Times have changed. Uninformed assumptions, illogical accusations, and outright lies are passed around as truth. Being blames in a hostile spirit is not the same as being criticized in a friendly constructive one. Yet over-sensitive egocentric persons usually act as if it were! What are we to do? As disciples who strive to “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18.9), we must do something. A close friend or a kindly spiritual guide will render him a better service by making him more aware of his frailties than by remaining silent. For it is these latter that are the seed of his future suffering, as well as the bars to his future progress. Every man whose orbit touches your own is unwittingly your teacher. He has something of value for you, however small it be. Let him perform his mission, then. Do not dim the lesson by covering it with clouds of negative emotion. Most neurotics cannot take any criticism—no matter how helpful, constructive or well-meant it be—but only exaggerated praise. Moral advice is not usually wanted, liked, or obeyed. The more it is pressed upon a person, the more it is likely to be resisted. He is content to stay as he is. Criticism of others should be benevolent, constructive, and suggestive, firm, yet sympathetic. He needs to learn that it is not necessary to be rude in order to be outspoken. It is a brutish sign to be unable to put vigour, emphasis, and feeling into criticism without using obscene four-letter words. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

Even while you are criticizing and protecting against what is negative, keep an even balance and affirm what is beneficial in life. He can give others full understanding, but only by intellectually identifying himself with them. If it is not to be dangerous, this is an inner process which must be temporary, even momentary. To give others who hold different beliefs a mental sympathy—enough to understand what it is they hold and why—calls for a capacity to detach oneself temporarily from one’s own beliefs. This is not to be done, of course, by rejecting them in any way but by just letting them stand as they are while moving over and into the other person to get an understanding of his point of view. Such a capacity cannot be acquired without enough humility and selflessness to make it possible to entertain a distasteful viewpoint even for a single second. Even if he finds the opinions, beliefs, and actions of others repulsive and not to his taste, he would experiment at times in the development of tolerance and in the knowledge of human nature. This can be done by entering imaginatively into their history and into their experience until he understands why they think and act as they do. That need not result in the acceptance of their attitudes, but in the comprehension of them. He should be able to give an imaginative sympathy to those whose outlook is far from his own, lower than his own. He should be able to probe understandingly into the mind and heart of men with whose views he profoundly disagrees and whose actions he instinctively abhours. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

He should be able even to put himself without wincing into the shoes of a hardened criminal. However, he should do all this only momentarily, only just enough to glimpse what is this mystery that is his fellow man, and then return to being himself, broadened but untainted by the experience. When he deals with or speak to another person, his handling of an uncongenial person with whom he has to live or work will fail or succeed according to his practice of identifying himself with him. If the self-actualized Christian fails to do this, it means that he persists in identifying himself solely with his own little ego and its personal interests, activities, or desires—hence the irritability, bad temper, and negative reaction to the other’s deficiencies. However, if, on the contrary, he instantly tries to feel with him, to identify himself with him, to give him temporary intellectual sympathy—that is, to practise love—there will be forgiveness of the other’s failings and mistakes, good humoured acceptance of his deficiencies, and laughing patience with his shortcomings. Both persons will then make more progress more rapidly. If the self-actualized Christians tolerance, sympathy, and understanding are wide enough to enter every point of view, this does not mean that his judgment, balance, and discrimination are inactive. He is to see men and women not only as they are with their meanness and frailty, their wrong-doing and cruelty, but also as they are unwittingly struggling to become—perfectly expressive of the divine in them. And if the uglier one is to be the first impression, the lovelier one must follow quickly as the final impression. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

