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Mrs. Winchester’s Omen: Earthquake, Apparition, and the Changing House
Queen Anne Victorian architecture—or “Queen Anne Revival”—is a misnomer, bearing little resemblance to the restrained, dignified buildings of England’s early‑eighteenth‑century Queen Anne. Instead, it reflects the exuberance and eclectic spirit of Queen Victoria’s later reign. Far from a pure revival like the Gothic or Greek, the Queen Anne style freely borrowed from multiple eras, blending towers, turrets, verandahs, porches, gables, and bays into lively, asymmetrical compositions. Rooted in the picturesque principle, the Winchester Mansion embraces symmetry, irregularity, and romantic flourish, its architecture so theatrically expressive that Victorian design and restless spirits seem almost destined for one another — as though the very structure had been conceived with haunting in mind from the first stroke of its blueprint. Yet no such blueprint has ever been found. In the lore that clings to its corridors, Heiress Sarah L. Winchester is said to have raised this palatial labyrinth not merely as a home, but as a vessel for the unseen — a sanctuary where wandering spirits might find passage, solace, or judgment within its ever‑shifting walls, guided by plans whispered from realms beyond mortal sight. . However, we, who send wireless messages through space and draw flames out of the air, agree that nowadays nobody believes in ghosts. Phantoms prowl only to disturb the slumbers of those who have looked on the red lobster and duskily rich plum pudding too affectionately, and in the Winchester Mansion, there exists a secret society organized for the purpose of exposing ghosts and being invited into their favorite lair. No census has ever been released to the public of the well-authenticated family of ghosts in the mansion, nor have any statistics been unrestricted as to the number of haunted encounters on the estate. If they could be disclosed, it is safe to say that the figures would not only surprise the average American, but prove that ghosts die hard in the Winchester Mystery House. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
It is the curious and the eccentric aristocrats who refuse to deny ghosts both shelter and respect, and what is a little overwhelming to some Americans is to find how very seriously ghosts are considered by the laborers and the Lords. Active middle-class folk do not ordinarily have much time to spare for speculation on the supernatural. Yet, it can be shown that even in this excessively incredulous day, some of the busiest and most highly regarded ghosts in the Winchester Mansion are still conducting their blood-curdling business at the antique stands where they have been practicing as spectres for ages. The mansion creates haunting energy because of its excess, its shadowed corners, its ornate drama, its hidden rooms, and its beautiful but bizarre features. A few defining elements: pointed arches, steep gables, spires that look like they are reaching for something unseen. The carved wood, ironwork, stained glass, patterned wallpapers. Every surface feels like it is hiding a story. Doors that open onto walls — often remnants of remodels or blocked‑off servant routes, now feeling like portals that forgot their purpose. Staircases that lead to nowhere — truncated attic stairs, abandoned servant access, or architectural flourishes that became dead ends. Trap doors — used for coal chutes, storage, or mechanical access, but narratively perfect for secret passages and sudden disappearances. Closets that are deeper than they should be — narrow, elongated spaces that seem to extend farther than the geometry of the house allows. Rooms with no apparent function — tiny chambers tucked between larger rooms, sometimes only accessible through another room’s closet. False windows — decorative exterior windows that do not correspond to any interior space, suggesting a room that “should” exist but does not. Speaking tubes — hollow metal tubes running through walls, perfect for carrying whispers long after the household staff is gone. A door that opens onto a two‑story drop — a perfect example of Victorian theatricality turned perilous, a threshold that promises passage but delivers only vertigo. A staircase whose steps rise only two inches high — a baffling ascent that feels more like a ritual than a route, forcing visitors to climb in slow, unnatural increments, as though the house were testing their patience or resolve. A room with one entrance but three exits — each more treacherous than the last, including one that opens directly onto the kitchen sink below, a sheer drop so abrupt it feels like the house itself indulging in a dark, private jest, a little cruelty whispered through its carpentry. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
The mansion’s bizarre nature did not end with its haunted corridors or shifting hours; its very architecture seemed to conspire in the uncanny. Mirrors were positioned not merely for illumination but for light management, catching gaslight and flinging it into distant corners so that glimmers appeared where no person stood — fleeting reflections that moved like wandering spirits. Hidden throughout the estate were secret eaves rooms, tiny crawlspaces tucked behind paneling or accessible only through ceiling hatches, narrow chambers meant for listening rather than living. Basement coal rooms — pitch‑black chambers with soot‑stained walls and low ceilings, often left untouched for decades. Ornate radiators — clanking, hissing, and groaning with thermal expansion, sounding uncannily like breathing. Overly tall doors — exaggerated proportions that make rooms feel stretched or distorted. Cupolas and widow’s walks — elevated spaces associated with watching, waiting, and mourning. Labyrinthine floor plans — narrow hallways, servant staircases, unexpected alcoves. Perfect for echoes and apparitions. Gaslight glow — warm, flickering illumination that leaves pockets of darkness where spirits linger. The Victorian architecture of the Winchester Mansion does not just house spirits — it invites them. There is, for instance, a young noble man dressed in late Renaissance attire—a ruffled collar, richly embroidered doublet, which were hallmarks of 16th-century Europe. His face is pale and smooth, with delicate, symmetrical features—a straight nose, soft lips, and large, dark eyes that convey quiet intelligence and restraint. His hair is short and dark, neatly framing his youthful face. Nobody knows how long has been haunting the regal mansion, except perhaps the Winchester family, who could tell when he first appeared and the tragic circumstances out of which, in good orthodox fashion, he was evolved. However, the Winchester family always refused to discuss the young man, whose duty is to herald the approaching death of anyone in the mansion. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
He is known to appear only in the Blue Séance Room—an ancient, brooding chamber tucked deep within the mansion’s oldest wing—and always at the hour of dusk, when the last light bleeds into shadow. He materializes with the poise of a young noble: shoulders drawn back, chin lifted, his manner confident yet curiously restrained, as though he carries the etiquette of a long‑dead court. In the dimming glow, his figure seems to gather its own faint radiance, his Renaissance attire shimmering with a quiet, mournful dignity. He is the very image of youthful aristocracy—cultivated, solemn, and brushed with an otherworldly melancholy. But the mansion does not always grant him this grace. Witnesses speak in hushed voices of encountering his ruined form drifting through distant corridors: a young man decapitated, his eyes torn from their sockets, his hair brutally shaved, his right shoulder ripped open with blood soaking the front of his shirt. Some have seen him cleaved cleanly at the waist, the two halves floating independently like sorrowful relics of a forgotten execution. These apparitions—so grotesque, so impossible—have long terrified and enthralled those who dwell within the mansion’s reach. Yet the greatest unease comes not from his mutilation, nor from his persistence, but from his uncanny resemblance to Mrs. Winchester herself. The likeness is unmistakable, though he predates both her and the mansion by centuries. Rumor insists he was her estranged nephew, arriving to collect a generous sum, only to vanish without a trace. But how could a prince of the sixteenth century share blood with a woman said to be born in the nineteenth? And why does no record agree on the true date of her birth? In the end, the mystery coils back upon itself, as all good hauntings do. The young man’s presence suggests that time within the mansion does not flow forward, but folds—layer upon layer—until centuries touch, and bloodlines blur, and the living find themselves staring into the face of a ghost who should never have existed at all. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
After the 1906 earthquake, Mrs. Winchester never again found contentment within the walls of her great mansion. The damage had unsettled not only the structure but her spirit, and she soon began making plans for a second estate not far from the original grounds. She even commissioned the construction of a sea wall for the new property, though the project never advanced beyond its early stages. While the Winchester Mansion underwent repairs and restoration, she withdrew entirely from its corridors and chose instead to live aboard a houseboat, drifting at a quiet remove from the place that had once consumed her life. When she finally returned to her estate, she often stood at the window, letting her gaze drift across the serene expanse of her beautifully kept yard. One morning, as the first pale ribbons of sunlight unfurled across the lawn, she paused, sensing that the quiet held something new. For a long while she remained at the window, her hand resting lightly against the cold glass. The young prince stood by the crescent‑shaped hedge below her window, emerging from the pale hush of early morning—a time he never kept. He was a creature of dusk, of long shadows and fading light, yet now he stood in the newborn glow as if torn out of his rightful hour. The dawn clung to him awkwardly, casting a thin, uneasy shimmer around his figure. Something was wrong. His presence at daybreak felt less like a visit and more like an omen, a quiet rupture in the order of things that the mansion itself seemed to acknowledge. Mrs. Winchester had always been sensitive to signs, to whispers, to the subtle language of fate. And now, with the ruins of the tower still haunting the grounds and the fourth floor freshly stripped away, she felt the young man’s appearance entwine itself with the earthquake in her mind, merging into a single, undeniable warning. She drew back from the window slowly, her breath shallow. His disappearance left a tremor in the air, a subtle shiver that seemed to ripple through the morning light. It was not the garden that had changed, but something within her—some inner axis knocked slightly off its center. The silence he left behind felt charged, as though the omen had not ended with his vanishing but had slipped inside her, altering the shape of her thoughts in ways she could not yet name. As she stood there, steadying herself against the cold glass, her gaze drifted instinctively toward the front of the mansion. That side of the house — the grand façade, the towering heights, the rooms that had once reached toward the sky — had always felt exposed, vulnerable, too close to the world’s gaze. It was the part that reached outward, inviting scrutiny, inviting disaster. The quake had punished it most severely, tearing down everything she had dared to build upward. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Now, in the wake of the prince’s early‑morning appearance — a violation of his rightful hour — the meaning settled over her with quiet certainty. His presence had not been random. It had been a message. A confirmation of what she had long suspected: she had spent too much of her life, her energy, her grief, on the front of the house. That night, she summoned her carpenters and instructed them to board up the entire front wing. Windows were shuttered, doors sealed, corridors closed off like tombs. She turned her attention instead to the back of the mansion — the winding hallways, the hidden chambers, the places where the house seemed to grow inward rather than outward. There, she resumed her work with renewed fervor, as though the apparition had redirected her hand. From that evening onward, the crescent hedge remained untouched, the boarded façade loomed in silence, and Mrs. Winchester devoted herself entirely to the mansion’s shadowed rear. Some said she was following the guidance of spirits. Others whispered that she was fleeing them. But she alone knew the truth: the earthquake had shaken the house, and the boy had shaken her resolve. Together, they had turned her away from the front — and deeper into the labyrinth she was destined to build. Today, as visitors wander through the mansion, the stained glass scatters light into fractured colors that seem to catch and refract passing apparitions. The grand staircases rise like stages awaiting spectral entrances, their landings steeped in a hush that feels almost rehearsed. Even the sealed conservatories breathe with cold air and faint rustling, as though unseen hands still tend the plants that once grew there. In the grand ballroom — and in the unfinished hidden ballroom— soft echoes drift through the air, the suggestion of music that never resolves into a melody. Several corridors carry whispers and footsteps that fade before reaching the main hall, as if the house itself edits what it allows the living to hear. The Winchester mansion feels less like a structure and more like a living organism, its walls layered with memory. The spirits that move through it are not intruders but simply another part of its anatomy, lingering in the spaces where time folds and refuses to let go. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Hopefully, these photographs offer a clearer sense of what the Winchester Mansion looked like before the 1906 earthquake reshaped it. Experts estimate that the mansion once rose nine stories high, that Mrs. Winchester purchased roughly 740 acres of surrounding land, and that—despite modern measurements placing the house at about 24,000 square feet—many researchers and enthusiasts believe the structure is significantly larger even today. At its height, the estate reportedly contained between 500 and 600 rooms. Now, only four stories remain, with 160 rooms in total, approximately 110 of which are open to the public. The grounds have been retained at a beautiful park‑like acreage of four. Construction was nearly continuous. From 1886, when Mrs. Winchester first purchased the farmhouse, until her death in 1922, the mansion evolved through an unbroken cycle of building, altering, expanding, and repairing—a forty‑year transformation that remains one of the most extraordinary architectural undertakings in American history.
Where History, Mystery, and Imagination Intertwine
Step inside one of California’s most extraordinary landmarks and experience a world unlike any other. The Winchester Mystery House is more than a Victorian mansion—it is a living work of art, a labyrinth of architectural wonders, and one of America’s most captivating historical estates. Built over 36 years without pause, the mansion stands today as a testament to craftsmanship, curiosity, and the enduring legend of Mrs. Sarah Winchester.
