In America, many people think that the politicians are impotent because no one with the qualities of a leader has been entering the political race. If one enters one of the two major political parties, many of them are there for status, money, and success. There is, however, tremendous importance in having trained expert officialdom in America. Our officialdom was once second to none in the world. The Republican Party was once known for only supporting the rich and being patriotic Americans, and the Democratic Party has always been known for creating taxes and supporting less affluent Americans. However, some people are now saying that the Republicans are a pitifully small group of American pygmies in comparison to the Democrats. And that it is nauseating when these disrespectful, conceited zeroes dare to criticize the man who is a thousand times greater. Some Republicans in Congress are upset at the way the President is handling foreign policy. Although President Trump has been focused on deals to resolve conflicts abroad, Senators such as Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Roger Wicker, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are having some rumblings about the way he is handling his business. Senator McConnell is quoted as saying, “If Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors.” Marjorie Taylor Greene has been very upset by the way the President is handling the Middle East and plans to resign from Congress in January. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31
Also, Senator Ron Johnson is vehemently against the Trump administration’s plan for the $2,000 tariff dividend proposal, even while Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Senator Johnson said, “We have to address the deficit problem. We are on borrowed time. If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans. We can’t afford it.” Yet, the House Republicans seem to always favor the wealthy and leave the working families behind. The 2025 reconciliation bill gave huge tax breaks to wealthy individuals, businesses, and large corporations. The average family earning less than $50,000 gets $300 in tax cuts in 2027, while the average tax filer earning $1million or more a year would receive about $90,000 in tax breaks. As President Trump explained, the revenue from the tariff dividends comes from other countries, so it is not costing taxpayers anything. Now, the problem with the Democratic Party is that they used to be for working-class people and the less affluent, but they are now using their resources and power to support illegal immigrants more than they have ever supported Americans. For instance, Maxine Waters, Jimmy Gomez, Norma Torres, Adriano Espaillat, and Nydia Velázquez were not allowed to enter a federal detention center to check on people who were detained in immigration raids or in protests against the raids, but believed they should have been allowed to enter the building as members of Congress. Ms. Waters was specifically there to see David Huerta. When was the last time you heard of Democrats advocating for Americans accused of crimes or visiting jails or prisons to check on the conditions or see how specific prisoners are doing? Furthermore, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has done a study that suggests the financial burden that illegal immigrants have cost taxpayers is upwards of $400 billion annually, and since state and local governments cannot borrow or print money like the federal government, they have to balance their budgets by either absorbing this cost through raising taxes or they have to cut services to their citizens, which they have been doing. Imagine how spending $400 billion on modernizing public facilities would benefit communities. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31
For many Americans, politicians have become enzymes of decomposition. First, this is because they lack the strength to move their ideas from the haze of nightclubs into reality. Also, the Democratic Party was a principled minority party and a handicap to the government because the party did not wish to sustain itself by participating in the existing political order. They dissociated themselves from the traditional system by importing illegal immigrants and giving them cash aid and government assistance, so they or their children will become future voters for the Democratic Party, which will help them to stay in office. The Democratic Party, of course, was not excepted, and that spells tragedies for their political careers because they have leadership qualities, but not the type of qualities that law-abiding citizens tolerate. Many people feel that the Democratic Party has soullessness and that their representation could eventually preclude their ascendancy because it is essentially a mob dictatorship, and the power and assistance are vanishing from the Americans who support them. Being seen as a strong country depends on our nation receiving the necessary amount of respect from other countries. This respect depends on the existence of a powerful government that refuses to allow crime and disorder in its country and prioritizes the needs of its people over those of foreigners. A respected country does not find it unpleasant to manage its own strength. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31
President Trump is seen as a martyr. He has never betrayed confidence in the eyes of the masses, and this has resulted in his having the masses absolutely behind him. No power in the political system can seriously challenge him. He has caused the officialdom to be highly respectable, of rare respectability, one may say. However, the Democratic Party leaves the future of the nation completely in the dark. Karl Marx condemned the State in no uncertain terms, saying that its existence and the existence of servitude are inseparable. Marx thought, it is true, that the dialectical truths were superior to psychological truths. What does the dialectic say? That, “the abolition of the State has no meaning except among communists, where it is an inevitable result of the suppression of classes, the disappearance of which necessarily leads to the disappearance of the need for a power organized by one class for the oppression of another.” So, many people currently see the Republican Party and the Democratic Party as forces that are suppressing the classes and only supporting the wealthy and foreigners. The Christian prophecy that Jesus Christ will come and end all suffering is something that people on Earth have been praying for because the political system does not represent them. However, if people lose faith and keep experiencing hardships, this could be very dangerous and lead to fatalism becoming more popular. Then, if it is certain that the kingdom will come, what does it matter? Suffering is never provisional for the man who does not believe in the future. #RandolphHarris 4 of 31
In the perspective of the Marxist prophecy, nothing matters. In any event, when the bourgeois class has disappeared, the proletariat will establish the rule of the universal man at the summit of production, by the very logic of productive development. What does it matter that this should be accomplished by dictatorship and violence? In this New Jerusalem, echoing with the roar of miraculous machinery, who will still remember the cry of the victim? The golden age, postponed until the end of history and coincident, to add to its attractions, with an apocalypse, therefore justifies everything. The prodigious ambitions of Marxism must be considered and its inordinate doctrine evaluated, to understand that hope on such a scale lead to the inevitable neglect of problems that therefore appear to be secondary. “Communism insofar as it is the real appropriation of the real appropriation of the human essence by man and for man, in so far as it is the return of man to himself as a social being—in other words, as a human being—a complete conscious return which preserves the values of the inner movement, this communism, being absolute naturalism, coincides with humanism: it is the real end of the quarrel between man and nature, between man and man, between essence and existence, between externalization and the affirmation of self, between liberty and necessity, between the individual and the species. It solves the mystery of history and is aware of having solved it.” It is only the language here that attempts to be scientific. Basically, where is the difference from Fourier, who announces “fertile deserts, sea water made drinkable and tasting of violets, eternal spring…”? #RandolphHarris 5 of 31