In doing this the self-actualized Christian makes truth out of life, instead of bringing falsity into it, as some rainbow-dreaming cults would have him do. More, he gives the best possible help to others in their struggle because he brings the kingdom of Heaven to their Earth in the only way it can be brought. Try to understand other persons not in order to blame them but in order to understand better the operations of mind itself, the human mind. If he catches himself criticizing his critics, being indignant with those who oppose him or despondent because others have denounced him, he ought to pull himself up sharply. Instead, let him enter into their shoes for a few moments to understand why the dislike or attack him as they do, and then to give their attitude his mental sympathy for these few moments. Their statement about him may be totally false or quite true, somewhat exaggerated or willfully distorted. Nevertheless, let him continue to step imaginatively into their shoes. This attempt will not be easy and an inner struggle will probably be unavoidable before he can bring himself to make it. He is not asked to endorse their attitude or approve the emptions which give rise to it, but only to practise this useful exercise for developing tolerance and diminishing egoism. Even if the others have tried to bolster up their own egos by deriding his, the activity may seem pleasant but will prove unprofitable. For not only does it break any harmonious relations with him, but it poisons their own psyches. Thus, they punish themselves.  #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

Why should he let resentment drag him into the same error? On the contrary, they offer a chance to deny his ego, to exalt his ethical outlook, and to shift his emotional center of gravity from the negative pole to the beneficial one. Let him regard them as his tutors, possibly his benefactors. Let him take these episodes as chances both to do needed work on himself and to refuse to identify himself with negative emotions. They are to be used for present instructions and future guidance. Thus, he lifts himself out of his personal ego, actually denying himself as Jesus Christ bid him do. Until it becomes perfectly natural and quite instinctive for him to react in this philosophic manner to every provocation, temptation, or irritation, he needs to continue the inner work upon himself. He needs to drill himself every day in those particular qualities in which he is deficient. If the foregoing is to be practiced, each problem in his relations with others must be accepted as a problem in his own development. However, after that has been done and not before, since it is an indispensable perquisite, he may dismiss the problem altogether and rise to the ultimate view, where infinite goodness and calm alone reign and where there are no problems at all. The self-actualized Christian’s sympathetic understand will include both those to whom religion is vital and those to whom it is suspect. Where sympathy is prolonged excessively, when this shift of personality from oneself to another is not limited to gaining understanding of that other’s need, and is not guarded by wisdom, there will be a denial one one’s own individual being. This can lead to harm on both planes—spiritual and physical. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

Mental sympathy with others must go only as far as a certain point: if it begins to affect of negatively, we must refrain from proceeding farther. He need not stray either from the line which his thinking has been following nor the direction along which his conduct has been moving, even though he tries to give mental sympathy to different characters. Sometimes men act as the authority for their wives. Her concurrence does not alter the fact that he is using male standards and male attitudes as guidelines for female behaviour involving pleasures of the flesh, something no man should presume to do. Even if by chance he happens to guess right, what he is doing is wrong—because his wife then comes to conclusions on the basis of her husband’s reasons, not her own, and the damage to her self-confidence can be incalculable. For if he has in fact guessed right, and if she follows his suggestions and achieves greater responsivity than in the past, she must believe that he knows more about her feelings involving pleasures of the flesh than she does—and this is absolute nonsense. Exactly the same situation prevails when a wife tells a husband what he is thinking or feeling or should do. Where pleasures or the flesh is concerned, no partner can ever be the authority for the other. Each partner must accept the other as the final authority on his or her own feelings. In affirming that principle, a man and woman have taken the first step toward achieving harmony with pleasures of the flesh in marriage. They are telling each other without question the fact that they are individuals, separate but not separated, different but not dissimilar, and that their happiness must flow both from the delight they find in their differences and the security they derive from their similarities. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

This is not a conviction too easily attained, especially for young men and women. In growing up, the emphasis was never on what they shared or on an appreciation of the differences that distinguish them as male and female. On the contrary, considerable emotion was invested in sharpening the sense of difference and in using that difference as a way of defining selves with intimate passions. If girls like to talk, then a boy’s taciturnity is an assertion that he is a male. If boys like to compete, then a girl’s cooperativeness marks her as a female. Each gender defined itself by deliberately choosing not to think or feel or behave like the other. With such a heritage, it is no simple matter for a married couple to overcome the prejudice of the past and to understand that the differences between them are essentially no more and no less than the differences between any two individuals. As long as the old attitudes persist, however, as long as a man and woman use the differences between them as a way of separating themselves to prove that they are male and female, their marriage is likely to remain at best a working partnership. In those circumstances, conflicts are threatening and are consequently avoided or denied. To do otherwise would seem to put the partnership in jeopardy. However, for the man and woman who accept conflict as offering an opportunity for growth, much depends on whether they have developed an adequate system of communication. To say that disagreements can revitalize a relationship leaves open the question of how the disagreements are expressed. This is particularly true when gender is the issue. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