Visitors are invited to explore miles of elegant hallways, beautifully restored rooms, and the mansion’s famously perplexing features: staircases that lead nowhere, doors that open into walls, windows overlooking other rooms, and secret passages woven throughout the estate. Every corner of the house reflects Sarah Winchester’s unique vision, blending Victorian elegance with an eccentricity that continues to fascinate architects, historians, and guests from around the world.
Beyond its architectural marvels, the Winchester Mystery House offers a rare glimpse into the life of a woman who defied convention. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, poured her grief, creativity, and resources into building a home unlike any other. Her story—part tragedy, part triumph, part enduring mystery—adds emotional depth to every room you enter. Visitors leave not only impressed by the mansion’s scale, but moved by the humanity behind its creation.
The estate’s lush gardens, ornate fountains, and tranquil outdoor spaces provide a peaceful contrast to the mansion’s winding interior. Guests can stroll through beautifully landscaped grounds, enjoy seasonal displays, and take in the serene beauty that surrounds the historic home. Whether you’re a lover of history, architecture, horticulture, or simply a seeker of unforgettable experiences, the Winchester Mystery House offers something for everyone.
A visit to the Winchester Mystery House is more than a tour—it is an encounter with legend. It is a place where imagination thrives, where history whispers through every corridor, and where the line between fact and folklore blurs in the most enchanting way. Come discover why millions of visitors from around the world consider the Winchester Mystery House a must‑see destination and one of California’s most iconic treasures.
PRIVATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS
at WINCHESTER ESTATE
Many event locations claim to be unique, but nothing compares to the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re truly seeking a distinct, one‑of‑a‑kind setting for your milestone celebration or special occasion, reserve a venue that delivers on uniqueness many times over. Whether you’re planning a wedding, birthday or anniversary celebration, corporate gathering, holiday party, or any other meaningful event, the Winchester Mystery House offers an unforgettable backdrop. Give your guests an experience they’ll be talking about for years to come.
Café 13: A Rest Stop on the Edge of the Mystery
After wandering the winding halls of the Winchester Mystery House—where staircases defy logic and whispers seem to cling to the walls—Café 13 offers a welcome return to warmth and grounding. Newly reopened and serving guests daily from 10 AM to 3 PM, this cozy hideaway invites you to pause, breathe, and gather yourself before diving back into the mansion’s secrets. Settle in with a warm meal, challenge a friend to a board game, or simply rest and recharge as sunlight filters through the windows. Café 13 is more than a café—it’s a moment of calm between chapters of the Winchester legend, a place to steady your nerves before returning to the gardens, the grandeur, and the mysteries that await.
Winchester Mercantile Gift Shop
Your journey into the Winchester Mystery House begins long before you cross the mansion’s threshold. It starts at the Mercantile gift shop—a welcoming outpost standing at the edge of a world where history and myth intertwine. Here, beneath warm lights and shelves lined with curiosities, you can secure your tour tickets and prepare for the adventure ahead. Guests often pause for a souvenir photograph, capturing the moment before they step into Sarah Winchester’s enigmatic domain. As you explore the shop, you will find an eclectic array of gifts and keepsakes: tokens of the mansion’s lore, echoes of Victorian elegance, and mementos that carry a touch of the house’s enduring mystery. The Mercantile is more than a gift shop—it is the gateway. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Today marks 160 years since the passing of Annie Winchester, the only child of Sarah and William Winchester.
This photograph shows the Winchester family plot in New Haven, Connecticut, where Annie rests alongside her loving parents. Her grave bears the inscription “Babie Annie.”
When Violence Becomes Normal: The Crisis America Can No Longer Ignore
We hear many members of Congress pushing for gun control, yet almost no one—aside from President Trump—speaks directly about the need for a complete and total reduction in violence itself. Physical violence in America is an epidemic. In 2024, federal victimization data shows that 1 out of every 69 Americans experienced a violent crime, including rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. Although this represents less than two percent of the population, the impact is devastating. Each assault carries the potential for life‑altering harm: overwhelming medical bills, long‑term disability, loss of property, loss of freedom, loss of cognitive or physical function, and in too many cases, loss of life. The national conversation focuses heavily on weapons, but the deeper crisis—the widespread human suffering caused by violence—remains largely unaddressed. While violence may have a place in the entertainment value of certain movies and television shows, we should not normalize programs that center on people attacking one another in a Mixed Martial Arts–style format, especially when the home is used as the setting. This type of content blurs the line between entertainment and real‑world behavior. It conditions viewers to believe that when they are upset, it is acceptable to skip past communication, conflict resolution, and emotional regulation, and instead jump directly into physical confrontation. Many of these shows depict women fighting other women, pulling hair and throwing punches, or men resolving disagreements through physical domination. The repeated portrayal of interpersonal violence as casual entertainment reinforces harmful patterns in communities already facing significant social and economic challenges. When violence becomes a spectacle, it becomes easier for society to overlook the real‑world consequences that victims endure. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
Violence and lewd, provocative language became increasingly popular on television in the late 1990s. As networks searched for inexpensive, attention‑grabbing content, they hired sensationalist hosts—often individuals with failed or fading journalism careers—to lead daytime talk shows built around controversial topics. When a few on‑air confrontations escalated into physical fights, ratings for one particular show surged, and that moment reshaped the entire industry. Producers realized that audiences were tuning in specifically to watch the chaos, so televised conflict became the new programming model. For many viewers, this was the first time they had seen people openly expressing anger, “speaking their minds,” or using profanity on national television, and it was treated as bold, funny, or refreshingly honest. What began as a shock quickly became normalized, and daytime TV shifted from discussion to spectacle—turning interpersonal conflict into entertainment. As this outrage became normalized, it has also led to violence towards students and teachers on campus. Schools are reporting increases in physical fights, harassment, intimidation, and assaults occurring not only in hallways and classrooms but also in cafeterias, athletic areas, and even during instructional time. For many students and teachers, the campus—a place that should represent safety, learning, and stability—has become a setting where they must constantly assess threats, navigate hostile peers, and brace for unpredictable confrontations. Not long ago, fights on school grounds were rare, and serious incidents were exceptional. Today, however, it is no longer unheard of to witness a young child leaping from a desk, shouting profanity at a teacher, or even striking an educator with a closed fist. These behaviors, once unimaginable, reflect a troubling shift in school culture and the erosion of basic respect for adults and peers. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
As violence has become increasingly popularized—and as more people chase online fame—thousands of videos depicting violent confrontations are now posted on the Internet every week. These recordings come from everyday settings such as grocery stores, restaurants, churches, parking lots, and public streets. Many of the videos are real, capturing genuine moments of conflict. However, a small portion of this content is staged: actors are hired to provoke fights, harass someone, or perform exaggerated scenarios designed to go viral. In some cases, entire sets are constructed to imitate real locations, and performers are paid to act out dramatic scenes, such as sliding across a restaurant counter and pretending to steal food. Whether authentic or fabricated, the constant stream of violent imagery conditions viewers to see aggression as entertainment and blurs the line between reality and performance. Not only do these images provoke fear in people who may have little experience navigating unfamiliar environments, but they also contribute to a negative perception of Americans as a whole. Online, we see clips of individuals jumping on strangers at a moment’s notice, or doctors, nurses, and law‑enforcement officers being attacked simply for trying to do their jobs. The broader issue is a growing lack of respect for people in general, and this behavior is becoming increasingly normalized. It used to be that parents worried primarily about their children’s safety when they walked out the door. Now, people find themselves fearing for the well‑being of their parents, relatives, friends, and spouses as well. The sense of security that once defined everyday life is eroding, replaced by anxiety about unpredictable confrontations in places that should feel safe. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
All of these trends point to a single, troubling reality: violence is no longer confined to isolated environments — it is circulating through every layer of American life. When entertainment glorifies aggression, children absorb those cues and reenact them in classrooms. When schools become battlegrounds, those behaviors spill into neighborhoods and public spaces. When viral videos reward the most outrageous confrontations with millions of views, adults begin to imitate the same behavior for attention or validation. The cycle reinforces itself: media influences behavior, behavior becomes content, content becomes culture, and culture shapes the next generation. What once would have been shocking or unacceptable now feels routine, even expected. Violence has become a feedback loop, constantly amplified by technology, entertainment, and social pressure, and the result is a society where conflict is normalized, and safety feels increasingly fragile. The normalization of violence carries profound consequences that extend far beyond the immediate moment of a confrontation. Its impact ripples through individuals, families, communities, and institutions, reshaping how Americans think, feel, behave, and interact with one another. Exposure to constant aggression—whether in person, online, or through entertainment—creates a climate of fear and emotional instability. Students, teachers, parents, and everyday citizens develop heightened anxiety, hypervigilance, and difficulty trusting others. Witnessing or experiencing violence can trigger trauma responses, depression, and long‑term psychological harm that interferes with learning, working, and forming healthy relationships. Over time, people become desensitized, losing the ability to recognize danger or empathize with victims, which further erodes emotional resilience. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
As violence becomes more visible and more frequent, the social fabric begins to unravel. Not only is it embarrassing for an individual to be constantly harassed, threatened, and attacked, but hearing about it also stresses other people out and upsets them. Furthermore, communities lose their sense of cohesion, and public spaces that once felt safe—schools, parks, stores, churches, neighborhoods—become places of uncertainty. People withdraw from civic life, avoid gatherings, and limit interactions out of fear of unpredictable confrontations. Trust in institutions declines when teachers, medical professionals, and law‑enforcement officers are attacked simply for doing their jobs. The breakdown of respect for authority and for one another makes it harder for communities to function and for conflicts to be resolved peacefully. Violence carries a heavy financial burden. Medical bills from injuries, therapy costs, lost wages, property damage, and long‑term disability strain families and destabilize households. Schools must invest in additional security, surveillance, and crisis‑response measures. Businesses face increased insurance costs, employee turnover, and lost revenue when customers feel unsafe. Communities with higher rates of violence often experience declining property values and reduced investment, creating cycles of poverty that are difficult to escape. The economic toll is not abstract—it affects everyday Americans in ways that compound over time. Perhaps the most troubling consequence is cultural. When violence becomes entertainment, becomes viral content, becomes a joke, becomes a trend, it reshapes what society views as normal. Aggression is rewarded with attention, clicks, and fame. Disrespect becomes a performance. Outrage becomes a brand. Children grow up believing conflict is solved through domination rather than dialogue. Adults begin to imitate the behavior they see online. The result is a culture where empathy is weakened, civility is diminished, and the threshold for acceptable behavior continues to fall. Violence stops being shocking—and that is the most dangerous shift of all. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
All too often, people find themselves with nowhere to turn and no one willing to support or protect them. Even those who are brave enough to speak up and ask for help frequently have their concerns minimized or dismissed. Complaints go uninvestigated, or investigators acknowledge that an individual is being harassed, stalked, or threatened, yet still refuse to take meaningful action. When victims ask why their situation did not meet the criteria for an investigation, communication abruptly stops. Once the parties involved learn they have been reported, retaliation is common. In many cases, victims do not face retaliation only from peers—organizations and institutions may also become involved, despite the fact that such behavior is illegal. Knowing that oversight is limited and that complaints are unlikely to be thoroughly examined, some individuals and groups feel emboldened to act without accountability. This leaves victims isolated, vulnerable, and forced to navigate dangerous situations without the protection they deserve. To address the growing normalization of violence in American culture, we must take collective action across entertainment, media, technology, and government. The first step is encouraging the public to stop supporting television programs that showcase violence not as sport or athletic competition, but purely as spectacle for ratings. When audiences turn away from these shows, networks will no longer profit from broadcasting aggression as entertainment. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