The eternal springtime of mankind is foretold to us in the language of an encyclical. If not the kingdom of man, what can man without God want and hope for? This explains the exaltation of Marxist disciples. In a society without anguish, it is easy to ignore death,” says one of them. However, and this is the real condemnation of our society, the anguish of death is a luxury that is felt far more by the idler than by the worker, who is stifled by his own occupation. However, every kind of socialism is Utopian, most of all scientific socialism. Utopia replaces God by the future. Then it proceeds to identify the future with ethics; the only values are those which serve this particular future. For that reason, Utopias have almost always been coercive and authoritarian. Marx, insofar as he is a Utopian, does not differ from his frightening predecessors, and one part of his teaching more than justifies his successors. Communist systems frequently lead to the denial or severe restriction of fundamental individual rights and liberties. The concept of the collective often takes precedence over the individual, meaning personal freedoms are subordinated to the perceived greater good of the state and society. This prioritization can result in the suppression of various freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. The right to private property is abolished or severely curtailed under communist governance. Freedom of religion is also commonly restricted, with states enforcing official atheism or tightly controlling religious practices. These suppressions occur to maintain state control, eliminate dissent, and enforce ideological conformity, viewing any challenge to the ruling party’s authority or doctrines as a threat. #RandolphHarris 6 of 31
Within communist systems, independent political activities are not tolerated, and citizens’ freedom of movement can be limited both domestically and internationally. The absence of legal protections and due process means individuals lack recourse against state actions, with state organs having extrajudicial powers. This framework allows for the systematic curtailment of civil liberties and the protection of the law. The ideological distortion is often fraught with unfathomable danger; this, plus the constant fear of catastrophe, gives people in communist systems an orientation toward sudden death, and thus a constant alertness toward the judgment which might have to be faced at any moment. People in communist systems often speak as if lightning is about to strike behind them the next moment. This is in reference to the mysterious thunderstorm when the government has total control and can eliminate due process. An excessive expectation of catastrophe, an all-too-anxious wish to be ready for the judgment, is part of a godless world. Now, anyone who reads the New Testament, even superficially, cannot help but notice the complete absence of this world of disunion, conflict, and ethical problems. Not man’s falling apart from God, from men, from things, and from himself, but rather the rediscovered unity, reconciliation, is now the basis of the discussion and the “point of decision of the specifically ethical experience.” The life and activity of men is not at all problematic or tormented or dark: it is self-evident, joyful, sure, and clear. The freedom of Jesus is not the arbitrary choice of one among innumerable possibilities; it consists, on the contrary, precisely in the complete simplicity of His action, which is never confronted by a plurality of possibilities, conflicts or alternatives, but always only by one thing. This one thing Jesus calls the will of God. He says that to do this will is His meant. This will of God is His life. He lives and acts not by the knowledge of good and evil but by the will of God. There is only one will of God. In it, the origin is recovered; in it, there is established the freedom and the simplicity of all action. #RandolphHarris 7 of 31
In interpreting some of Jesus’s sayings, we will try to show you what is new in that which He has brought with Him. “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7.1). This is not an exhortation to prudence and forbearance in passing judgment on one’s fellow-men, such as was also recognized by the Pharisees. It is the word of Him who speaks by virtue of his unity with God, who came not to condemn but to save (John 3.17). For man in the state of disunion good consists in passing judgment, and the ultimate criterion is man himself. Knowing good and evil, man is essentially a judge. As a judge, he is like God, except that every judgment he delivers falls back upon himself. In attacking man as a judge, Jesus is demanding the conversion of his entire being, and He shows that precisely in the extreme realization of his good, he is ungodly and a sinner. Jesus demands that the knowledge of good and evil be overcome; He demands unity with God. Judgment passed on another man always presupposes disunion with him; it is an obstacle to action. However, the good of which Jesus speaks consists entirely in action and not in judgment. Judging the other man always means a break in one’s own activity. The man who judges never acts himself; or, alternatively, whatever action of his own he may be able to show, and sometimes indeed there is plenty of it, is never more than judgment, condemnation, reproaches, and accusations against other men. The actions of the Pharisees are clearly a judgment of the other man; it seeks for a public judgment, even though it by only in the sight of his own self; it desires to be seen, to be judged, and, if only in the sight of his own self, to be acknowledged as good. “All their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matt. 23.5). #RandolphHarris 8 of 31
The Pharisee’s action is only a particular form of expression of his knowledge of good and evil, of his disunion with other men and with himself. It is consequently the gravest impediment to the achievement of that real action which arises from the rediscovered unity of man with other men and with himself. In this sense, therefore, in the sense in which it arises from his disunited existence and not in the sense of conscious malevolence, the action of the Pharisee, that is to say, of the man who realized his knowledge of good and evil to the very extreme, is false action or hypocrisy. To this extent, there is now indeed a profound contradiction between the speech and the action of the Pharisee. “They say, and do not” (Matt. 23.3). It is not as though the Pharisees did nothing, or as though they were backward in the performance of good works. The opposite is the case. However, their action is not genuine action; for indeed the action which is intended to overcome the disunion of man in good and evil does not achieve this aim but only aggravates the disunion still further. And in this way, for the Pharisee, the doing of the good which is intended to heal the inner disunion of man and his disunion with other men leads only to still greater disunion and to persistence in the defection from the origin. Finally, this same disunion of the man who sits in judgment over other men reveals itself in forms which can be understood in terms of psychology. The serious man, for example, in this way abreacts his instincts of revenge against the frivolous man, whom he secretly envies; it is precisely when a man discerns his own foible in another man that he is impelled to condemn him with particular severity; in other words, the spirit of judgment brings forth the particularly poisonous fruit when it springs from the soil of inward mendacity, desperate indignation and resigned laxness with regard to a man’s own weakness. #RandolphHarris 9 of 31