How indeed can a husband and wife adjust their discrepant physical needs and at the same time reinforce their marriage bond? They must find realization that a conflict involving pleasures of the flesh is not a problem in need of a solution. It is a situation that requires resolution. These are two entirely different approaches, promising radically different outcomes. Suppose a husband wishes pleasures of the flesh four times a week while he his welcomes it just twice. Arithmetic suggests a simple compromise of three times a week. However, the idea is, of course, ludicrous. The husband will still feel frustrated; the wife might feel imposed upon; and neither one would have learned anything about the other’s feelings. If that were not enough, there remains the final incongruity: the real difference between them has nothing to do with numbers. Frequently of pleasures of the flesh is almost never the true issues. Had this couple been able to communicate with each other, they could have explored the situation they were in. If possible, their goal would not have been to determine how many times to have pleasures of the flesh each weak but to discover their true feelings on the latter. Literally hundreds of alternative factors might have been operating for each partner. The husband might have felt that he was failing to excite his wife, that he was in need of more care and warmth than usual, or that he felt especially living and filled with energy. His wife might have felt oppressed by financial pressures, or unhappy because she had put on weight, or preoccupied by her new job. For this couple to ignore these matters and discuss instead the frequency of their pleasures of the flesh, would be to talk in an emotional vacuum. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

Even if they fully unburdened their feelings, they would still have to deal with the fact that the husband’s needs for pleasures of the flesh were, at least for the present, greater than those of his wife. However, their basis for approaching each other would be entirely changed; the problem would not be one of taking or demanding versus not giving or submitting—it would be that of finding the best way to express care and concern for each other and to meet the needs of which ever partner was under the greater emotional strain. This kind of communication is not easy to accomplish, but it can be achieved by any couple willing to make the effort and to abide by two principles. The calls for neutrality; the second for mutuality. The neutrality principle requires both husband and wife to assume that past discord with pleasures of the flesh will not necessarily repeat itself in the future, because each partner is motivated to try to change. Each, in brief, credits the other with good intentions and the will to implement those intentions. Each accepts full responsibility for what he or she does—or fails to do—in making the effort to act differently. And each individual accepts responsibility for functioning with pleasures of the flesh, and does not hold the other accountable for the body’s responses. If a man and woman are to have a good physical relationship, each must strive to be responsive to the other, not responsible for the other. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

Furthermore, the second principle, that of mutuality, requires all messages of pleasures of the flesh between two people, whether conveyed by words or actions, by tone of voice or touch of fingertips, to be exchanged in the spirit of having a common cause. Mutuality means two people united in an effort to discover what is best for both. In attempting to reconcile differences in their needs for pleasures of the flesh and desires, they must avoid what lawyers call “adversary proceedings,” in which each person tries to prove that he is right and his opponent is wrong. (It remains right vs. wrong even when other terms are used such as healthy vs. uptight, and everybody-does vs. nobody-I-know-does. By contrast, the principle of mutuality calls for both partners to accept the idea that is a sustained—and sustaining—physical relationship is desired, no conflict involving pleasures of the flesh can be resolved on an either/or basis. Often, of course, one partner may be in position to impose a decision on the other. Most frequently it is the husband, taking authority in matters of pleasures of the flesh as the traditional male prerogative or as simply another instance of the tune being called by whoever pays the piper. However, almost as frequently the decision is imposed by the less emotionally stable of the partners. Such is the tyranny of the neurotic over the normal that a person who suffers from persistent depression, chronic psychic exhaustion, free-floating anxieties, the need to be a martyr or another similar mental afflictions, generally succeeds in coercing a considerate partner to yield in pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