Television networks and news organizations also have a responsibility to reduce the circulation of violent imagery. They should stop replaying videos of assaults, confrontations, and staged altercations simply because they attract attention. These images desensitize viewers, increase fear, and contribute to a culture where violence is treated as normal rather than unacceptable. Internet companies must also play a role. Just as platforms flag and remove hateful speech, they should implement policies to identify, restrict, and remove violent content that serves no educational or journalistic purpose. Viral videos of fights, harassment, and staged confrontations should not be rewarded with millions of views. Technology companies have the tools to limit the spread of harmful content, and they should use them to protect the public. Unhealthy patterns can develop in any relationship. Recognizing them can uncover abuse or stop it before it starts. All souls are of value to God. “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” reports Matthew 16.26. We must strengthen accountability. I respectfully urge President Trump to consider establishing a federal body dedicated to investigating ongoing reports of violence that have been ignored or mishandled. This agency would ensure that institutions and organizations cannot dismiss legitimate complaints or retaliate against victims without consequence. By enforcing penalties on entities that fail to protect individuals, the government can help restore trust, provide oversight, and ensure that victims receive the support and protection they deserve. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
Tina Keller’s son, Jason Keller, has always been the kind of young man people remember. A gifted baseball player, a strong student, and the kind of fun‑loving 20‑year‑old who could brighten a room just by walking into it. He is close to his mother and sister, and he never hides his enthusiasm for the things he loves — especially Paris Hilton. He sings along to her music constantly, and Tina laughs when she talks about it. “He’s really a fun‑loving 20‑year‑old. He hasn’t been able to go to a Paris Hilton concert yet, but we’re hoping he’ll get to soon,” she says. But behind Jason’s bright personality is a serious medical condition — one that can turn dangerous without warning. His body can suddenly weaken or become overwhelmed by pain, blood loss, dehydration, or dizziness. Tina describes these episodes as moments where “everything just shorts out,” leaving him vulnerable to falls on hardwood floors, concrete, or stairs. She has rushed him to the emergency room more than once. Jason takes a medication called Imuran (azathioprine), a drug that calms his overactive immune system so his body can heal. It does not work quickly, but it is essential for long‑term control of his condition. Missing doses is not an option. But last holiday season, something happened that Tina still talks about with disbelief. A thief stole Jason’s medication right out of the family’s mailbox. Tina remembers finding the empty box — the packaging torn open — and then checking her security camera footage. “I see the guy walking off… and I am just livid,” she says. The medication was worth $1,000, and replacing it was far from simple. She had to navigate insurance calls, pharmacy delays, and emergency requests just to make sure Jason didn’t miss a dose. “It turned out to be a challenge,” Tina says. “But the trouble didn’t stop there.” If someone steals Imuran (azathioprine) and takes it without needing it, the consequences can be serious, dangerous, and even life‑threatening. Imuran is an immunosuppressant, meaning it intentionally weakens the immune system. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
Steinwald Tower had always been a quiet building — old brick walls, narrow hallways, and a kind of silence that made every footstep echo. But in early summer, something changed. Ruffins of the lowest sort moved in. Residents began falling ill in ways no one could explain. First came dizziness. Then vomiting. Then sudden collapses in the stairwell. And weeks later, the diagnoses arrived: aggressive cancers, unexplained organ failure, and respiratory distress that seemed to strike without warning. It all began the same week Jason Keller discovered that his medication package — the one containing Imuran — had been stolen. Theft was not unusual at Steinwald Tower; mail had a habit of disappearing. But the timing was strange. The maintenance crew found the torn packaging in the basement, near the old boiler room where tenants were not supposed to go. And that was when the first cluster of emergency calls came in. On a Thursday night, the award‑winning Sacramento Fire Department received six calls from the same address within thirty minutes. People were collapsing in the hallways, coughing violently, clutching their chests. Henrik Baumann, a tenant known for saying “Sometimes everything just shorts out for a moment,” was found unconscious at the bottom of the concrete stairwell, barely breathing. *When Engine 5 arrived, the firefighters immediately noticed the smell — metallic, chemical, faint but unmistakable. The world‑renowned Sacramento paramedics rushed inside with their gear, weaving through the narrow corridors. They found residents pale, shaking, some vomiting, others unable to stand. Lukas Dietrich had a nosebleed that would not stop. Alaric Voss was confused, repeating the same sentence over and over. Captain Matthias Krüger, who had led dozens of high‑profile rescues, called for a full hazardous‑materials response. “This isn’t a medical coincidence,” he said. “This is an exposure.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
The paramedics moved fast. They stabilized Henrik Baumann, who regained consciousness but could not remember falling. They treated three tenants for respiratory distress, two for cardiac symptoms, and one for sudden neurological impairment. Jason watched from his doorway, heart pounding, as the hallway filled with firefighters, medics, and the low hum of portable ventilators. The paramedics moved fast. They stabilized Henrik Baumann, who regained consciousness but could not remember falling. They treated three tenants for respiratory distress, two for cardiac symptoms, and one for sudden neurological impairment. Jason watched from his doorway, heart pounding, as the hallway filled with firefighters, medics, and the low hum of portable ventilators. Over the next week, the truth began to surface. The stolen medication package had been opened in the basement — not for the pills, but for the dry ice coolant inside the insulated shipping container. Someone had broken it open near a corroded pipe that had been leaking fumes for months. The chemical reaction released a plume of toxic gas that drifted through the building’s ventilation system. The gas did not cause cancer directly — but it accelerated underlying conditions, triggered acute illness, and worsened respiratory problems in vulnerable tenants. Those already immunocompromised became dangerously sick. Those with undiagnosed conditions saw them flare violently. And those exposed the longest began receiving devastating diagnoses. The Sacramento Fire Department returned to Steinwald Tower three more times that month, responding to clusters of calls from the same floors. Each time, they worked with precision — ventilating hallways, evacuating tenants, and coordinating with environmental health teams. The paramedics became familiar faces, checking on residents, monitoring symptoms, and documenting the emerging pattern. By the end of summer, Steinwald Tower had become a case study — a rare example of how a single act of theft, combined with neglected infrastructure and a disreputable administration, could trigger a cascade of illness at a single location. The firefighters were honored again for their rapid response. The paramedics were credited with preventing multiple deaths. And Jason, standing outside the building during the final evacuation, watched the award‑winning Sacramento Fire Department roll away with their sirens off, knowing that the story of Steinwald Tower would be told for years — not just as a tragedy, but as a reminder of how fragile a community becomes when the systems meant to protect it begin to fail. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
For people who do not have ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or an organ transplant, this suppression can be catastrophic. The drug can sharply reduce white blood cells, leaving the body unable to fight infections. This can trigger high fever, chills, sore throat, pneumonia, and even life‑threatening sepsis. Imuran can also shut down bone‑marrow production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. When this happens, people may experience severe fatigue, dizziness, weakness, pale skin, easy bruising or bleeding, and anemia. The medication can injure the liver as well, causing abdominal pain, dark urine, jaundice, and elevated liver enzymes. Medical sources note that azathioprine can affect the liver, kidneys, and bone marrow, which is why patients who legitimately need it require regular blood tests. Early side effects often include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. More dangerous reactions include pancreatitis, which causes sudden severe stomach pain, back pain, and vomiting. Long‑term use — even when prescribed — increases the risk of skin cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia, including rare but deadly hepatosplenic T‑cell lymphoma. Severe allergic reactions may involve swelling of the lips, mouth, or throat, difficulty breathing, rash, or fainting. These risks become especially dangerous when someone steals the medication and takes it without medical supervision. People who steal medications typically take unknown doses, have no monitoring, may mix the drug with alcohol or other substances, and may already have poor health. Without the required blood tests to track liver function and blood counts, Imuran becomes far more hazardous than most people realize. Without proper medical monitoring, the risk of catastrophic complications from Imuran is extremely high. The drug can cause hair thinning, though complete baldness is rare. If someone steals Imuran and takes it without needing it, they face a serious risk of death, cancer, dangerous infections, bone‑marrow failure, liver damage, pancreatitis, and hair thinning — but not tooth loss and not full baldness. Investigators later concluded that the thief who stole Jason Keller’s medication had likely acted under addiction‑driven impulsivity. Addiction alters judgment, pushing people to steal without thinking, grab anything that looks valuable, behave chaotically, and take risks they would never normally consider. This is why stolen items often make no logical sense — and why the theft of a medication like Imuran can lead to consequences far more dangerous than the thief ever imagined. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
When it comes to firefighting, every incident carries the potential for injury—no matter how small the fire appears or how routine the call may seem. If you see a fire engine stopped in the street without its lights on, use extreme caution. Crews may be working nearby, and passing the apparatus can put them in danger. It is often safer to turn around and take another route; if you strike a firefighter or civilian and cause a fatality, you could face charges such as manslaughter. Firefighters frequently move around their vehicle on foot, loading equipment or preparing to leave the scene. Attempting to pass the apparatus can result in a collision with someone you cannot see. Pay close attention to their hand signals as well—emergency vehicles sometimes move slowly or reposition, and impatient drivers trying to slip around them create hazardous situations. If you are already in an intersection when you notice an emergency vehicle approaching, continue through it, then pull to the right and stop as soon as it is safe. Always obey directions from law enforcement officers or firefighters, even if those instructions conflict with posted signs or traffic laws. When sirens or flashing lights are activated, it is illegal to follow within 300 feet of a fire engine, ambulance, or police vehicle. Driving to the scene of a fire, collision, or disaster can also result in arrest, as doing so interferes with firefighters, paramedics, and other emergency personnel. Professional courage is not limited to physical toughness. It includes listening to others, advocating for them in difficult situations, understanding personal limits, and having the integrity to tell a superior when they are wrong. The deeper truth is that public safety depends not only on the bravery of first responders but on the discipline and judgment of the community around them. Every driver’s decision—whether cautious or careless—can either protect or endanger the people risking their lives to protect everyone else. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
To help prevent disasters, we must plan well in advance. Efforts to preserve farmland and maintain buildable land for future generations often lead to discussions about population growth and long‑term planning. Some people argue that immigration levels should be managed carefully to ensure that infrastructure, housing, and land use remain sustainable. Others suggest that, when immigration does occur, programs that encourage broad representation can help communities reflect the diversity of the wider world. When Americans purchase goods made in the United States, it strengthens local businesses and signals to investors that these products are in demand. Strong sales give investors confidence to reinvest in domestic companies, helping keep jobs, production, and wages within the country. As businesses grow, they contribute more to the tax base, which can reduce the burden on taxpayers over time. Supporting American businesses also keeps more money circulating within the national economy. The government increases the national debt when it spends more than it collects in tax revenue or borrows from private or foreign lenders. When people shop locally, more tax revenue stays in the community and supports public services. This helps keep jobs in the United States and increases the tax contributions that fund government operations. Purchasing foreign-made goods, by contrast, often sends money overseas and may benefit companies that operate under lighter tax or environmental regulations. Buying American-made products can also reduce environmental impact because they travel shorter distances and are produced under stricter standards for air, land, and water protection. In this way, consumer choices influence not only the economy but also environmental stewardship and long-term national sustainability. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
Under President Trump’s administration, he has made America a priority. President Trump has hermetically sealed the southern border, illegal crossings have been terminated, 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. 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.” Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
Where History, Mystery, and Imagination Intertwine
Step inside one of California’s most extraordinary landmarks and experience a world unlike any other. The Winchester Mystery House is more than a Victorian mansion—it is a living work of art, a labyrinth of architectural wonders, and one of America’s most captivating historical estates.
Built over 36 years without pause, the mansion stands today as a testament to craftsmanship, curiosity, and the enduring legend of Mrs. Sarah Winchester.
Visitors are invited to explore miles of elegant hallways, beautifully restored rooms, and the mansion’s famously perplexing features: staircases that lead nowhere, doors that open into walls, windows overlooking other rooms, and secret passages woven throughout the estate. Every corner of the house reflects Sarah Winchester’s unique vision, blending Victorian elegance with an eccentricity that continues to fascinate architects, historians, and guests from around the world.
Beyond its architectural marvels, the Winchester Mystery House offers a rare glimpse into the life of a woman who defied convention. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, poured her grief, creativity, and resources into building a home unlike any other.
Her story—part tragedy, part triumph, part enduring mystery—adds emotional depth to every room you enter. Visitors leave not only impressed by the mansion’s scale, but moved by the humanity behind its creation.
The estate’s lush gardens, ornate fountains, and tranquil outdoor spaces provide a peaceful contrast to the mansion’s winding interior. Guests can stroll through beautifully landscaped grounds, enjoy seasonal displays, and take in the serene beauty that surrounds the historic home. Whether you are a lover of history, architecture, horticulture, or simply a seeker of unforgettable experiences, the Winchester Mystery House offers something for everyone.