All these facts must not, however, be allowed to distort the true picture; the passing of judgment does not spring from these vices of the human heart or from its wickedness, be they never so rebellious; on the contrary, the passing of judgment is the origin of all these psychologically intelligible phenomena. Even in his conscious way of experiencing himself, a neurotic may shuttle between a feeling of arrogant omnipotence and of being the scum of the earth. This is particularly obvious in (but by no means restricted to) alcoholics, who at one moment may be up in the clouds, making great gestures and grandiose promises, and at the next be abject and cringing. These multiple ways of experiencing self correspond to the existing inner configuration. Leaving out more complex possibilities, the neurotic can feel himself as his glorified self, as his despised self, and at times (although this is mostly blocked out) as his true self. He thus, in fact, must feel uncertain about his identity. And as long as the inner constellation obtains, the question “who am I?” is unanswerable indeed. What interests us more at this juncture is the fact that these different experiences of self are by necessity conflicting. To be more exact, a conflict is bound to arise because the neurotic identifies himself in toto with his superior proud self and with his despised self. If he experiences himself as a superior being, he tends to be expansive in his strivings and his beliefs about what he can achieve; he tends to be more or less openly arrogant, ambitious, aggressive, and demanding; he feels self-sufficient; he is disdainful of others; he requires admiration or blind obedience. Conversely, if in his mind he is his subdued self, he tends to feel helpless, is compliant and appeasing, and depends upon others and craves their affection. In other words, the identification in toto with one or the other self entails not only opposite kinds of self-evaluation but also opposite attitudes toward others, opposite kinds of behaviour, opposite sets of values, opposite drives, and opposite kinds of satisfaction. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31
If these two ways of experiencing himself operate at the same time, he must feel like two people pulling in opposite directions. And this indeed is the significance of the identification in toto with the two existing selves. There is not only a conflict, but a conflict of sufficient impact to tear him apart. If he does not succeed in diminishing the resulting tension, anxiety is bound to arise. He may then, if so disposed for other reasons, take to drinking to allay his anxiety. According to the Mormon Church, prophets are still prophesying to this day. President Benson is a prophet, and tears come easily to his eyes when he receives letters written by children in which they express their greetings and send their love to him. President Benson has urged: “If we would advance in holiness—increase in favor with God—nothing can take the place of prayer. Give prayer—daily prayer, secret prayer—a foremost place in your lives. Let no day pass without it. Communion with the Almighty has been a source of strength, inspiration, and enlightenment through the world’s history to men and women who have shaped the destinies of individuals and nations for good.” I personally believe in prayer, and I believe that it can be a catalyst to bring things you need and desire. Of course, life takes work, but as any business owner can tell you, sometimes work does not produce revenue. Therefore, people who work hard may also still go without the things they need. When you pray, it can open doorways and gateways that you never knew existed. For instance, your prayer for a windfall of cash could be the catalyst that causes God to convince your boss to give you an unexpected raise or Christmas bonus. A child praying for a new home for Christmas could be the catalyst that causes God to influence the loan officer at the bank to give his parents a mortgage loan. An orphan praying for food, God could use a generous stranger to be the catalyst to fulfill this blessing. Stop putting limits on God. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31
Religious practices have been associated with healing for millennia. People pray for good health and for relief from illness. Prayer may result in health and healing through one or more of several mechanisms. Prayer is a special form of meditation and may therefore convey all the health benefits that have been associated with meditation. Different types of meditation have been shown to result in psychological and biological changes that are actually or potentially associated with improved health. Meditation has been found to produce a clinically significant reduction in resting as well as ambulatory blood pressure, to reduce heart rate, to result in cardiorespiratory synchronization, to alter levels of melatonin and serotonin, to suppress corticostriatal glutamatergic neurotransmission, to boost the immune response, to decrease the levels of reactive oxygen species as measured by ultraweak photon emission, to reduce stress and promote positive mood states, to reduce anxiety and pain and enhance self-esteem, and to have a favoruable influence on overall and spiritual quality of life in late-stage disease. Interestingly, spiritual meditation has been found to be superior to secular meditation and relaxation in terms of decrease in anxiety and improvement in optimistic mood, spiritual health, spiritual experiences and tolerance to pain. Prayer may be supported by varying degrees of faith. Therefore, the more faith you have in God, the more likely your prayers are to be answered. People are willing to believe that wireless, invisible energy or particles exist, which connect their computers to the Internet, but they dare to question the impacts of prayer. Prayer may be associated with improvements that result from spontaneous remission, regression to mean, nonspecific psychosocial support, the Hawthorne effect, and the Pygmalion effect. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31
Spontaneous remission is well-known to occur in conditions that range from medical disorders (exempli gratia, coryza and pharyngitis) to psychiatric stages (exempli gratia, depression and mania). Regression to the mean describes improvement that occurs as a result of random fluctuations in the severity of illness; in clinical trials, because patients are usually preselected for greater severity of illness, such fluctuations usually occur in only one direction (id est, toward improvement). Nonspecific emotional support provides psychological benefits through interpersonal contact, such as during diagnostic and rating exercises. Nonspecific support can reduce anxiety, depression, pain, and similar. Spontaneous remission and regression to the mean may occur coincidentally to prayer. Nonspecific psychosocial support related to prayer may arise in group prayer settings. Improvements in all these contexts are true improvements. The Hawthrone effect refers to a change that occurs as a result of the act of observation or measurement. People who believe in God and believe God is watching them may be more well-behaved and may perform better at work or school. The Pygmalion effect proves that higher expectations alone can produce measurably better performance, even when talent is identical. Knowing that God expects more from His children and that he wants them to be good can cause them to perform better. Prayer may also result in benefits that are due to divine intervention. Although the very consideration of such a possibility may appear scientifically bizarre, it cannot be denied that, across the planet, people pray for health and for relief of symptoms in times of sickness. Healing through prayer, healing through religious rituals, healing at places of pilgrimage, and healing through related forms of intervention are well-established traditions in many religions. Our Heavenly Father is always near. Thank God we can reach out and tap that unseen power, without which no man can do his best. #RandolphHarris 13 of 31
If there is, then, something eternal in a man, the discussion of it must have a different ring. It must be said that there is something that shall always have its time, something that a man shall always do, just as one Apostle says that we should always give thanks to God. For that which has its time must properly be looked upon as an associate and an equal with other temporal things that in their turn shall pass away. However, the Eternal that is which is set over all. The Eternal will not have its time, but will fashion time to its own desire, and then give its consent that the temporal should also be given its time. So the Scripture says, “The one shall be done, the other shall not be neglected.” However, that which shall not be neglected is just that which cannot come into consideration until that is done which ought to be done. In like fashion with the Eternal. If the wisdom of life should ever alter that which concerns the eternal in a man to the point of changing it into something temporal, then this would be folly, whether it be spoken by an old man or by a youth. For in relation to the Eternal, age gives no justification for speaking absurdly, and youth does not exclude one from being able to grasp what is true. Should someone explain that the fear of God, in the sense of that felt in this world of time, should belong to childhood and therefore disappear with the years as does childhood itself, or should be like a happy state of mind that cannot be maintained, but only remembered; should someone explain that penitence comes like the weakness of old age, with the wasting away of strength, when the senses are blunted, when sleep no longer strengthens but weakens; then this would be impiety and folly. Yes, to be sure, it is a fact that there was a man who with the years forgot his childish fear of God, was swindled out of the best, and was taken in by that which was most insolent. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31