Let us feel that we are trying to become good men of warm hearts, not good statues of cold marble. It would appear that ideals that seem too remote for realization and goals that seem too high for achievement are not worth the trouble of setting up. Yet to abandon them altogether would be to lose the sense of right direction. That would be a mistake. It is wiser to keep them as ultimate ideals and goals, drawing from them inspirational and directional value. It is here and for such a purpose that the dreaming idealists themselves have their place, not in the all-or-nothing revolutionary way that they themselves think they do. It is needful to make a compromise between the facts about human nature in its present state and the ideals which it can hope to realize only in some future state. It is not necessary to go all the way with the extremists, whether in art, mysticism, politics, or economics in order to realize that we can learn something from each of them. Let us take what is adaptable in their views, but let us reject what id decidedly extreme. There are not only sins against moral virtue; there are also sin against balance and proportion. What follows is more likely to be an experience of the opposite value. How often have you heard someone say, “I laughed until I cried,” or “After we have had a big fight, our pleasures of the flesh are always so intense,” or “Just when I had given up trying, I suddenly had new strength to start again.” This is not an unusual or unnatural phenomenon. In fact, it is perfectly natural and predictable. So not condemn yourself for loving somebody deeply one moment and being furious with him the next. In such instance, your natural restraining function is simply pulling you from flying off too far in one direction. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

When you start going too far on the other, it will pull you back again. So relax, and do not try to stifle or control it. The patterns in your life is basically circular. From a central core, our emotions, values and interests ray outward to a perimeter, or circumference. In physics, when an object is moving around a central core, there is one force which constantly trues to keep it moving toward that core; this is called center-seeking, or centripetal, force. At the same time, another force is trying to move it outward away from the core; this is called center-fleeing, or centrifugal, force. When centripetal force beings the object to the center, centrifugal force pulls it out to the perimeter where centripetal force draws it back in. Then the cycle starts all over again. The basic model for this phenomenon is the atom, which consists of a nucleus in the center and electrons flying around it. In atomic physics, the positive magnetic attraction of the nucleus keeps the negatively-charged electrons from flying off into space. The nucleus is a natural restraining mechanism. In your emotional make-up, your core (or center) performs a similar function. Trouble occurs when you refuse to “listen to” your core, refuse to stay in touch with it, thereby denying one value and intensifying the opposite one all out of proportion. This is the “overcontrol.” Some people exaggerate their anger, to the detriment of their other values, particularly love. If a person expresses their love, might be fearful of what may happen. Instead, this leads to an individual expressing a degree of anger all out of proportion to what would have been called for only by their loved one’s actions. Thus, an individual symbolically “kills” their loved one for disobeying them. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

When people are unable to feel an intense amount of love, it may be a good idea to push their emotional teeter-totter to the level of intense anger. Doing this in an atmosphere which is not judgmental or “right-wrong” oriented, the individual will then be free to let the teeter-totter swing the other way, as it naturally is inclined to do. The result is a natural outpouring of the love one holds so bottled up all of one’s life. One will finally be able to express love for someone who, in the past, had been one’s enemy. If a man remains detached, he is akin to a fundamentalist minister trying to capture the depth of an African tribal celebration in fundamentalist terms. They very language and the frame of reference of the innermost is quite different from our ordinary way of thinking. I would have no quarrel with anyone who asserted the language of the novelist, poet, or musician is closer to the quality of human experience than the language of psychologists. One can distinguish what is outermost in man as that which is more or less perceived by and available to himself, from an innermost that extends from this to aspects of himself which are quite unlike the public self. Each of these areas can be roughly ordered. The real outermost is the World which we more or less agree upon and assumes exists regardless of ourselves. One can experience trees, sky, people and all “others” as though they are a World superordinate to us. It exists. Less outermost are perceptions which are relative to the perceiver. For instance, I see this room, my study, as relative to me. An empty study divorced from my presence and use of it would be something else, strange to contemplate. At about this level might he included the reaction of one person to another in which there is awareness of both as present, id est, “Your words surprise me.”  #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