A visit to the Winchester Mystery House is more than a tour—it is an encounter with legend. It is a place where imagination thrives, where history whispers through every corridor, and where the line between fact and folklore blurs in the most enchanting way. Come discover why millions of visitors from around the world consider the Winchester Mystery House a must‑see destination and one of California’s most iconic treasures.
PRIVATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS
at WINCHESTER ESTATE
Café 13: A Rest Stop on the Edge of the Mystery
After wandering the winding halls of the Winchester Mystery House—where staircases defy logic and whispers seem to cling to the walls—Café 13 offers a welcome return to warmth and grounding. Newly reopened and serving guests daily from 10 AM to 3 PM, this cozy hideaway invites you to pause, breathe, and gather yourself before diving back into the mansion’s secrets.
Settle in with a warm meal, challenge a friend to a board game, or simply rest and recharge as sunlight filters through the windows. Café 13 is more than a café—it’s a moment of calm between chapters of the Winchester legend, a place to steady your nerves before returning to the gardens, the grandeur, and the mysteries that await.
Winchester Mercantile Gift Shop
Your journey into the Winchester Mystery House begins long before you cross the mansion’s threshold. It starts at the Mercantile gift shop—a welcoming outpost standing at the edge of a world where history and myth intertwine. Here, beneath warm lights and shelves lined with curiosities, you can secure your tour tickets and prepare for the adventure ahead. Guests often pause for a souvenir photograph, capturing the moment before they step into Sarah Winchester’s enigmatic domain.
As you explore the shop, you will find an eclectic array of gifts and keepsakes: tokens of the mansion’s lore, echoes of Victorian elegance, and mementos that carry a touch of the house’s enduring mystery. The Mercantile is more than a gift shop—it is the gateway. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
The more we love, the more love we are able to give. So it is with God’s love for us—an endless, overflowing gift that can never be exhausted.
I Am What Survives of Me
The disintegration of the atom which science has so amazingly achieved, is an immense symbol of the disintegration of man which the scientist has also brought about. The results of both are not only equally disastrous but also intimately related. The consciousness which has gone into these remarkable inventions of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries can be traced back to the primary consciousness of man, and that is the divine part of his being, the Overself. However, all these inventions serve a material purpose, and man’s use of them could have been foreseen, for they have been used only to draw him deeper down into materialism and farther away from the higher goal which has been set for him by the World-Idea. Science is neutral. What he has done to apply its discoveries shows the kind of thought which is uppermost in his mind, and that the use of these inventions is for selfish, exaggeratedly selfish, purposes by individuals and nations. The negative purposes have predominated over the positive use made of them. It is clear enough that with the terrible weapons now in the hands of the human race, and with the low moral ideals which it holds, sooner or later they will be used to destroy the greater part of the population of the planet. If the science of mathematics had not been formulated by the development of the human intellect, the atomic bomb could not have fallen on Hiroshima. That human ethics failed to develop so far—was even rejected by science—was a failure which turned white magic into black magic. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Yes, science had progressed, and carried us all along with it. However, where has it progressed, led us? We are faced not only with the nuclear war as a future possibility but also with the dangers and devastations of experimental atomic fission as a present actuality. The grave changes in climate with their serious results for agriculture, animals, and the life of man himself, as well as with destructive radiation, are definitely harming us today. This is not a revolt against science, but a warning. We must pity the millions who have come the shut-eyed, mesmerized creatures of their period, who are carried away too far from the shores of safety by the triumphs of science to understand that the terrible end of it all may be. Science, which was to have served man faithfully, has become a trap. The more he uses it, the more dangerously is he trapped. But alas! He does not want to see how precarious is his situation, so the prophet must remain mute and obscure: waiting and watching the higher forces which are themselves watching for the inevitable result that will arrest this evil. Great inventions have not given more aspirations, but they have enlarged his power to communicate with others about them and have made it easier to serve some of them. However, unfortunately for him, they have also enlarged his power to communicate evil ideas and made it easier to serve evil desires. Where science is balanced by the intuitive heart-forces, it brings well-being to man, but where it is controlled by the cold selfish head-forces alone, it brings him to black magic and destroys him. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
Experience has taught me that if we exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy. We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of the eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us. However, we must have faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction. Why is it a challenge to stay optimistic and consistently walk with faith in our lives? Perhaps we are not remembering Christ. As we remember Him and trust in His power, we receive strength through His Atonement. It is the means whereby we can be relieved of our anxieties, our burdens, and our suffering. It is the means whereby we can be forgiven and healed from the pain of our sins. It is the means whereby we can receive the faith and strength to endure all things. To be guided in life’s journey and have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, we must have a hearing ear, and a seeing eye, both directed to Christ. We must act on the direction we receive. We must look up and step up. And as we do, we will surely cheer up, for God desires our happiness. We are the children of a loving Heavenly Father. He seeks to be part of our lives—to bless us, to lift us, and to help us. He will heal our wounds, dry our tears, and guide our steps along the path that leads back to His presence. As we look to Him, He will lead us. As we look to Him, He will lead us. If the “I am” statements are to mature, they must move from naming what we are to revealing what we choose. Identity becomes less a label and more a devotion. In that sense, the next measure of the hymn is clear: we are shaped by the love we give, the love we seek, and the Love we follow. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Evolution has made man a teaching as well as a learning animal, for dependency and maturity are reciprocal: mature man needs to be needed, and maturity is guided by the nature of that which must be cared for. Generativity, then, is primarily the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation. There are, of course, people who, from misfortune or because of special and genuine gifts in other directions, do not play this drive to offspring of their own, but to other forms of altruistic concern and creativity which many absorb their kind of parental drive. And indeed, the concept of generativity is meant to include productivity and creativity, neither of which, however, can replace it as designations of a crisis in development. For the ability to lose oneself in the meeting of bodies and minds leads to a gradual expansion of ego-interests and to a libidinal investment in that of which is being generated. Where such enrichment fails altogether, regression to an obsessive need for pseudointimacy takes place, often with a pervading sense of stagnation, boredom, and interpersonal impoverishment. Individuals, then, often begin to indulge themselves as if they were their own—or one another’s—one and only child; and where conditions favor it, early invalidism, physical or psychological, becomes the vehicle of self-concern. On the other hand, the mere fact of having or even wanting children does not “achieve” generativity. Some young parents suffer, it seems, from a retardation in the ability to develop true care. The reasons are often to be found in early childhood impressions; in faulty identifications with parents; in excessive self-love based on a too strenuously self-made personality; and in the lack of some faith, some “belief in the species,” which would make a child appear to be a welcome trust. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The very nature of generativity, however, suggests that its most circumscribed pathology must now be sought in the next generation, that is, in the form of those unavoidable estrangements which we have listed for childhood and youth and which may appear in aggravated form as a result of a generative failure on the part of the parents. As to the institutions which reinforce generativity and safeguard it, one can only say that all institutions by their very nature codify the ethics of generative succession. Generativity is itself a driving power in human organization. And the stages of childhood and adulthood are a system of generation and regeneration to which institutions such as shared households and divided labor strive to give continuity. Thus, the basic strengths enumerated here and the essentials of an organized human community have evolved together as an attempt to establish a set of proven methods and a fund of traditional reassurance which enables each generation to meet the needs of the next in relative independence from personal differences and changing conditions. In the aging person who has taken care of things and people and has adapted himself to the triumphs and disappointments of being, by necessity, the originator of others and the generator of things and ideas—only in him the fruit of the seven stages gradually ripens. I know no better word for it than integrity. It is the ego’s accrued assurance of its proclivity for order and meaning—an emotional integration faithful to the image-bearers of the past and ready to take, and eventually to renounce, leadership in the present. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
It is the acceptance of one’s one and only life cycle and of the people who have become significant to it as something that had to be and that, by necessity, permitted of no substitutions. It thus means a new and different love of one’s parents, free of the wish that they should have been different, and an acceptance of the fact that one’s life is one’s own responsibility. It is a sense of comradeship with men and women of distant times and of different pursuits who have created orders and objects and sayings conveying human dignity and love. Although aware of the reality of all the various lifestyles which have given meaning to human striving, the possessor of integrity is ready to defend the dignity of his own lifestyle against all physical and economic threats. For he knows that an individual life is the accidental coincidence of but one life cycle with but one segment of history, and that for him all human integrity stands and falls with the one style of integrity of which he partakes. Clinical and anthropological evidence suggests that the lack or loss of this accrued ego integration is signified by disgust and by despair: fate is not accepted as the frame of life, death not as its finite boundary. Despair expresses the feeling that time is short, too short for the attempt to start another life and to try out alternate roads to integrity. Such despair is often hidden behind a show of disgust, a misanthropy, or a chronic contemptuous displeasure with particular institutions and particular people—a disgust and a displeasure which, where not allied with the vision of a superior life, only signify the individual’s contempt of himself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
A meaningful old age, then preceding a possible terminal senility, serves the need for that integrated heritage which gives indispensable perspective to the life cycle. Strength here takes the form of that detached yet active concern with life bounded by death, which we call wisdom in its many connotations from ripened “wits” to accumulated knowledge, mature judgment, and inclusive understanding. Not that each man can evolve wisdom for himself. For most, a living tradition provides the essence of it. However, the end of the cycle also evokes “ultimate concerns” for what chance man may have to transcend the limitations of his identity and his often tragic or bitterly tragicomic engagement in his one and only life cycle within the sequence of generations. Yet great philosophical and religious systems dealing with ultimate individuation seem to have remained responsibly related to the cultures and civilizations of their times. Seeking transcendence by renunciation, they yet remain ethically concerned with the “maintenance of the world.” By the same token, a civilization can be measured by the meaning which it gives to the full cycle of life, for such meaning, or the lack of it, cannot fail to reach into the beginnings of the next generation, and thus, into the chances of others to meet ultimate questions with some clarity and strength. To whatever abyss ultimate concerns may lead individual men, man as a psychosocial creature will face, toward the end of his life, a new edition of an identity crisis which we may state in the words, “I am what survives of me.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
From the stages of life, then, such dispositions as faith, will power, purposefulness, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom—each a criterion of vital individual strength—also flow outward into the life of institutions. Without these inner resources, institutions wilt; but without the spirit of institutions permeating the patterns of care and love, instruction and training, no strength could emerge from the sequence of generations. Psychosocial strength, we conclude, depends on a total process that regulates individual life cycles, the succession of generations, and the structure of society simultaneously—for all three have evolved together. And yet, in lived experience, people often become stuck in patterns. We inhabit patterns, we repeat patterns, and when our patterns are disrupted, we do not escape them; we simply generate new ones. Human development, institutional life, and social order are all patterned processes—dynamic, fragile, and constantly reorganizing themselves in response to disruption. When people face ongoing trauma, one of the most common—and least recognized—patterns they slip into is survival mode. It isn’t a choice, and it is not a flaw. It is the nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do when it believes danger is still present. Survival mode is not just a momentary reaction. When trauma is repeated or prolonged, the body can begin to treat it as the baseline of life. What starts as a temporary state becomes a pattern of functioning: scanning for threat, bracing for impact, conserving energy, shutting down emotions, and narrowing focus to the next moment only. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
People often do not realize they are in survival mode because it feels like “normal life” after a while. The pattern becomes invisible. Our daily routine is disrupted. We may initially feel shock, which eventually wears off, and then opens up to a whole bouquet of emotions. All luxuries, recreation, and many daily responsibilities are pushed to the side so that the focus can be on problem-solving and crisis management. When the crisis first hits, we do not feel like ourselves, and the normal comforts of our life no longer work in the same way. To further highlight this illustration, we may no longer derive the same pleasure from savoring a serene unwind to our favorite melodies or enjoying an afternoon of curated cultural indulgence at the museum. However, as the initial stress of a crisis gradually fades, we can get numb. If we choose not to grieve a loss, or if we are so emotionally overwhelmed that we throw ourselves completely into work as a means to avoid dealing with the pain, our survival mode becomes harder to detect. We get used to it. If those around us are also in survival mode, no one contrasts with our state of mind to help us recognize our own mental state. A mind that is in survival mode will be overactive. In this state, there is almost no break in the thoughts flying through the brain. We attempt to solve the same problems over and over again, sometimes triple-checking the results to make sure the solution will bring us safety. What makes survival mode so much different from a calm state of mind is the rapid pace of the thoughts. We feel agitated. Sometimes we look for more distractions to stimulate our busy brains because the adrenaline rush can feel temporarily invigorating. We become connoisseurs of high-intensity experiences and devotees of relentless productivity, attempting to maximize our rapid intellects instead of addressing the underlying, emotional reasons that we still feel unsafe, even though there is no imminent harm. Or sometimes, survival mode comes from a state of dread about what is happening, or will happen, to yourself, someone, or something you love. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