Yes, to be sure, it is a fact that there was a man whom repentance first overtook in the painfulness of old age, when he no longer had the strength to sin, so that the repentance first overtook in the painfulness of old age, when he no longer had the strength to sin, so that the repentance not only came late, but the despair of late repentance became the final stage. However, this is no story of an event that calls for an ingenious explanation or that would even of itself explain life. When it happens, it is a horrible thing. And even if a man should become a thousand years old, he would not have become so old that he dares speak otherwise of it than the youth—with fear and trembling. For in relation to the Eternal, a man ages neither in the sense of time nor in the sense of an accumulation of past events. No, when an old person has outgrown the childish and the youthful, ordinary language calls this, maturity and a gain. However, willfully ever to have outgrown the Eternal is spoken of as falling away from God and as perdition; and only the life of the ungodly “shall be as the snail that melts, as it goes” (Psalm 58.8). The human organism lacks the necessary biological means to provide stability for human conduct. Human existence, if it were thrown back on its organismic resources by themselves, would be existence in some sort of chaos. Such chaos is, however, empirically unavailable, even though one may theoretically conceive of it. Empirically, human existence takes place in a context of order, direction, and stability. The question then arises: From what does the empirically existing stability of human order derive? One may first point to the obvious fact that a given social order precedes any individual organismic development. That is, world-openness, while intrinsic to man’s biological make-up, is always pre-empted by social order. One may say that the biologically intrinsic world-openness of human existence is always, and indeed must be, transformed by social order into a relative world-closedness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31
If only because of its humanly produced and thus “artificial” character, while this reclosure can never approximate the closedness of animal existence, it is nevertheless capable, most of the time, of providing direction and stability for the greater part of human conduct. One may ask in what manner social order itself arises. Social order is a human product, or, more precisely, an ongoing externalization. Social order is not biologically given or derived from any biological data in its empirical manifestations. Social order, needless to add, is also not given in man’s natural environment, though particular features of this may be factors in determining certain features of a social order (for example, its economic or technological arrangements). Social order is not part of the “nature of things,” and it cannot be derived from the “laws of nature.” Social order exists only as a product of human activity. No other ontological status may be ascribed to it without hopelessly obfuscating its empirical manifestations. Both in its genesis (social order is the result of past human activity) and its existence in any instant of time (social order exists only and insofar as human activity continues to produce it) it is a human product. While the social products of human externalization have a character sui generis as against both their organismic and their environmental context, it is important to stress that externalization as such is an anthropological necessity. Human being is impossible in a closed sphere of quiescent interiority. Human being must ongoingly externalize itself in activity. This anthropological necessity is grounded in man’s biological equipment. The inherent instability of the human organism makes it imperative that man himself provide a stable environment for his conduct. Man himself must specialize and direct his drives. These biological facts serve as a necessary presupposition for the production of social order. #RandolphHarris 16 of 31
In other words, although no existing social order can be derived from biological data, the necessity for social order as such stems from man’s biological equipment. Once a self-ideal has been constructed, the person finds it difficult to change it. Why is this so, especially when the conscience is inhumane and impossibly strict? Consider an individual with incredibly high standards of performance; this person never attains them and believes he or she is a failure. If only the person’s self-ideal could be altered, he or she could experience self-esteem, perhaps for the first time. Yet the person, when urged to relax the standards, will refuse, saying, “I wish I could, but I cannot.” The reason why persons find it difficult to alter self-ideal is because it came from sources they dare not question—parents, teachers, God, The Book of Mormon, or the Christian Holy Bible. Their values have been acquired in the context of an authoritarian relationship, and they are in dread of horrible consequences should they question the “commands.” Dr. Freud said, “As the child was once compelled to obey its parents, so the ego submits to the categorical imperative pronounced by its superego.” If one should change one’s conscience presents a powerful conserving force in the personality, this fear of obscure consequences. A person may anesthetize the conscience with alcohol, lull it with self-deceptive arguments and rationalizations, and may even repress it; but one rarely changes it. This refusal has disastrous consequences for one’s well-being and maturity. One of the most cunning aspects of the adversary’s efforts to thwart our Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness is his or her deceitful teachings that there is no evil influence or the devil and his or her attempt to redefine evil as good and good as evil, darkness as light and light as darkness, and bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter! “And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance. (2 Nephi 28.22). This is sometimes called a paradigm shift—when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way, thus portraying things to be exactly the opposite of what they really are. “Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (2 Nephi 15.20). #RandolphHarris 17 of 31
One of the unique aspects of emergency services is making do with what is available. The award-winning Sacramento Fire Department is great at adapting to and overcoming difficulties in the present situation. There is nothing wrong with being creative as long as risk management and safe procedures are utilized. For instance, say you and your pump operator, Brandon, get dispatched to assist with a man trapped under a vehicle in his garage. On your arrival, you find that he was working under his car when it rolled backward off the ramps, pinning him under it. Worse yet, the garage is extremely cluttered and the car rolled up against the overhead garage door, preventing it from being opened. Access at the rear of the car by the entry and overhead door is limited, but the area at the front of the vehicle is unobstructed. The car is on the slope of the ramps, with the bowed-out garage door keeping it from rolling back any farther. The ambulance has been dispatched, but is still 15 minutes out. You call for additional resources, including a mutual aid rescue truck, while your driver checks the victim for injuries. He reports that the car is resting on the victim’s chest, but he is conscious and alert with rib pain and significant trouble breathing. The most appropriate tool to lift the car would be airbags, but they are not something your department can afford. You assign Brandon to get what little cribbing you carry on the engine while you grab the victim’s floor jack. He tells you it is low on oil and will not lift, which is why he was forced to use the ramps. The only other thing you see that looks capable of lifting some weight is a “cherry picker.” This hydraulic engine hoist is normally used to pull engines and transmissions and has a hydraulic jack attached to a long arm. You see that the hoist has a lift capacity of 3 tons, which is sufficient for the front end of the car, but you know that the farther out on the arm the load is, the less it can lift. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31