At the inner border of the outermost, I would include sensation of one’s own body. It can be like a thing possessed and used. For instance, I notice a little stiffness here and there and need to change position. It is almost as though I tolerate my body as a necessary other. In this outer region, I would also include states of mind in which I think of what to say to others, so to speak—adjustments of my mask. The inner me (or to borrow the French ‘lautre moi, the other me) begins at this border and extends to puzzling and even unknown aspects of myself. Near the border of the outer, l’autre moi includes spontaneous associations of thought which arise unbidden when in a social context or alone. Inside that are vaguely felt sensations, feelings, images in something of an apparently hodge-podge order. There are states in which one can awaken the inner life to stand forth of its own. There are, in rough order toward the innermost, drifting-fantasy, auto-hypnotic inner perception, the hypnogogic state (the territory near sleep or relaxation) and dreaming while asleep. There are also so-called abnormal states such as hallucinations, altered perceptions of the body and outer World, visions, et cetera. The whole of this inner me, this inner territory, is marked by one distinct difference from the outer me. The life of the inner arises spontaneously, showing surprising twists and turns. The outer me is guided by circumstances or what I choose to do and think. The border of the inner is reached when spontaneous thought, feelings, or images arise, perhaps related to the outer situation at hand, but still autonomously surprising in their nature. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

The surprise may be a little one, where one can see the associative link. Or it may be like a dream where the message of the inner is not really understandable. To the conscious outer self the inner, or l’autre moi, is marked by this spontaneous unaccountability. There are lovely images in literature where the relationship of the inner and outer are portrayed. For instance, in the Christian Bible there are references to the relationship of the servant to the master of the house. It may come as a surprise to ego, but in this imagery, ego is servant and the inner is the master. The master provides and the servant makes do with what is provided, id est, the inner springs provide resources and the outer is judged by what is made of them. Some creative people make good use of the inner and are judged favourably by themselves and the World. At this point mankind is no longer even defended. On the contrary, “to attack that wild beast, man, with every possible weapon, and to attack the creator…” that is the intention. Overwhelmed at the thought of having God as an enemy, intoxicated with the solitude experienced by great criminals (“I alone against humanity”), M. Maldoror goes to war against creation and its author. The romantics maintained with the greatest care the fatal opposition between human solitude and divine indifference—the literary expression of this solitude being the isolated castle and the dandy. However, Mr. Latreamont’s work deals with a more profound drama. It is quite apparent that he found this solitude insupportable and that, ranged against creation, he wished to destroy its limits. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

Far from wanting to fortify the reign of humanity with crenelated towers, he wishes to merge it with all other reigns. He brought back creation to the shores of the primeval seas where morality, as well as every other problem, loses all meaning—including the problem, which he considers so terrifying, of the immortality of the soul. He had no desire to create a spectacular image of the rebel, or of the dandy, opposed to creation, but to mingle mankind and the World together in the same general destruction. He attacked the very frontier that separates mankind from the universe. Total freedom, the freedom of crime in particular, supposes the destruction of human frontiers. It is not enough to condemn oneself and all mankind to execration. The reign of mankind must still be brought back to the level of the reign of the instinct. We find in Mr. Lautreamont this refusal to recognize rational consciousness, this return to the elementary which is one of the marks of a civilization in revolt against itself. It is no longer a question or recognizing appearances, but of no longer existing at all on the conscious level. The child has a picture of the World which is quite different from the way it appears to his parents. It is a fairy-tale World, full of monsters and magic, and it persists all through his life and forms the archaic background for his script. A simple example is the night fear or night terror, where Jeder calls out that there is a bear in his room. His parents come in and turn on the lights and show him that there are no bears there, or else become angry and tell him to hush up and go to sleep. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

Either way, his Children knows that there is, or was, a bear in the room nevertheless. Like Galileo, he cries: “Eppur se muove.” The difference in the two ways of handling it does not change the fact of the bear. The reasoning approach means that when there is a bear, you parents will come and protect you and the bear will go into hiding; the angry approach means that when there is a bear, you are on your own. However, the bear stays, either way. By the time he grows up, Jeder’s World image or script set has become much more elaborate and also much better hidden, unless it reappears with its original distortions in the form of delusions. Usually, however, there is no inkling of it until it appears in a dream, and then suddenly much of the patient’s behaviour becomes coherent and understandable. What do person do what they have been provoked to emotional arousal? The alternative reactions of a person to emotional arousal are immediate uncontrolled expression and release, suppression or emotional behaviour, and repression of the emotional quality experience. Immediate expression is the characteristic pattern among young children when they experience emotional tension. They laugh, cry, strike out, jump up and down, throw tantrums—in short, they appear to be almost out of control. It is as if their cerebral cortex has been dethroned from rational control over behaviour and their entire organism is directed by “explosions” of subcortical brain structures, such as the hypothalamus. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

