. They’re worried about what’s going to happen next. And so that’s one thing. Crime has been another. A lot of people are asking about you know, you talked about the murder at the QT. Well, that’s really close to home for a lot of us. I’ve gotten gas there many times. There’s another murder just a couple days ago in Lawrenceville, which is out of the district but pretty close. And I don’t know if you go shop at that Sprouts there, but you see all the, all the donuts. You know. People are just taking over the street right there.

[00:31:33] Rico: Right.

[00:31:34] John: Yeah, there’s all kinds of these kinds of issues. And then obviously education. People want to know what’s your idea on how you fix this? You know, Georgia’s ranked 38th out of 50 states. And yet we’re already paying our teachers 18th. So I think there’s a lot of things that are on people’s minds that are similar. And I’ve gone over most of how I think about those three problems. And I think it’s vital that we attack those things and get them on the right track. Because right now, and this is really why I’m running. I have an ad going that I’m not a politician. Well, I’m not. I’ve never thought about running for office. I just see what I see. I see inflation spiraling out of control. I see men in women’s sports. I see you know, the crime. Atlanta’s actually got a higher crime rate per capita than Chicago, and it’s creeping up this way. I mean, there’s, there’s all kinds of crime issues that we have right now in Gwinnett County. So these are a lot of the questions that are being asked. And I think that instead of pointing the finger from one side to another, I think that we have to have real life solutions. I think that I’ve been able to prove that I can create real life solutions and in working with a lot of different types of people and getting them all on the same page. So instead of pointing the finger, I think we need people that will work together and get a product.

[00:33:10] Rico: Cool. Okay, fair enough. Do you want to share, are there any topics that we haven’t discussed that you’d like to share your viewpoints on?

[00:33:18] John: There’s one, and maybe this is controversial. I don’t know. When I first threw my hat in there, I didn’t know who I was running against. So it was JT Wu and Ruwa and we’ve been kind of going around. And then I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and start telling me about Ruwa And now I’ve got it on one of my push cards. They said, hey you know, she’s been the communications director for CAIR, C-A-I-R. It’s the Council for American Islamic Relations. And they’re like, do you know what that is? I said, I’ve heard of it. And they’re like, well they’ve been labeled as a terrorist organization by the UAE, United Arab Emirates. They’re supported by Hamas and Hezbollah, what are your thoughts on that? I said, well it’s pretty shocking. I said, let me see. And it does say that she was employed by CAIR or is employed by CAIR. And I don’t know what to think about that. That’s very shocking to me.

[00:34:13] Rico: Now the UAE, but not the United States has that organization on a list. Is what you’re saying.

[00:34:20] John: That’s correct. But also if you look at, I haven’t delved into it too much, but there’s also an article where basically the FBI says the same thing. Because they’re doing that investigation on the whole UAE tie-in. So, I don’t know. I would just say, I think the citizens should probably look into it themselves. And that’s.

[00:34:41] Rico: Yeah, I mean that should definitely be, not for anything, but that should definitely be fact checked. Because, and I don’t have the facilities to do that here. But anyone with critical thinking in mind should be able to fact check that and for their own sake. Because listen. Other countries like the UAE can do that. Let’s say they can declare an organization as a terrorist organization, but if it’s not on the United States watch list or such. I’m not saying that that’s wrong or anything, but every country has their own agenda and what they try, what they’re going to be calling what. And we’ve seen that with the Saudis and other countries. So I would put anyone that’s listening to this aspect of it that they should check on that themselves.

[00:35:22] John: A hundred percent. Yeah.

[00:35:24] Rico: Okay. Alright, cool. So John, so what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna turn this over to you. I’m going to ask you to ask for the vote. Tell people why this show vote for you, and where they can find out more information.

[00:35:36] John: Okay. So I feel like I’m a very strong candidate for this because I’ve worked with so many different people of all different walks of life. Different cultures, different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnicities. And I’ve been able to get all of these people to work together to attain great things, great accomplishments, great goals. And I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. I’ve had a company for quite some time. And we grew the company from zero to 120 plus employees. And in doing that, it’s like you meet all kinds of different people and you get to really see how different people are and how they think and work with them and make a better company or make a better product. Or in this case, make a better district 97, make a better Georgia. And basically include everybody you know? That’s one of the things I love about what I do. I travel quite extensively and I love meeting people from all over the place. And yeah, you go down to, like I said, the bayou in Louisiana and somebody’s wading waste deep in alligator infested water and they think nothing of it. And just to meet somebody like that and understand their mentality behind it is very interesting. So I love all these different people that I’ve met and how I can get them to attain a great goal. And that’s what I bring to this seat. Basically being able to work with a lot of people and not being a politician of always pointing to the other side and saying they’re bad for some reason. But that you include everybody and get everybody working. Be fiscally responsible, because I feel that sometimes government isn’t that way. But as a business owner, you’ve got to understand fiscal responsibility and make sure that money is spent correctly. So yeah, I want to make sure that I do everything I can to handle the inflation, the crime so that people feel safe and secure in their homes and when they go out. And that we help fix the education system. So if you go to www.JohnChan4.Ga.com, you can go in there and sign up as a volunteer. You can go in there and donate. We could definitely use some donations right now and gosh, I would love to have your vote come November 8th.

[00:38:18] Rico: Cool. John, I appreciate your time today doing this podcast with me. Hang in there with me for a second while I just sign off. But everyone, thanks for listening in. Share this with your friends. If you’re listening to this as an audio podcast on Spotify or Apple, please leave a review. That’s how more people can find out about our podcast. If you’re looking at this on Facebook or YouTube feel free to share it among your friends. To find out a little bit more us, Peachtree Corners Life, about Peachtree Corners Magazine. This is the latest issue, just came out, hitting the post office this week. By the time you watch this, you should have it in hand. If not, let me know. You can find out more about our podcast at LivinginPeachtreeCorners.com as well. Also, thank you again to Eli and EV Remodeling, Inc. for being our sponsor of these podcasts and for being an advertiser and supporter of our journalism here in Peachtree Corners. John, thank you again. I appreciate you coming out.

[00:39:17] John: Thanks so much. It was great being here.