You decide that if you can chain it short, close to the jack, it should be able to lift the front of the vehicle. Brandon cribs the vehicle to prevent movement and puts the vehicle in park, setting the parking brake. You place the chain around the front bumper by the frame and begin to lift. Although Brandon’s out of cribbing, he finds several bundles of asphalt shingles and uses them to take up the slack on the frame as you lift. With each pump of the jack, he slides a couple more shingles between the floor and the bottom of the car to prevent it from dropping back down on the victim. The victim is freed just as you hear the approaching siren of the ambulance. In a perfect world, firefighters would not have to use shingles to crib a vehicle or an engine lift to free a victim. Unfortunately, many fire departments cannot afford every tool for every possible situation, and they cannot always wait around for someone to bring it. Looking back in the history of the fire service, you cannot help but question how they did it 200 years ago. The technology they have today allows the fire department to respond faster, respond more safely, and be better prepared than in the past. Unfortunately, technology comes with a price, and that affects who can use it. For example, the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) has been used by firefighters in the United States of America since the late 1800s. In 1975, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) began work on a standard for SCBAs and ultimately released NFPA 1981, Standard on Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) for Emergency Services. At the time, SCBAs were readily available from several manufacturers, but many departments did not have enough for all the firefighters on scene. Some departments may have only had one or two in suitcases, on standby for special situations such as basement fires or hazardous materials incidents. Departments that could provide enough for crews rarely had a breathing apparatus that was up to the current NFPA standards. Even if they desired the newest and safest models, many departments simply could not afford to upgrade. #RandolphHarris 19 of 31
In January 2001, when fire equipment grants became a viable option for fire departments to improve safety through the Assistance to Fire Fighters Grant (AFG) program offered by the United States Fire Administration (USFA). Grants are a form of financial assistance used to promote a specific goal. They are not loans or financial aid, and organizations are not entitled to grants. Many times, grants are intended to support the operation of the organization applying for the grant (the grantee). Usually, these are for a one-time purchase, such as for high-pressure airbags or even a fire engine. Other grants have a goal of furthering the cause of the organization that is offering the grant (the grantor); such a grant would be intended to stimulate an organizational change in the grantee. For example, the Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) offers grants to states that increase injury prevention activities for at-risk children. These funds may then be passed on to fire departments that agree to add injury prevention, such as NFPA’s Risk Watch curriculum, to existing fire prevention activities. Although some of these types of grants are a one-time payment, some provide assistance over several years. Emergency responders who are interested in obtaining grants need to know who offers grants, what types of grants are available, and the guidelines for obtaining a grant. In the past several years, the federal government has been one of the leading agencies to offer grants to fire departments. In fact, the federal government has more than 1,000 grants available through federal agencies for many different needs. In October 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released the final report for its first year of the AFG program. For the first time in history, a federal grant program was available that was capable of replacing the complete SCBA inventories of numerous fire departments across the country. However, grants are not a new concept, and the grantors are not limited to the federal government. Many state governments offer grants to emergency services organizations within the state. Other common sources of support include community organizations, businesses, and private foundations. #RandolphHarris 20 of 31
If you see a fire truck stopped in the street without the lights on, be very careful. Sometimes there is an emergency, and you should not pass the fire truck. It might be a good idea to safely turn around and go another way because if you hit someone and they happen to die, you could be charged with manslaughter. Sometimes fire firefighters are getting back into their vehicle, and if you pass the apparatus, you may collide with a firefighter who is on foot. Also, be sure to look at their signals; sometimes emergency vehicles are in motion, albeit slowly, and drivers try to pass them, and this could lead to a dangerous situation. Also, if you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other people’s problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation, and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. #RandolphHarris 21 of 31
America is becoming so expensive that Americans are moving to Mexico in record numbers. The United States of America’s State Department reports that the number of American citizens living in Mexico has increased by 75 percent from 2019 to 2025 and has continued to grow to a total of 1.8 million. Many Americans are moving to Mexico and working at home for companies that are in the United States of America to take advantage of the lower cost of living, the natural beauty and the culture, and they are thriving. California is the third most expensive state in the nation, and is facing a $20 billion budget deficit, which is also illustrates the hardships its citizens are facing. In 37 percent of counties, in California, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. The average home price in California is nearly $1,000,000.00 USD, while the average salary is $96,036.00, meaning that most Californians cannot even afford to buy a home. California is having an affordability crisis. A single person making an income above $100,000 is now considered low-income in five counties in California. This distinction now applies to individuals living in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin counties. The maximum percentage of your gross income that you should earmark for a monthly mortgage payment is calculated at 28 percent, and no more than 36 percent of your gross income to all debts, including mortgage. If you take 28 percent of the median household income per home in Sacramento County, homeowners can only afford a mortgage of $2,070.23 per month. And if you take 36 percent of their gross income to all debts, including mortgage, they should be devoting no more than $2,661.72 a month to these debts. The mortgage lenders must be using some kind of sorcery to get buyers into these expensive homes. To afford one of these homes using traditional guidelines, a household would need to gross $11,280.24 per month or $135,362.88 per year, but the median household in Sacramento County is grossing $7,393.67 a month or $88,724.00 annually, and that typically means two to four people in the home are working and contributing to the mortgage. Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area, and in some cases, homes in the Bay Area are more affordable. Historically, homes in the Bay Area have been more expensive because they have higher-paying jobs, a larger population, and the Bay Area is a tourist destination. Contributing to the housing affordability crisis is Gavin Newsom, who has been lavishing illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded resources and cash aid, when state workers should be receiving a 25 percent wage increase instead. #RandolphHarris 22 of 31