One way to step out of survival mode is to move from a state of constant thinking into a state of embodied feeling. After the mind becomes a fortress, stepping out of survival mode requires a shift into embodied awareness — a state where the nervous system is allowed to feel rather than defend. Feeling is not weakness; it is the nervous system recognizing that the present moment is safe enough to inhabit. This shift requires noticing sensations rather than suppressing them, allowing emotions instead of intellectualizing them, grounding in breath, posture, and environment, and letting the body speak before the mind interprets. When a person moves from thinking to feeling, they step out of vigilance and into presence. The body stops bracing. The mind stops forecasting. The pattern of survival begins to loosen. Trauma is painful, and at times it may feel like you cannot find relief. Yet it is important to know that the pain can subside, and you will find peace again as you rely on your Heavenly Father and your Savior, Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father allows us to experience difficulties. Even if He does not foreordain, create, or endorse these experiences, He can help all things. “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if you walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith you have covenanted one with another,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 90.24. We have found that turning to Heavenly Father and the Savior as a support is vital in the process of healing. Their peace heals emotionally and spiritually. We know that in Their love and compassion, you can find strength to heal. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
Everyone experiences traumatic events differently. In fact, some might experience an event as traumatic, while others may have only felt uncomfortable. For this reason, remember not to compare your experience to others’ or use your experience as the standard experience. No matter our trauma, healing can come through the Savior Jesus Christ. Because of the Savior’s infinite Atonement and His compassion and mercy, He can heal all wounds experienced in this moral existence, whether that healing comes in this life or the next. At times, it takes longer than we expect or want for us—even with the Savior’s divine support. However, He is able to heal us. “Have you any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have you any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither, and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy,” reports 3 Nephi 17.7. God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things. It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. We all have something in our lives that is broken that needs to be mended, fixed, or healed. As we turn to the Savior, as we align our hearts and minds with Him, as we repent, He comes to us with healing powers. However, it is also important not to be a reward-centered man. A reward-centered man is willing the good only out of fear of punishment. For in essence, this is the same as to will the Good for the sake of the reward, to the extent that avoiding an evil is an advantage of the same sort as that of attaining a benefit. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
The Good is one thing. Punishment is something else. Therefore, the double-minded person does not desire one thing when he desires the Good under the condition that he shall avoid punishment. The condition lays its finger upon the just the double-mindedness. If that condition were not there, he would not fear the punishment, for punishment is indeed not what a man should fear. He should fear to do wrong. However, if he has done wrong, then he must, if he really wills one thing and sincerely wills the Good, desire to be punished, that the punishment may heal him just as medicine heals the sick. If one who is sick fears the bitterness of the medicine, or fears “to let himself be cut and cauterized by the physician,” then what he really fears is—to get well, even though in delirium he swears most positively that this is not the case, and that, on the contrary, he all too eagerly longs for his health. As for this assurance, the more zealously it is made, the more clearly is it double-mindedness revealed: that he desires his health and yet does not will it, although he has it in his power. To desire what one cannot carry out is not such double-mindedness because the hindrance is not within the control of the one who desires it. However, when the person who desires is himself the obstacle that keeps himself from getting his desire fulfilled, not by giving it up, for then he would be at once with himself, but both by not willing and yet by willing to continue to desire: then the double-mindedness is clear—if it can be made clear—or at least the fact is clear that it is double-mindedness. If what a man fears is not the mistake itself, but the reproach at being caught in the mistake, then that fear so far from helping him out of the error may even lead him into that which is still more ruinous, even if apart from this he had made no mistake. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
So, too, with one who wishes to do go out of fear of punishment, if indeed it can be done in that fashion, if it is not as when the fear-ridden person turns his whole life into nothing but illness, out of fear of becoming ill. Fear of punishment is so far from helping him to do the Good in truth, that it ruins him, just because punishment is a medicine. However, everyone, even a child, knows that nothing is so dangerous as medicine—when it is used in the wrong way. Even if it does not end in death, it may bring on critical illness. And spiritually understood, there is a ruinous illness, namely, not to fear what a man should fear: the sacredness of modesty, God in the Heavens, the command of duty, the voice of conscience, the accountability to eternity. To be insured against or of being saved from this illness, it is profitable to a man that he should punish himself, “that he beat his breast and chastise his heart.” It is still more fruitful that he be punished so that the punishment may keep him awake and sober, for in whatever way this may be more precisely understood, it will be to his profit and his advantage; yes, truly to his advantage, if he voluntarily allows himself to be punished. However, then, in a spiritual sense, there is another illness, a still more destructive one: to fear what a man should not and ought not to fear. The first illness is defiance and obstinacy and willfulness. The second is cowardice and servility and hypocrisy. And this last is terrible just because it is an illness where the physician sees to his horror that the sick person has used the medicine—in the wrong way. It may indeed seem that the one that wills the Good out of fear of punishment may still not be called ill, for he really wills the Good. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
For surely punishment is not an illness? Yet he is nonetheless ill, and his illness is just this: the confusing of the illness and the medicine. It might seem that the one who wills the Good out of fear of punishment cannot be said to have used the medicine, and therefore cannot be said to have used it wrongly. For he indeed wills the Good. He wishes to be healthy—out of his fear of having to use this medicine. However, spiritually understood, where illness is not in the material body as the fever is in the blood, and where medicine is not something external, like drops in a bottle, then fear means: to use and to have used, to have taken the medicine—in the wrong way. This shows itself clearly in the terrible and fatal manifestations of that other illness. It has been noted that fear of poverty suddenly makes the extravagant person miserly; but it is never observed that it makes him thrifty, and why not? Because the fear of the medicine lay in taking it in the wrong way. Indeed, fear of the body’s infirmities has taught the voluptuary to observe moderation in debauchery (for the fear was to take the medicine in the wrong way), but it has never made him chaste. It taught him, instead of forgetting God in the whirlpool of vice (sad distraction of mind!), daily to mock God by moderation—in debauchery (abominable discretion!). And indeed, fear of punishment has made the sinner into a hypocrite, who in hypocrisy’s loathesome doubleness of mind pretended to love God (for the fear was to take the medicine in the wrong way), but it has never made him pure of heart. This is firmly established: that punishment for the frivolous person to be confined to a sick bed, but suppose in truth that he understands it as punishment, then the illness, the fever or whatever other disorder it now may be, then it is a medicine. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
All double‑mindedness that wills the Good only out of fear of punishment ultimately reveals itself, for it treats punishment as though it were an illness. In such cases, the individual’s inward anxiety becomes so overtense that the imagined horror of the “medicine” alters its very effect. The mark of this condition is that punishment is confused with illness: the sufferer does not truly desire release from the illness itself but, in falsity, desires only to be rid of the medicine that might cure it. This dynamic provides a revealing parallel to the psychoanalytic understanding of religion. For psychoanalysis must view religion both as a neurosis and as an attempt — enacted within the neurosis itself — to become conscious of one’s condition and to seek cure. Just as double‑mindedness clings to its suffering while resisting the remedy, so religious consciousness may arise from repression and yet simultaneously strive to overcome repression. Indeed, Dr. Freud came in the later years of his life to pin his hopes for therapy on precisely this paradox: that within the very structure of the neurosis, the human being may begin to recognize the truth of his condition and attempt to heal it. Psychoanalysis is vulgarly interpreted as dismissing religion as an erroneous system of wishful thinking. In The Future of an Illusion, Dr. Freud does speak of religion as a “substitute-gratification”—the Freudian analogue to the Marxian formula, “opiate of the people.” However, according to the whole doctrine of repression, “substitute-gratifications”—a term which applies not only to property and religion but also to dreams and neurotic symptoms—contain truth: they are expressions, distorted by repression, of the immortal desires of the human heart. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
The proper psychoanalytical perspective on religion is that taken in Moses and Monotheism, where Dr. Freud set out to find the fragment of historic and psychological truth in Judaism and Christianity. Even Marx—in the same passage in which the notorious formula “opiate of the people” occurs—speaks of religion as “the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world.” However, Marx, lacking the concept of repression and the unconscious—that is to say, not being prepared to recognize the mystery of the human heart—could not pursue the line of thought implied in his own epigram. Psychoanalysis is equipped to study the mystery of the human heart, and must recognize religion to be the heart of the mystery. However, psychoanalysis can go beyond religion only if it sees itself as completing what religion tries to do, namely, make the unconscious conscious; then psychoanalysis would be the science of original sin. Psychoanalysis is in the position to define the error in religion only after it has recognized the truth. It is not enough to say that God comes to men’s help. This assertion rests upon an infinitely more profound one, and one whose significance is still more impenetrable. This is the assertion that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, God took on manhood in the flesh. God secures His love against any suggestion that it is not genuine or that it is doubtful or uncertain, for He Himself enters into the life of man as man and takes upon Himself and carries in the flesh the nature, the character, and the guilt and suffering of man. Out of love for man, God becomes man. He does not seek out the most perfect man to unite Himself with him, but He takes human character upon Himself as it is. Jesus Christ is not the transfiguration of sublime humanity. He is the “yes” which God addressed to the real man. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Not the dispassionate “yes” of the judge, but the merciful “yes” of Him who has compassion. In this “yes” there is comprised the whole life and the whole hope of the world. In the man Jesus Christ, sentence is passed on the whole of humanity. Again, it is not the indifferent pronouncement of the judge but the merciful decision of Him who Himself bears and suffers to the end the fate of all mankind. Jesus is not a man. He is man. Whatever happens to Him happens to man. It happens to all men, and therefore it happens also to us. The name Jesus contains within itself the whole of humanity and the whole of God. The news that God has become man strikes at the very heart of an age in which both the good and the wicked regard either scorn for man or the idolization of man as the highest attainable wisdom. The weaknesses of human nature are displayed more clearly in a time of storm than in the smooth course of more peaceful periods. In the face of totally unexpected threats and opportunities, it is fear, desire, irresolution, and brutality which reveal themselves as the motives for the actions of the overwhelming majority. At such a time as this, it is easy for the tyrannical despiser of men to exploit the baseness of the human heart, nurturing it and calling it by other names. Fear he calls responsibility. Desire he calls keenness. Irresolution becomes solidarity. Brutality becomes masterfulness. Human weaknesses are played upon with unchaste seductiveness, so that meanness and baseness are reproduced and multiplied. The vilest contempt for mankind goes about its sinister business with the holiest of protestations of devotion to the human cause. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
And, as the base man grows baser, he becomes an ever more willing and adaptable tool in the hand of the tyrant. The small band of the upright are reviled. Their bravery is called insubordination; their self-control is called pharisaism; their independence arbitrariness and their masterfulness arrogance. For the tyrannical despiser of men, popularity is the token of the highest love of mankind. His secret profound mistrust for all human beings he conceals behind words stolen from a true community. In the presence of the crowd, he professes to be one of their number, and at the same time, he signs his own praises with the most revolting vanity and scorns the rights of every individual. He thinks people stupid, and they become stupid. He thinks them weak, and they become weak. He thinks them criminal, and they become criminal. His most sacred earnestness is a frivolous game. His hearty and worthy solicitude is the most impudent cynicism. In his profound contempt for his fellow-men, he seeks the favor of those whom he despises, and the more he does so, the more certainly he promotes the deification of his own person by the mob. Contempt for man and idolization of man are close neighbors. However, the good man too, no less than the wicked, succumbs to the same temptation to be a despiser of mankind if he sees through all this and withdraws in disgust, leaving his fellow-men to their own devices, and if he prefers to mind his own business rather than to debase himself in public life. Of course, his contempt for mankind is more respectable and upright, but it is also more barren and ineffectual. In the face of God’s becoming man, the good man’s contemptuous attitude cannot be maintained, any more than can the tyrant’s. The despiser of men despises what God has loved. Indeed, he despises even the figure of the God who has become man. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Where History, Mystery, and Imagination Intertwine
Step inside one of California’s most extraordinary landmarks and experience a world unlike any other. The Winchester Mystery House is more than a Victorian mansion—it is a living work of art, a labyrinth of architectural wonders, and one of America’s most captivating historical estates. Built over 36 years without pause, the mansion stands today as a testament to craftsmanship, curiosity, and the enduring legend of Mrs. Sarah Winchester.