On the beneficial ide, immediate expression of emotional tension in this uncontrolled manner is effective in getting rid of the tension. Once it is given expression, the person is able to proceed in a more controlled and less tense way. On the negative side, immediate expression is undesirable, especially in an adult, because: Society condemns uncontrolled expression of emotion in adults on a purely normative and moral basis. Adults who throw tantrums or who cannot control their emotions are viewed as immature, as person who cannot be trusted with important responsibilities. While expressing uncontrol emotions, the person is out of touch with external reality. Persons out of touch with reality do not perceive the World with accuracy—indeed, they are not interested in the external World during the tantrum. Further, they do not protect other important values while in those throes of an “affective storm.” They may break things that they value; they may say or do things that cost them their job, marriage, reputation. It is so very important that you do not let praise and adulation go to your head. Adulation is poison. You better never lose sight of the fact that the Lord put you where you are according to His design, which you do not understand. Acknowledge the Lord for whatever good you can accomplish and give Him the credit and the glory and do not worry about that coming to yourself. If you can do that, you will go forward with love for the people and a great respect for them and you will try to accomplish what your office demands of you. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

Direction is telling others what to do. Providing effective direction requires that leaders communicate the desires end state for the direction they provide. To accomplish a mission, leaders prioritize tasks, assign responsibility, supervise, and ensure subordinates perform to standard. They ensure subordinates clearly understand their guidance, while allowing subordinates the opportunity to demonstrate initiative withing the overall commander’s intent. Providing clear direction allows subordinates initiative to adopt their tasks withing the commander’s intent when circumstances change. The Sacramento Fire Department requires leaders who provide direction and firefighters who can execute without the need for continuous guidance. Motivation is the will and initiative to do what is necessary to accomplish a mission. While motivation comes from within, others’ words and actions affect it. The Sacramento Fire Department understands others’ needs and desires, and aligns and elevates individuals desires into team goals. Even if it means risking their lives, the inspire others to accomplish those larger goals. At other times, such as constrained or dangerous situations, the leader gets the fire fighters to do things quickly and explains the reasons later. Indirect approaches to motivation can be as effective as direct approaches. Setting a personal example can sustain the drive in others. Then becomes apparent when crews share hardships and risks with each other. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

