STATE OF THE BRAND NOT FAKE NEWS By Bill Clark
GP has some news to relay to our friends and customers. We are excited to announce that GP will be
moving further into western Oklahoma with the acquisition of Lindley Farm Equipment in Cordell, OK. Rick Lindley and his family have been in the farm equipment business in the Cordell area for two generations. We appreciate the confidence Rick has placed in GP and we look forward to delivering our brand of service to a new group of customers. The big news with most equipment dealers today is the “supply chain issue.” That’s a new fancy term for “you can’t get what you want fast enough.” This too shall pass, but as a dealer, we are being told that it will probably be 2023 before we start to see equipment inventory back to somewhat normal levels. The good news is that Kubota has moved much of its manufacturing to the US, and Kubota has plans to invest in even more US manufacturing. Kubota construction equipment is now being manufactured in Salina, Kansas along with Great Plains and Land Pride manufacturing in Tipton, Ellsworth, Lucas, Assaria, Kipp, Abilene and Enterprise, KS. Kubota's investment in KS along with their increased manufacturing capacity in OH and GA means that, in the near future, the majority of the equipment we sell will be made in the USA. Not only are we proud to know that Kubota equipment is made in the USA, but having production in the geographical center of the US will alleviate at least some of the “supply chain issues” we are experiencing today. This past year I’ve been asked literally hundreds of times why we are so short on equipment. Some were even concerned we were going out of business! My typical answer is; this is what we are being told, or this is what I’ve read. As Will Rogers said, “all I know is what I read in the papers”. But, do I really know what I’m being told in any of the media is the truth? Is the news really fake? I’ve become very frustrated the past few months trying to discern what is the truth concerning Supply Chain Issues, Voting Fraud, Critical Race Theory, Vaccine Mandates, Climate Change, Border Security, Ivermectin, Censorship of Speech, etc. The list could go on and on. It seems that truth to some is whatever helps advance their own personal or political goals. When there is no basis for truth, there is no moral basis for right or wrong. So, it becomes easy to report or repeat whatever it takes to accomplish an agenda. By the way, fake news started with Satan putting his spin on God’s first command in Genesis chapter 3. Satan asked Eve, “Did God really say ‘You must not eat from any tree in the Garden’?” Sadly, fake news has become acceptable by many in today’s world of relative truth. But, truth is not relative, it is absolute and based upon God’s word. So, what is the truth? That is the same question that was asked by Pilate after Jesus said in John 18:37, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” Unfortunately for Pilate, he didn’t understand that he was looking Truth in the face. Charles Spurgeon said it best, “Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.” Some of the issues are so black and white that it’s easy to have discernment. Beware though, fake news tries to be “almost right” and almost right is still 100% wrong.
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GPL Winter 2021