In 2025, many people in California saw their bills increase by an estimated $500 a month. This includes items such as food, automobile insurance, homeowners’ insurance, and electricity. In fact, more than 3 million people in California are facing household hardship, and more than 300,000 of them are facing eviction soon. This comes at a time when California is having a shortage of affordable housing. The crisis is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. The incompetence in California is very easy to see. From 2018 to 2023, California received $24 billion, which they used to fund 30 homeless and housing programs. These programs created 100,000 units. That is an average cost of $240,000 per unit. In comparison, Roger Lucas, owner of Grand Castle, LLC, spent $50 million to build The Grand Castle, which is a 522-unit residential apartment community in Grandville, Michigan. The community includes studios, 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, 3 bedrooms, and even a multi-level penthouse. Rents generally range from $1,000 to $2,500. The community is a 23.6-acre site. It features 750 covered parking spaces, a clubhouse, a resort-style swimming pool, and was built over a period of 12 to 18 months. The average cost was about $95,785.45 per unit, which is $144,214.55 less per unit than California spent. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.5 percent. As people are seeing their bills skyrocket, and minimum wage has increased to $20 an hour, people on Social Security retirement are really bearing the burden with the checks the typically equate to $5-$7 an hour. Furthermore, while Americans are struggling to find and afford housing, Gavin Newsom, Democrat governor of California, signed two bills into law on February 7, 2025, to protect illegal immigrants. Bills SBX 1 1: Budget Act of 2024, and SBX 1 2: Budget Act of 2024, allocates $50 million to protect illegal immigrants from deportation. Governor Gavin Newsom also granted 700,000 illegal immigrants free health care, which costs taxpayers $3 billion annually. At the same time, Newsom cut vital programs for veterans, school children, the disabled, and the homeless. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. #RandolphHarris 23 of 31
Meanwhile, China, where we are sending all our jobs and money, has more than 50 ghost cities, with 65 million vacant homes. Ghost cities are regions where housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. If they are all officially counted, California has approximately 4 million homeless people. The highest home prices in the nation, the highest taxes, and the most unfriendly business regulations known to man. Because California is so hostile towards people and businesses, more than 360 companies have fled the state since 2020. Businesses like Chevron, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard are among the names on that list. Also, more than 500,000 people a year are abandoning California because it is too expensive to live in, Gavin Newsom has criminalized homelessness and actually started arresting people without homes, crime is out of control, and they are losing their jobs due to companies relocating. More than 100 companies have announced layoffs in California for 2025. Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, PayPal is cutting 2,500, and Meta has terminated 4,000 employees. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.1 percent. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. Accordingly, California has more than 3.5 million illegal immigrants. Having the Southern American border open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce, and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security-relevant alerts, such as the end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. #RandolphHarris 24 of 31
Meanwhile, China, where we are sending all our jobs and money, has more than 50 ghost cities, with 65 million vacant homes. Ghost cities are regions where housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. If they are all officially counted, California has approximately 4 million homeless people. The highest home prices in the nation, the highest taxes, and the most unfriendly business regulations known to man. Because California is so hostile towards people and businesses, more than 360 companies have fled the state since 2020. Businesses like Chevron, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard are among the names on that list. Also, more than 500,000 people a year are abandoning California because it is too expensive to live in, Gavin Newsom has criminalized homelessness and actually started arresting people without homes, crime is out of control, and they are losing their jobs due to companies relocating. More than 100 companies have announced layoffs in California for 2025. Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, PayPal is cutting 2,500, and Meta has terminated 4,000 employees. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.1 percent. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. Accordingly, California has more than 3.5 million illegal immigrants. Having the Southern American border open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce, and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security-relevant alerts, such as the end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. #RandolphHarris 25 of 31
America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care for its infrastructure, provide adequate resources, or end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last are considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. As a result, the American automobile trade deficit with Japan was $39 billion. Additionally, Japan exported 1.4 million cars to the United States of America, but only imported 16,000 American-built automobiles. However, Japan imported approximately 143 thousand motor vehicles from the European Union. This is why President Trump created tariffs. We need to balance the trade deficit that America faces with other nations so we are not taken advantage of and so America can go bank to being a creditor nation, instead of borrowing money for other countries. Each year, President Trump is bringing $400 Billion in Tariff revenue into America and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. With this money, America is paying down debt, and with a portion of it, President Trump plans to send Americans a stimulus check anywhere in the range of $1,000 to $2,000. However, if President Trump’s Tariffs are deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, taxpayers will have to pay back trillions and trillions of dollars. As we literally and /or figuratively see gangs, federal judges, and Governor Gavin Newsom fighting with federal law enforcement and President Trump– states and cities refusing to honor federal laws. Politicians are also showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, and anarchy is becoming increasingly common. #RandolphHarris 26 of 31
Anarchism is a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centered on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary. Derived from the Greek root anarchos, meaning “without authority,” anarchism, anarchist, and anarchy are used to express both approval and disapproval. The anarchist denies man-made laws, regards property as a means of tyranny, and believes that crimes are merely the product of property and authority. However, the anarchist would argue that their denial of constitutions and governments leads not to “no justice” but to the real justice inherent in the free development of human sociality—the natural inclination, when unfettered by laws, to live according to the principles and practice of mutual aid. Anarchism is also a form of treason. Treason, the crime of betraying a nation or a sovereign by acts considered dangerous to security. In English law, treason includes the levying of war against the government and the giving of aid and comfort to the monarch’s enemies. In the United States of America, treason was defined restrictively by the framers of the Constitution. Treason against the United States of America “shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” which is something that many politicians are currently guilty of. The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them before the situation becomes a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state, or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. #RandolphHarris 27 of 31