“Social life? I’ve been going with a lady, and it’s getting serous, so I have to be thinking about marriage. She hasn’t been put through the wringer yet, so she doesn’t really know what fire service is like. It’s happened with some of my other women, where I don’t show up at all because I’m at a fire. Or we’re out someplace and a fire call comes in, and I have to stop the date and go to the fire, because I’m needed. But our first date was kind of funny. We went out with some friends and their wives, and were sitting around the house toward the end of the evening, and a fire came in. I said, ‘Well, no time like the present to break into the fire service, huh?’ And off I went. I went on the fire call, and she was taken home by some of the other wives. I don’t think any woman likes to be left at home in those situation. But the fire department is my first love and always will be my first love. And when duty calls, I have to go.” Understanding the expectations and applying the attributes and competencies prepares the Sacramento Fire Department for situations they are likely to encounter. Fire fighters who gain expertise through operational assignments, institutional learning, and self-development will be versatile enough to adapt to most situations and grow into greater responsibilities. All members of the Sacramento Fire Department are loyal, dedicated to duty, respectful, selfless, honourable, possess a great deal of integrity and display personal courage in the face of danger and adversity. You can save lives by making a donation to the Sacramento Fire Department. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. In an effort to help America pull through the massive national deficit, please buy American made cars. American made cars used to be the envy of the World and because American car brands are offering a wide range of options, from family SUVs to electric vehicles and luxury sedans, we are now seeing a resurging interest. American made cars are equal or superior to those made overseas. The Chevrolet Trax, for instance, is a well-designed, fuel efficient, and safe SUV. And as you know, there is no better car on Earth than 1950-1970s American Muscle Car. Americans make sure superior product, but we are buying things from other nations. American food imports have risen by 300 percent since 1999. American farmland declined by nearly 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022. As of 2022, there were 880.1 million acres of land dedicated to farming, compared to 900.1 million in 2017. The data shows there are now little more than 1.9 million farms in the country.  Americans and American corporations spent $136 billion on food and beverages from other countries. It is a national security risk to lose American Farms and farmers. If there is a war, and most of our meat, produce, poultry, dairy, and fruit is coming from foreign counties, we stand the risk of starving. With war breaking out all over the World, in these uncertain times, it is very important to bring American farms back. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. As money flows, it influences further investment. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. Also, to ensure that we have farmland for future use, we need to start limiting the number of people allowed to immigrant to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a populations that equally represents all races of people. If Americans continue to spend money on American products, then more need to be made to keep up the inventory. When investors notice these goods are selling, it gives them the confidence to pour more money into that local business. It shows that people want these goods made in America and pressures investors to keep these goods and services in America. The jobs stay here, the business stays in American, wages naturally increase, and more money is invested to keep up with demand. This reduces the burden on the taxpayer. When you support American businesses, that money stays in our economy and can help to reduce the national debt. The government creates debt by borrowing from businesses in the private sector or from foreign countries. It also increases the national debt by spending more than it gains in tax revenue in a fiscal year. When people shop locally, more tax money stays in the economy and goes to the government. This way, it keeps more money in our national economy and keeps more jobs located in American which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the nation debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by send more money overseas. Buying American made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards in regard to pollution. American companies have to be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Moreover, please remember to respect law and order and treat your elders with the utmost dignity and kindness possible. And take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. It is inborn in the human minds to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy.  I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

Ventris Place

Laguna Park, CA | From the Mid 500’s

Now Selling!

Welcome to the New Fabulous Forties! This intimate enclave of 37 homesites with available one- and two-story floorplans is the place to be in Sacramento. Waking up to a home you love sets just the right tone for what is ahead. Ventris Place offers beautifully designed homes. Danville, Residence 4, has 3 to 4 bedrooms and a loft across 1,846 square feet of living space.

Danville gives two levels, each one with its own defining purpose to create exactly what you need and want in the moment. Your home will flex with you, whether you need to invite work or play right into your comfort zone.

There are also nooks that conjure up a visionary escape, welcoming you to lounge or create for the perfect work love balance. A main level with sweeping, open spaces and down to earth textures and tones, is designed with all the luxury details and faraway feels, much like the extended Laguna Park neighbourhood it occupies.

Organically designed to pull the outdoors and the indoors out, you can dine alfresco right of your gourmet kitchen or make the night bright, sitting on your side yard, for an entirely fresh perspective. A setting that is as cool as it is calm, elegant, and ready for the way you want to live.

You will enjoy this home for generations to come. Just a few steps from your door and located in the Elk Grove School District, enjoy the features of the 22 acres North Laguna Creek Park, which includes paved paths, tennis courts, a basketball court, playgrounds, picnic areas, ball fields and 119-acre Wildlife Area and Interpretive Trail.

Your new home is within walking distance to Cosumnes River College and Regal RA Laguna Village and 24-Hour Fitness Laguna Sport Gym. Also, in close proximity to Kaiser Medical Centers, Winco Foods, Shell and Chevron gas stations, Walmart, and highway 99.

This is the perfect community for those who are on the go, or just want to enjoy life at a slower place. The convenience is uniquely charming. https://nextgenerationcapital.us/new-homes-elk-grove-ventris-place/

Wishing you lots of love and happiness in your new home. #VentrisPlace

At the heart of every BMW is a powerful engine that delivers exceptional performance. Whether it’s a four-cylinder engine in a compact model or a V8 in a high-performance M series, BMW engines are designed to provide thrilling acceleration and a smooth ride. Despite their power, BMW engines are also known for their efficiency, offering an excellent balance of performance and fuel economy.

The Best Prices in Town:https://bmw.niello.com/new-inventory/index.htm