Visitors are invited to explore miles of elegant hallways, beautifully restored rooms, and the mansion’s famously perplexing features: staircases that lead nowhere, doors that open into walls, windows overlooking other rooms, and secret passages woven throughout the estate. Every corner of the house reflects Sarah Winchester’s unique vision, blending Victorian elegance with an eccentricity that continues to fascinate architects, historians, and guests from around the world.
Beyond its architectural marvels, the Winchester Mystery House offers a rare glimpse into the life of a woman who defied convention. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, poured her grief, creativity, and resources into building a home unlike any other. Her story—part tragedy, part triumph, part enduring mystery—adds emotional depth to every room you enter. Visitors leave not only impressed by the mansion’s scale, but moved by the humanity behind its creation.
The estate’s lush gardens, ornate fountains, and tranquil outdoor spaces provide a peaceful contrast to the mansion’s winding interior. Guests can stroll through beautifully landscaped grounds, enjoy seasonal displays, and take in the serene beauty that surrounds the historic home. Whether you’re a lover of history, architecture, horticulture, or simply a seeker of unforgettable experiences, the Winchester Mystery House offers something for everyone.
A visit to the Winchester Mystery House is more than a tour—it is an encounter with legend. It is a place where imagination thrives, where history whispers through every corridor, and where the line between fact and folklore blurs in the most enchanting way. Come discover why millions of visitors from around the world consider the Winchester Mystery House a must‑see destination and one of California’s most iconic treasures.
PRIVATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS
at WINCHESTER ESTATE
Many event locations claim to be unique, but nothing compares to the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re truly seeking a distinct, one‑of‑a‑kind setting for your milestone celebration or special occasion, reserve a venue that delivers on uniqueness many times over. Whether you’re planning a wedding, birthday or anniversary celebration, corporate gathering, holiday party, or any other meaningful event, the Winchester Mystery House offers an unforgettable backdrop. Give your guests an experience they’ll be talking about for years to come.
Café 13: A Rest Stop on the Edge of the Mystery
After wandering the winding halls of the Winchester Mystery House—where staircases defy logic and whispers seem to cling to the walls—Café 13 offers a welcome return to warmth and grounding. Newly reopened and serving guests daily from 10 AM to 3 PM, this cozy hideaway invites you to pause, breathe, and gather yourself before diving back into the mansion’s secrets. Settle in with a warm meal, challenge a friend to a board game, or simply rest and recharge as sunlight filters through the windows. Café 13 is more than a café—it’s a moment of calm between chapters of the Winchester legend, a place to steady your nerves before returning to the gardens, the grandeur, and the mysteries that await.
Winchester Mercantile Gift Shop
Your journey into the Winchester Mystery House begins long before you cross the mansion’s threshold. It starts at the Mercantile gift shop—a welcoming outpost standing at the edge of a world where history and myth intertwine. Here, beneath warm lights and shelves lined with curiosities, you can secure your tour tickets and prepare for the adventure ahead. Guests often pause for a souvenir photograph, capturing the moment before they step into Sarah Winchester’s enigmatic domain. As you explore the shop, you will find an eclectic array of gifts and keepsakes: tokens of the mansion’s lore, echoes of Victorian elegance, and mementos that carry a touch of the house’s enduring mystery. The Mercantile is more than a gift shop—it is the gateway. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Beyond Identity: The Inner Forces That Shape Devotion and Desire
It begins with a figure who, at first sight, unsettles every expectation— not because he appears dangerous, but because he does not. This young man, twenty-one years of age, does not look at all like a criminal type or a shifty delinquent. In fact, he stands out in remarkable contrast to the kind of patient suggested by such a term as constitutional inferiority. He does not fit satisfactorily into the sort of picture that emerges from early descriptions of people generally inadequate and often showing physical stigmata of “degeneracy” or ordinary defectiveness. Tom looks and is in robust physical health. His manner and appearance are pleasing. In his face, a prospective employer would be likely to see strong indications of character as well as high incentive and ability. He is well informed, alert, and entirely at ease, exhibiting a confidence in himself that the observer is likely to consider amply justified. This does not look like the sort of man who will fail or flounder about in the tasks of life but like someone incompatible with all such thoughts. There is nothing to suggest that he is putting on a bold front or trying to adopt any attitude or manner that will be misleading. Though he knows the examiner has evidence of his almost incredible career, he gives such an impression that it seems for the moment likely he will be able to explain it all away. In his own attitude, he has evidently brushed aside so satisfactorily such matters as those to be mentioned that others, also, caught up in the magic of his equanimity, almost share his invulnerable disregard. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
Tom has so plainly escaped the ordinary and, one would think, the inevitable consequences of his experience, that, in a sort of contagion, his interviewer is also affected. The effect is to make it seem more plausible to accept the whole detailed reality of a life as dream or illusion than believe that this man could so regard it were it otherwise. With indisputable evidence that a human being has been run over and dismembered by a series of freight trains and the bodily remnants subsequently put through a sausage grinder, any investigator will have definite and vivid preconceptions of what he will behold. The evidence itself bleaches, suddenly and automatically, if one is confronted by the intact victim, whole smiling, immaculate, unscarred, without a scratch. What happened to the anatomical unit in this allusion scarcely seems more drastic than what, as a social unit, the patient before me had experienced. This poised young man’s immediate problem was serious but not monumental. If some psychiatric disorder could be discovered in him, his family and legal authorities were hopeful that he might escape a jail sentence for stealing. Despite many years of disappointment, the family still sought some remedy, some treatment or handling, that might bring about favorable changes in the patient’s behavior. Those concerned with the legal aspects of the immediate problem had dealt with this man often in the past, and saw in his conduct indications of something more than, and something different from, an ordinary or sane antisocial scheme of existence. His high intelligence made it difficult for them to account for what he did on that basis. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
Evidence of his maladjustment became distinct in childhood. He appeared to be a reliable and manly fellow, but could never be counted upon to keep at any task or to give a straight account of any situation. He was frequently truant from school. No advice or persuasion influenced him in his acts, despite his excellent response in all discussions. Though he was generously provided for, he stole some of his father’s chickens from time to time, selling them at stores downtown. Pieces of table silver would be missed. These were sometimes recovered from those he had sold them for a pittance or swapped them for odds and ends which seemed to hold no particular interest or value for him. He resented and seemed eager to avoid punishment, but no modification in his behavior resulted from it. He did not seem wild or particularly impulsive, a victim of high temper or uncontrollable drives. There was nothing to indicate he was subject to unusually strong temptations, lured by definite plans for high adventure and exciting revolt. Often when truant from high school classes, Tom wandered more or less aimlessly, sometimes shooting at African American neighbors’ chickens, setting fire to a rural privy around the outskirts of town, or perhaps, loitering about a cigar store or a pool room, reading the comics, throwing rocks at squirrels in a park, perpetrating small thefts or swindles. He often charged things in stores to his father, stole cigarettes, candy, cigars, et cetera, which he sometimes gave away freely to slight acquaintances or other idlers he encountered. Though many wasteful, inopportune, and punishable deeds were correctly attributed to him, these apparently were only a small fraction of his actual achievement along this line. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
He lied so plausibly and with such utter equanimity, devised such ingenious alibis, or simply denied all responsibility with such convincing appearances of candor that for many years his real career was poorly estimated. Among typical exploits with which he is credited stand these: prankish defecation into the stringed intricacies of the school piano; the removal of his uncle’s automobile fuel injectors for which he sold for $17.95; the selling of his father’s overcoat to a passing buyer of scrap materials. Though he often fell in with groups or small gangs, he never, for long, identified himself with others in a common cause. In the more outlandish and serious outcroppings of group mischief, he sometimes played a prominent role. With several others, he broke into a summer cottage on a nearby lake, stole a few articles, overturned all the furniture, threw rugs, dishes, et cetera, out of the window. He and a few more teenage boys on another expedition smashed headlights and windshields on several automobiles, punctured a number of tires, and rolled one car down a slope, leaving it slightly battered and bogged in a ditch. At fourteen or fifteen, having learned to drive, Tom began to steal automobiles with some regularity. Often, his intention seemed less that of theft than of heedless misappropriation. A neighbor or friend of the family, going to the garage or to where the car was parked outside an office building, would find it missing. Sometimes, the patient would leave the stolen vehicle within a few blocks or miles of the owner, sometimes out on the road, where the electrical battery had given out. After he had tried to sell a stolen car, his father consulted advisers and, on the theory that he might have some specific craving for automobiles, bought one for him as a therapeutic measure. On one occasion, while out driving, he deliberately parked his own car and, leaving it, stole an inferior model which he left slightly damaged on the outskirts of a village some miles away. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
Meanwhile, Tom continued to use his father’s phone to make small purchases through his mobile payment applications, and to steal bitcoins. He also stole pocketknives, e-reader tablets, wheels, et cetera, at school. Occasionally, on the pretext of ownership, he would sell a dog or a calf belonging to some member of the community. His youth made long terms of imprisonment seem inappropriate, it being felt that this might confirm him in a criminal career or teach him additional and more malignant antisocial techniques. He was ineligible for Napa State Hospital. Private physicians, scout masters, and social workers were consulted. They talked and worked with him, but to no avail. Listing the deeds for which he became ever more notable does not give an adequate picture of the situation. He did not, every day or every week, bring attention to himself by major acts of mischief or destructiveness. He was usually polite, often considerate in small, appealing ways, and always seemed to have learned his lesson after detection and punishment. He was clever and learned easily. During intervals when his attendance was regular, he impressed his teachers as outstanding in ability. Some charm and apparent modesty, as well as his very convincing way of seeming sincere and to have taken resolutions that would count, kept not only the parents but all who encountered him clinging to hope. Teachers, scout masters, the school principal, et cetera, recognizing that in some very important respects, he differed from the ordinary bad or wayward youth, made special efforts to help him and to give him new opportunities to reform or readjust. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
When he drove a stolen automobile across a state line, he came into contact with federal authorities. In view of his youth and the wonderful impression he made, he was put on probation. Soon afterward, he took another automobile and again left it in the adjoining state. It was a very obvious situation. The consequences could not have been entirely overlooked by a person of his excellent shrewdness. He was far too perceptive, far too practiced in reading the undercurrents of a situation, to pretend ignorance of what his choices would inevitably set in motion. He admitted that the considerable risk of getting caught had occurred to him, but felt he had a chance to avoid detection and would take it. No unusual and powerful motive or any special aim could be brought out as an explanation. To was sent to a federal institution in a distant state, where a well-organized program of rehabilitation and guidance was available. He soon impressed authorities at this place with his attitude and in the way he discussed his past mistakes and plans for a different future. He seemed to merit parole status precociously, and this was awarded him. It was not long before he began stealing again and thereby lost his freedom. The impression he made during confinement was so promising that he was pardoned before the expiration of the regular term, and he came home confident, buoyant, apparently matured, and thoroughly rehabilitated. Considerable work had been done with him at the institution, and he seemed to respond well to psychiatric measures. He found employment in a drydock at a nearby port and talked modestly but convincingly of the course he would now follow, expressing aims and plans few could greatly improve. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
His employers found him at first energetic, bright, and apparently enthusiastic about the work. Soon, evidence of inexplicable irresponsibility emerged and accumulated. Sometimes he missed several days and brought simple but convincing excuses of illness. As occasions multiplied, explanations so detailed and elaborate were made that it seemed only facts could have produced them. Later, he sometimes left the job, stayed away for hours, and gave no account of his behavior except to say that he did not feel like working at the time. There seemed to be no cause for dissatisfaction, no discernible change of attitude toward the work. When he chose to apply himself, he did better than most. It was plain to the employers that this promising young man was not merely lazy or, in an ordinary way, fretfully restless. The theft of an automobile brought Tom to jail again. He expressed remorse over his mistake, talked so well, and seemed so genuinely and appropriately motivated and determined that his father, by making heavy financial settlements, secured his release. After a number of relatively petty but annoying activities, another theft made it necessary for his family to intervene. Reliable information indicates that he has been arrested and imprisoned approximately fifty or sixty times. If his family had not made good his small thefts, damages, et cetera, and paid fines for him, it is estimated that he would have been put in jails or police barracks for short or long periods of detention on approximately 150 other occasions. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