Drug cartels have been threatening the health and safety of Native American communities. The trafficking of dangerous and illegal drugs into their territories is leading to a second genocide. The overdose rate for Indigenous people is 42 percent higher than the national average. A recent bust on Montana’s Blackfeet Nation’s Tribal Reservation resulted in the seizure of more than 700,000 fentanyl pills, which was the largest bust in Montana history. Recently, the Blackfeet Nation had to declare a state of emergency after facing 17 overdoses in just one week. There are only 6.8 million Native Americans left in the world, which is 2 percent of the American population. We should be doing more to protect these proud and honorable people; they should not want for anything. People rush and give away resources to illegal immigrants, but totally disregard the Indigenous people of this land, as their race silently fades away into extinction. We must secure our borders and increase federal funding to Native American tribes so we can save this precious population. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom has given billions of taxpayer dollars away to illegal immigrants and protected them from law enforcement, while arresting law-abiding Americans because they cannot afford to pay rent or mortgage, and the homeless shelters are unsafe, overcrowded, and have restrictions on who is allowed inside. He has also totally ignored the cartel problems on American lands. Clean air, water, land, and preserving our heritage are extremely important. We cannot just allow criminals to kill off the people who are native to this land and do nothing about it. Wars have been started over governments that tax citizens without representation. Taxation without representation is what led to the American Revolution. #RandolphHarris 28 of 31
Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and can support American farmers and ranchers. As money flows, it influences further investment. Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land for future use, we need to start limiting the number of people allowed to immigrate to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a population 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 America, 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. #RandolphHarris 29 of 31
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 America which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the national debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by sending 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 on pollution. American companies must be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Under President Trump’s administration, he has make America a priority. President Trump has closed the southern border, illegal crossings have fallen to an all time low, and are 90 percent lower than under the previous administration. Since President Trump’s crack down on crime, violent crimes in Washington D.C. have dropped by approximately 80 percent. He has stopped thousands of pounds of drugs from entering America and killing citizens. And since President Trump took office, investments in America have increased by trillions of dollars in U.S.A. manufacturing, production, and innovation. As you can see, President Donald Trump and his pledge to “Make America Great Again” is exactly what America needs to save the country and the American people. And yes, diversity is important, so you can see why it is also important to preserve blonde hair and blue eyes, as the people with these characteristics are becoming a minority in America. #RandolphHarris 30 of 31
We must think before we can understand the soul’s existence; we must understand before we can realize it. The earliest beginnings of thought, as apart from instinct, when it was itself still but a lurking tendency, belong far back in primeval time. The human intellect as we find it today, so rich and developed an instrument for the consciousness of the ego, did not arrive at this fullness without a series of graduated stages. We have had plenty of scientific thinking, business thinking, and political thinking long enough, but we have had very little inspired thinking. That is the world’s need. The intellect is cradled in selfishness but runs the evolutionary track into reason, where it will one day finish at the winning-post of selflessness. As a reminder, parents, please teach your children to 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. It is inborn in the human mind 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. A lot of children are having problems in school and cannot even write a paragraph because they are not reading their books. When you actually read books, you get an example of how to write and will become a better student. Therefore, remember to take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. Also, to make sure they have all the resources required, please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to help improve our national security. “Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” #RandolphHarris 31 of 31
In Victorian times, strange noises made by wind and water, and strange sights seen in the traitorous twilight and in the dark, were as a matter of course taken as evidence of that population of demons sent by sorcerers and witches which were peaceable only as long and one kept an eye on them–that is, as long as one was cautious and suspicious enough. The belief in demons permitted a persistent externalization of one’s own unconscious thoughts and preconscious impulses of avarice and malice, as well as thoughts which one suspected one’s neighbour of having. The externalization of a neighbour’s thoughts probably more often than not involved a fusion of the subjective and the objective: if a neighbour, whose public personality and activities were known–although, of course, not his secret thoughts–seemed intent on being harmful, it meant that with the entirely unfair help of some spirits, he would find a way of doing things to one those things which which harmless an individual impotently wished to do to him. In all magic thinking, the unknow and the unconscious met at a common frontier: murderous, adulterous, or avaricious wishes, or sudden moods of melancholy or fiskiness were all forced upon an individual by evil-wishing neighbours. Phantasies of pleasures of the flesh, too, were treated as extraterritorial. Even pleasures of the flesh, such as an all-too-vivid dream, or a neighbour in one’s bed, could be blamed on the devil’s sneaky habit of lying underneath sleeping men, or on top of sleeping women.
All of this is quite handy if your conscience and your reason were primitive or foxy enough to let it pass. If they were too developed, the scruple appeared which came to bother Mrs. Winchester: how could you know (once you were incautious enough to want to know) whether you had desired and abetted what thus afflicted you when you were not conscious–well, not quite conscious? Or, on the other hand, in those rare moments when you were quite conscious, fervently alert and full of good conscience, how did you ever know that this very excess of goodness was not a Trubild, a mirage of the devil? It was tempting to treat these superstitions as primitive obsessions, and to pity the people who did not know any better and who must have felt haunted. However, we should not overlook the fact that within reason–that is, to the extent that the superstitious were not exploited by mass panic and neurotic anxiety–they were formed of collective mastery of the unknown. In a world full of dangers, they may even have served as a source of security, for they made the unfamiliar familiar, and permitted the individual to say one’s fears and conflicts, “I see you! I recognize you!” One could not even tell others what one saw and recognized while remaining reasonably free, by a contract between like-minded, of the aspersion that one imagined things out of depravity of despair, or that one was the only one to be haunted. What else do people do today when they share their complexes, their coronaries, and their communists?
Nor was the world entirely left to evil spirits by any means. Corresponding to the population of demonic middlemen between man and the worldly underground was an ever-increasing number of mediators between one and heaven: the angles and the saints, the heavenly aunts and uncles, more human, more accessible, and more understandable than the forbidding Trinity. As every person had one’s angel, so every disease and misfortune had its saint who, strangely enough, was often assumed to create the very disease which one could cure–maybe in order to maintain oneself in an increasingly competitive market, for all those saints had their separate altars where, for a price, their services could be solicited. During the gold rush, the miners had one major and several ancillary saints. St. Anne, the mother of God, was one. Abgott–an unusual term, for it means “idol,” and indicates the persistent trend in Catholic communities to focus florid idolatry on a saint and a solid image in a solid church, and leave the rest of religion to the professionals. St. Anne watched over the miner’s health, and protected them against sudden accidents; but she “is especially dear because she does not come with empty hands, brings mighty goods and money.”
Suspiciousness, obsessive scrupulosity, moral sadism, and a preoccupation with dirtying and infectious thoughts and substances went together.) A classic obsessive statement: “The more you cleanse yourself, the dirtier you get.” Anyone who had worked in mining areas or in coal and steel-minded communities like California must have been aware of the double evaluation of “smog” for instance; I am speaking of the honest productive black smog of concentrated industry, not the stuff thrown off by automobile exhausts. The older Californians were from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy, and in their old country mud turned into ground, and ground into mud, and the process assured fertility. In this country smog, or at any rate, smoke meant productivity; not only employment, but also the continuous manufacture by which the nation’s steel was produced. They sky was blue and the rivers were clean only during shutdowns and strikes: the cleanliness was a reminder of a deadly vacuum and a possible final stoppage of production. Those modern Californians who undertook to make California clean had much support from applauding strangers who pitied California as a national Cinderella; they had little support from those immigrant families to whom smoke and grime had become an aspect of home.
Most families did not live in Victorian mansions, or even in proper Victorian homes. They had small and low rooms, badly lighted and badly aired, in which parents and children were huddled together. Some children were made sleepless by corporal punishment. A lot of children’s dreams were richly associated with the sinister dealings of demons and of the devil himself. The beatings some children faced forced into them a profound fear of authority and sometimes a pervading streak of stubbornness and rebelliousness which allegedly caused some to become sickly and anxious as a child, sad as a youth, scrupulous to fault in the monastery, and beset with doubts and depressions in later life; and this made some pursue the question of God’s justice to the point of unleashing a religious revolution. However, many families would have none of this. Prayer and work, discipline and the fear of God were the four pillars of wisdom; and while some fathers may have been a bit less discerning in the choice of means and a bit more hot-blooded than they might have otherwise been, their motives were those of Proverbs 13.24, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” And the aim of these fathers’ was the child’s moral well-being, intellectual perfection, and civic advancement.
According to locals, over a century ago, the land that houses The Winchester Mansion had been vacant forever. Then, sometime in the early afternoon of Saturday, March 13, 1886, Sheriff Angel Camilio began getting reports that a massive castle made of wood had suddenly appeared. Gables rose, towers peaked into the sky as the mansion mushroomed into a labyrinth overnight. The house’s sudden manifestation had been both disconcerting and fascinating to the community. Some felt dark curses flowing from the estate, and things moving around in the darkness. Others saw a fairytale castle glimmering in the spring sunlight. Perhaps this is why there are no records of construction, no blueprints, and no permits filed with the county. And then one day, a hearse came tearing through the gates, and in that hearse was a coffin, some believed it contained Mrs. Winchester.
Legend also says, when Sarah Lockwood Pardee (Winchester) married William Wirt Winchester in 1862, she enjoyed a life of extravagant luxury. William Winchester, President of the Winchester repeating rifle, became a very wealthy man through the sale of his guns, and the couple were among the elite New England society. She also told Mrs. Winchester they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits.
In addition, Mrs. Winchester was told construction on the house must never end in order to appease the spirits and keep her alive, perhaps even give her eternal life. Mrs. Winchester followed the medium’s suggestions, and in 1886, she moved to the Santa Clara valley just outside San Jose, where she bought an 18-room farmhouse and property to build her mansion. At its peak, the Mansion once stood 9-stories tall and had as many as 600-rooms. Today, the stately mansion is 4-storys, and over 100,000 square feet.
It would be a pleasure to have you come and enjoy a delicious meal at Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, which once spanned 740 acres, all the way down to Stevens Creek Boulevard; wander through the miles of hallways in the world’s most mysterious mansion.
For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available for purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/
Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company.
Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs, not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/
With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW, The Ultimate Driving Experience, has demonstrated its ability to produce high-performing, reliable vehicles that meet consumer demands.BMW stands out due to its focus on driving dynamics and engineering excellence. While other luxury brands prioritize comfort and opulence, BMW is known for creating cars that are fun to drive and offer a unique connection between the driver and the machine. This is why BMW is known as The Ultimate Driving Machine. https://www.brianharrisbmw.com/
Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers
Building strong and lasting client relationships is crucial for a successful legal career. Many lawyers mistakenly believe that mastering legal skills alone ensures success, but law is fundamentally a service industry—our job is to solve problems through the time we sell. To build long-term relationships, attorneys must focus on three core elements: knowing their clients, understanding how their legal issues fit into a larger context, and consistently delivering exceptional service.
Randy advises clients with regard to business transition, taxable and tax-deferred mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, integrated tax planning, federal and state tax controversy resolution, and real estate transactions. Trust is the cornerstone of any client relationship. Ultimately, my clients feel they are in capable hands with someone who genuinely understands their problems and goals. https://www.jmbm.com/l-randolph-harris.html
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Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. You have surrounded me with people who always look out for me. You have given me family and friends who bless me every day with kind words and actions.
Randolph Harris II International 