Sometimes he was arrested for fomenting brawls in low resorts, provoking fights, or for such high-handed and disturbing behavior as to constitute a public nuisance. Though not a very regular drinker or one who characteristically drank to sodden confusion or stupefaction, he exhibited unsociable and unprepossessing manners and conduct after taking even a few beers or highballs. In one juke-joint imbroglio, he is credited with having struck a fellow reveler on the head with a piece of iron. No serious injuries resulted, though great uproar and spectacular commotion prevailed. Under similar circumstances, he was once in, or on the fringes of, an altercation in which gunplay occurred and another man received a minor flesh wound. Meanwhile, he continued to use his father’s phone to make mobile payments through various applications, often insisted on sleeping through breakfast, obtained loans through ingenious misrepresentations, and ran up debts which he simply ignored. Tom’s mother had over years suffered special anxiety and distress through his unannounced absences. After kissing her good-bye, saying he was going downtown for a Coca-Cola or to a movie, he might not appear for several days or even for a couple of weeks. Instead of his returning, a long-distance telephone call might, in the middle of the night, arouse the father, who would be entreated to come at once to nearby or distant places where the son had encountered unpleasant complications or, perhaps, restraint by the police. He expressed particularly heavy penitence for all the worry and sleepless nights he had caused his mother, admitted that he loved her dearly, and that nothing about his life so displeased him as having given her even a moment’s distress. He spoke as if with feeling about the patience, generosity, and understanding of his father and seemed to believe the filial bond was unusually fine and satisfactory. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
Recently, an elderly friend of the family, in town on business, learned something of the situation. This man, whose experience in dealing with other people and their problems was considerable (and very successful), undertook the task of helping the patient. Though he had heard a good deal about past exploits, he could not but feel hopeful after his first talk. A little later, he took the patient with him on an automobile ride, feeling that in this way he could bring the problem to full discussion by a more natural, informal approach. The conversation, once begun, developed amazingly. The younger man not only promised to behave from now on in an exemplary fashion, but analyzed and discussed his past in such a way that the older found there was little that could be added. Despite his interest and his experience in such matters, he had seldom if ever encountered a more plausible interpretation of human mistakes and social confusion, of how distortion of aims and maladjustment develop out of the complicated influences and situations of modern living. Even more than the pertinent presentation of cause and effect and the cogent steps proposed for solution, the young man’s appearance of sincerity in all these realizations impressed the older counselor. He spoke as the wisest and most contrite of men would speak and seemed to have a more detailed and deeper understanding of his entire situation than even the most sagacious observer could reach. The patient talked not only of what he would avoid, but discussed plans for work and recreation, for development and progressive maturation. Tom emphasized how his irregular hours, his unforeseen absences, et cetera, had kept his parents, much of the time, not sure whether he was dead or alive. Before the ride was over, the judicious counselor was encouraged and deeply optimistic. In addition, he was so impressed by points this young man had brought out and by his apparent earnestness and resolution that he felt himself wiser from the experience. Moved and stimulated, he admitted that he had obtained new and valuable viewpoints on life and deeper seriousness. He had been stimulated to review his own patterns of behavior and to seek a better and more progressive plan of self-expression. In this frame of mind, he bade the patient good night, letting him out of the car at the front gate of the parents’ home. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
The patient did not even enter the house. After going in the gate, he walked through the grounds, went out by a back entrance, and was not heard from that night. He was not, in fact, heard from for a week. News then came of his being in jail again at a nearby town where he had forged, stolen trifles, run up debts, and carried out other behavior familiar to all who knew him. This young man has, apparently, never formed any substantial attachment for another person. Sexually, he has been desultorily promiscuous under a wide variety of circumstances. A year or two earlier, he married a girl who had achieved considerable local recognition as a woman of the evening and as one whose fee was moderate. He had previously shared her offerings during an evening (on a commercial basis) with friends or with brief acquaintances among whom he found himself. He soon left the bride and never showed signs of shame or chagrin about the character of the woman he had espoused or any responsibility toward her. During the 2026 War with Iran, Tom maintained over some months, an offhand relation with the wife of a man in combat overseas. When in town, he ate at her house, sometimes slept there with her, but was as heedless of her and her feelings as for his parents. She apparently suffered some anxiety when, after making plans and promises to do something special with her, he disappeared and she heard nothing from him until he called her from another city (reversing the charges) to chat casually and sometimes to speak eloquent words of endearment. Sometimes he took precautions to deceive her about his sporadic pleasures of the flesh with other women; sometimes he forgot or did not bother. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
On returning from his trips during the war, he sometimes told interesting stories of having been for a time in the Navy, narrating with vivid and lifelike plausibility action in which he had participated and which led to the destruction of an Iranian Ghadir‑class midget submarine in the Strait of Hormuz or the pursuit of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy ship through the Persian Gulf. Again, he would talk at length about his experiences transporting airplanes from Joint Base Lewis–McChord (Washington) to Europe and the Middle East, or accidents leading to hospitalization and operation, and diverse adventures with nurses, other patients, interns, et cetera. Once, during a stag-party discussion of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), he even fabricated an account of having caught one or more of these unenviable maladies and enlightened his listeners about treatments he had received, drugs, dosage, and complications. None of these fraudulent stories had a real element of delusion. When really caught in the lie about any of them, and confronted with definite proof, he often laughed and passed it off as a sort of joke. After these events, and many others similar in general, but differing in detail, Tom seemed modestly pleased with himself, effortlessly confident of the future. He gave the impression of a young man fresh and unhardened, in no respect brutalized or worn by his past experiences. He seemed, also, a poised fellow, one who would make his decisions not in hot-headed haste, but calmly, whether these were prompted by immediate whim or by intentions he had much time to entertain. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
In many ways, Tom embodied the very qualities that make youth such a regenerative force in social evolution. Youth is a vital regeneration in the process of social evolution, for youth can offer its loyalties and energies both to the conservation of that which continues to feel true and to the revolutionary correction for that which has lost its regenerative significance. We can study the identity crisis also in the lives of creative individuals who could resolve it for themselves only by offering to their contemporaries a new model of resolution, such as that expressed in works of art or in original deeds, and who, furthermore, are eager to tell us all about it in diaries, letters, and self-representations. And even as the neuroses of a given period reflect the ever-present inner chaos of man’s existence in a new way, the creative crises point to the period’s unique solutions. There often is a manifestation of the remnants of infantilism and adolescence in man: it is the pooling of the individual crises in transitory upheavals amounting to collective “hysterias.” Where there are voluble leaders, their creative crisis and the latent crises of their followers can be at least studied with the help of our assumptions—and of their writing. More elusive are spontaneous group developments not attributed to a leader. And it will, at any rate, not be helpful to call mass irrationalities by clinical names. It would be impossible to diagnose clinically how much hysteria is present in a young nun participating in an epidemic of convulsive spells or how much perverse “sadism” in a young Nazi commanded to participate in massive parades or in mass killings. So, we can point only most tentatively to certain similarities between individual crises and group behavior in order to indicate that in a given period of history, they are in an obscure contact with each other. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Such crises, whether lived privately or enacted collectively, force us to confront not only the instability of identity but the question of what lies beyond it. When taking a look beyond identity crisis, we have to come to an understanding. The words “beyond identity,” of course, could be understood in two ways. They could mean that there is more to man’s core than identity, that there is, in fact, in each individual an “I,” an observing center of awareness and of volition, which can transcend and must survive the psychosocial identity which is our concern. As if a pure identity had to be kept free from psychosocial encroachment, in some ways, a sometimes precocious self-transcendence seems to be felt strongly in a transient manner in youth. And yet, no man (except a man aflame and dying like Keats, who could speak of identity in words which secured him immediate fame) can transcend himself in youth. In the following, “beyond identity” means life after adolescence and the uses of identity and, indeed, the return of some forms of identity crisis in the later stages of the life cycle. The first of these is the crisis of intimacy. It is only when identity formation is well on its way that true intimacy—which is really a counterpointing as well as a fusing of identities—is possible. Sexual intimacy is only part of what I have in mind, for it is obvious that sexual intimacy often precedes the capacity to develop a true and mutual psychosocial intimacy with another person, be it in friendship, in erotic encounters, or in joint inspiration. The youth who is not sure of his identity shies away from interpersonal intimacy or throws himself into acts of intimacy which are “promiscuous” without true fusion or real self-abandon. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Where a youth does not accomplish such intimate relationships with others—and, I would add, with his own inner resources—in late adolescence or early adulthood, he may settle for highly stereotyped interpersonal relations and come to retain a deep sense of isolation. If the times favor an impersonal kind of interpersonal pattern, a man can go far, very far, in life and yet harbor a severe character problem, doubly painful, because he will never feel really himself, although everyone says he is “somebody.” Next to the death penalty, the gravest punishment that can be inflicted upon persons is to deprive them of intimate human company. Not to have someone to talk to, to share life with, is to be dehumanized. Enforced solitude can lead persons to madness, unless they have strong egos and can discipline themselves to retain their identity and values. People need one another simply to be human. The counterpart of intimacy is distantiation: the readiness to repudiate, isolate, and, if necessary, destroy those forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to one’s own. Thus, the lasting consequences of the need for distantiation is the readiness to fortify one’s territory of intimacy and solidarity and to view all outsiders with a frantic “overvaluation of small differences” between the familiar and the foreign. Such prejudices can be utilized and exploited in politics and in war, and secure the loyal self-sacrifice and the readiness to kill from the strongest and the best. A remnant of adolescent danger is to be found where intimate, competitive, and combative relations are experienced with and against the selfsame people. However, as the areas of adult responsibility are gradually delineated, as the competitive encounter, the erotic bond, and merciless enmity are differentiated from each other, they eventually become subject to the ethical sense which is the mark of the adult and which takes over from the ideological conviction of adolescence and the moralism of childhood. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Dr. Freud was once asked what he thought a normal person should be able to do well. The questioner probably expected a complicated, “deep” answer. However, Dr. Freud simply said, “Lieben und arbeiten” (“to love and to work”). It pays to ponder on this simple formula; it grows deeper as you think about it. For when Dr. Freud said “love,” he meant the generosity of intimacy as well as genital love; when he said love and work, he meant a general work productiveness which would not preoccupy the individual to the extent that he might lose his right or capacity to be a sexual and a loving being. Psychoanalysis has emphasized genitality as one of the developmental conditions for full maturity. Genitality consists in the capacity to develop orgastic potency which is more than the discharge of pleasures of the flesh products in the sense of Kinsey’s “outlets.” It combines the ripening of intimate sexual mutuality with full genital sensitivity and with a capacity for discharge of tension from the whole body. This is a rather concrete way of saying something about a process which we really do not yet quite understand. However, the experience of the climactic mutuality of orgasm clearly provides a supreme example of the mutual regulation of complicated patterns and in some way appeases the hostilities and the potential rages caused by the daily evidence of the oppositeness of male and female, of fact and fancy, of love and hate, of work and play. Such experience makes sexuality less obsessive and sadistic control of the partner superfluous. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
Before such genital maturity is reached, much of sexual life is of the self-seeking, identity-hungry kind; each partner is really trying only to reach himself. Or it remains a kind of genital combat in which each tries to defeat the other. All this remains as part of adult sexuality, but it is gradually absorbed as the differences between the genders become a full polarization within a joint lifestyle. For the previously established vital strengths have helped to make the two genders first become similar in consciousness, language, and ethics in order to then permit them to be maturely different. Man, in addition to erotic attraction, has developed a selectivity of “love” which serves the need for a new and shared identity. If the estrangement typical for this stage is isolation, that is, the incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by sharing true intimacy, such inhibition is often reinforced by a fear of the outcome of intimacy: offspring—and care. Love as mutual devotion, however, overcomes the antagonism inherent in sexual and functional polarization, and is the vital strength of young adulthood. It is the guardian of that elusive and yet all-pervasive power of cultural and personal style which binds into a “way of life” the affiliations of competition and co-operation, production and procreation. Yet the very capacities that make love a binding force in young adulthood arise from deeper psychic currents—those wishes and purposes which, in Freud’s view, shape the inner conflicts of the mind long before they find expression in devotion or in style. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
In Dr. Freud’s theory of repression, we use the word “purpose” to designate that which is repressed into the unconscious. This excessively vague word conceals a fundamental Freudian axiom. The psychic conflict which produces dreams and neuroses is not generated by intellectual problems but by purposes, wishes, and desires. Dr. Freud’s use of the term “unconscious idea” can be misleading here. However, as Dr. Freud says, “We remain on the surface so long as we treat only of memories and ideas. The only valuable things in psychic life are, rather, the emotions. All psychic forces are significant only through their aptitude to arouse emotions. Ideas are repressed only because they are bound up with releases of emotions, which are not to come about; it would be more correct to say that repression deals with the emotions, but these are comprehensible to us only in their tie-up with ideas.” Dr. Freud is never tired of insisting that dreams are, in essence, wish-fulfillments, expressions of repressed unconscious wishes, and neurotic symptoms likewise. Now, if we take “desire” as the most suitably abstract of this series of terms, it is a Freudian axiom that the essence of man consists, not, as Descartes maintained, in thinking, but in desiring. Plato (and, mutatis mutandis, Aristotle) identified the summum bonum for man with contemplation; since the telos or end is the basic element in definition, this amounts to saying that the essence of man is contemplation. However, ambiguously juxtaposed with this doctrine of man as contemplator is the Platonic doctrine of Eros, which, as elaborated by Plato in the Symposium and the Phaedrus, suggests that the fundamental quest of man is to find a satisfactory object for his love. A similar ambiguity between man as contemplator and man as lover is to be found in Spinoza and Hegel. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
The turning point in the Western tradition comes in the reaction to Hegel. Feuerbach, followed by Marx, calls for the abandonment of the contemplative tradition in favor of what he calls “practical-sensuous activity”; the meaning of this concept, and its relation to Dr. Freud, would take us far afield. However, Schopenhauer, in his notion of the primacy of will—however much he may undo his own notion by his search for an escape from the primacy of the will—is a Western tradition that the goal of mankind is to become as contemplative as possible. Freudian psychology eliminates the category of pure contemplation as nonexistent. Only a wish, says Dr. Freud, can possibly set our psychic apparatus in motion. With this notion of desire as the essence of man is joined a definition of desire as energy directed toward the procurement of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Hence, Dr. Freud can say, “Our entire psychical activity is bent upon procuring pleasure and avoiding pain, is automatically regulated by the pleasure-principle.” Or, “It is simply the pleasure-principle which draws up the programme of life’s purpose.” At this level of analysis, the pleasure-principle implies no complicated hedonistic theory nor any particular theory as to the sources of pleasure. It is an assumption taken from common sense, and means much the same as Aristotle’s dictum that all men seek happiness. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
However, man’s desire for happiness is in conflict with the whole world. Reality imposes on human beings the necessity of renunciation of pleasures; reality frustrates desire. The pleasure-principle is in conflict with the reality-principle, and this conflict is the cause of repression. Under the conditions of repression, the essence of our being lies in the unconscious, and only in the unconscious does the pleasure-principle reign supreme. Dreams and neurotic symptoms show that the frustrations of reality cannot destroy the desires which are the essence of our being: the unconscious is the unsubdued and indestructible element in the human soul. The whole world may be against it, but still, man holds fast to the deep-rooted, passionate striving for a positive fulfillment of happiness. The conscious self, on the other hand, which by refusing to admit a desire into consciousness institutes the process of repression, is, so to speak, the surface of ourselves mediating between our inner real being and external reality. The nucleus of the conscious self is that part of the mind or system in the mind which receives perceptions from the external world. This nucleus acquires a new dimension through the power of speech, which makes it accessible to the process of education and acculturation. The conscious self is the organ of adaptation to the environment and to the culture. The conscious self, therefore, is governed not by the pleasure-principle but by the principle of adjustment to reality, the reality-principle. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
From this point of view, dreams and neurotic symptoms, which we previously analyzed as produced by the conflict between the conscious and unconscious systems, can also be analyzed as produced by the conflict between the pleasure-principle and the reality-principle. On the other hand, dreams, neurotic symptoms, and all other manifestations of the unconscious, such as fantasy, represent in some degree or other a flight or alienation from a reality which is found unbearable. On the other hand, they represent a return to the pleasure-principle; they are substitutes for pleasures denied by reality. In this compromise between the two conflicting systems, the pleasure desired is reduced or distorted or even transformed to pain. Under the conditions of repression, under the domination of the reality-principle, the pursuit of pleasure is degraded to the status of a symptom. However, to say that reality or the reality-principle causes repression defines the problem rather than solves it. Dr. Freud sometimes identifies the reality-principle with the “struggle for existence,” as if repression could be ultimately explained by some objective economic necessity to work. However, man makes his own reality and various kinds of reality (and various compulsions to work) through the medium of culture or society. It is therefore more adequate to say that society imposes repression, through even this formula in Dr. Freud’s early writings, is connected with the inadequate idea that society imposes repression, is simply legislating the demands of objective economic necessity. This naïve and rationalistic sociology stands, or rather falls, with Dr. Freud’s earlier version of psychoanalysis. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
The later Dr. Freud, as we shall see, in his doctrine of anxiety is moving toward the position that man is the animal which represses himself and which creates culture or society in order to repress himself. Even the formula that society imposes repression poses a problem rather than solves it; but the problem it poses is large. For if society imposes repression, and repression causes the universal neurosis of mankind, it follows that there is an intrinsic connection between social organization and neurosis. Man, the social animal is by the same token the neurotic animal. Or, as Dr. Freud puts it, man’s superiority over the other animals is his capacity for neurosis, and his capacity for neurosis is merely the obverse of his capacity for cultural developments. Dr. Freud, therefore, arrives at the same conclusion as Nietzsche (“the disease called man”), but by a scientific route, by study of the neuroses. Neuroses is an essential consequence of civilization or culture. Here again, is a harsh lesson in humility, which tender-minded critics and apostles of Dr. Freud evade or suppress. We must be prepared to analyze clinically as a neurosis not only the foreign culture we dislike, but also our own. While we are trying to grow out beyond our manhood, to leave the man behind us, God becomes man and we have to recognize that God wishes us men, too, to be real men. While we are distinguishing the pious from the ungodly, the good from the wicked, the noble from the mean, God makes no distinction at all in His love for the real man. He does not permit us to classify men and the world according to our own standards and to set ourselves up as judges over them. He leads us ad absurdum by Himself becoming a real man and a companion of sinners and thereby compelling us to become the judges of God. God sides with the real man and with the real world against all their accusers. Together with men and with the world, He comes before the judges, so that the judges are now made the accused. And if God stands with the real man—flawed, striving, unclassified—then we must look for Him not in abstractions but in the lives of those who meet the world’s crises head‑on. It is in this spirit that the story of the Sacramento Fire Department unfolds. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
Major fires had more than doubled in Sacramento over the past five years, a fact that weighed heavily on Captain Lukas Reinhardt every time he stepped into the engine bay before dawn. The city’s aging buildings—once proud structures of the post‑war boom—were now riddled with frayed wiring, overloaded extension cords, and power strips that hummed with quiet menace. As city officials repeated again and again, the causes varied in detail, but the pattern was unmistakable: electrical failures were igniting Sacramento at a rate no one could ignore. On a warm June evening, the alarm tones shattered the quiet at Station 14. “Structure fire, multiple calls, possible entrapment,” the dispatcher announced. Captain Lukas Reinhardt was already moving. “Reinhardt crew, mount up.” Firefighters Matthias Vogel, Erik Schneider, and Johann Bauer snapped into motion, pulling on gear with the practiced precision of men who had lived too long with the city’s rising flames. The world‑renowned paramedic team—Dr. Selene Ward and Ari Mendoza—fell in behind them, joined tonight by their EMT trainee, Klara Weiss, whose calm intensity had already earned respect. As Engine 14 roared through Midtown, smoke curled into the sky like a dark ribbon. The address was an old apartment block, built in the 1950s and barely updated since. Captain Lukas Reinhardt knew the type: aluminum wiring, brittle insulation, and tenants who relied on extension cords to power half their lives. When they arrived, flames were already licking out of the third‑floor windows. “Electrical origin,” Matthias Vogel muttered, spotting the telltale flicker near the breaker panel through the smoke. Captain Lukas Reinhardt nodded. “Schneider, Bauer—primary search. Vogel, with me on suppression. Paramedics, stage until we clear the first hallway.” #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
Inside, the heat was immediate and punishing. The fire had raced through the walls, feeding on decades‑old wiring like a fuse. Schneider and Bauer pushed forward, calling out through the smoke. “Sacramento Fire Department! Call out if you can hear us!” A faint cough answered. They found an elderly man collapsed near the stairwell, overcome by smoke. Bauer lifted him while Schneider cleared the path. Outside, Dr. Selene Ward and Ari Mendoza were already setting up oxygen and cardiac monitoring. “Electrical fire again,” Ari said grimly as they worked. “That’s the third this week.” Klara Weiss checked the man’s airway with steady hands. “He’s breathing shallow, but he’s fighting.” Back inside, the fire intensified. A sudden flare burst from a wall outlet, forcing Vogel and Captain Lukas Reinhardt to retreat momentarily. “Captain Reinhardt, the fire’s running the wiring channels,” Vogel warned. “It’s jumping floors.” “Then we cut it off before it reaches the attic,” Captain Lukas Reinhardt said. “Move.” They advanced again, pushing a line up the final flight of stairs. The heat was brutal, but the team held formation, each movement a testament to training, trust, and the unspoken bond forged in the city’s hardest hours. By the time the flames were finally beaten back, dawn was beginning to lighten the sky. The building was scarred but still standing. The residents—shaken, coughing, frightened—were alive. As the last embers hissed under cooling water, Captain Lukas Reinhardt surveyed the scene. Another electrical fire. Another preventable tragedy. Another night where the Sacramento Fire Department had held the line. Matthias Vogel approached, soot streaking his helmet. “Captain Reinhardt, that’s one more saved.” The Captain nodded, weary but resolute. “And we’ll keep saving them. Until the city fixes the wiring, we’re the only barrier between these buildings and disaster.” Behind him, the world‑renowned paramedics finished loading their patient for transport, their professionalism shining even in exhaustion. Sacramento was burning more than ever—but as long as Captain Lukas Reinhardt and his crew stood watch, the city would never burn alone. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
When it comes to firefighting, every incident carries the potential for injury—no matter how small the fire appears or how routine the call may seem. If you see a fire engine stopped in the street without its lights on, use extreme caution. Crews may be working nearby, and passing the apparatus can put them in danger. It is often safer to turn around and take another route; if you strike a firefighter or civilian and cause a fatality, you could face charges such as manslaughter. Firefighters frequently move around their vehicle on foot, loading equipment or preparing to leave the scene. Attempting to pass the apparatus can result in a collision with someone you cannot see. Pay close attention to their hand signals as well—emergency vehicles sometimes move slowly or reposition, and impatient drivers trying to slip around them create hazardous situations. If you are already in an intersection when you notice an emergency vehicle approaching, continue through it, then pull to the right and stop as soon as it is safe. Always obey directions from law enforcement officers or firefighters, even if those instructions conflict with posted signs or traffic laws. When sirens or flashing lights are activated, it is illegal to follow within 300 feet of a fire engine, ambulance, or police vehicle. Driving to the scene of a fire, collision, or disaster can also result in arrest, as doing so interferes with firefighters, paramedics, and other emergency personnel. Professional courage is not limited to physical toughness. It includes listening to others, advocating for them in difficult situations, understanding personal limits, and having the integrity to tell a superior when they are wrong. The deeper truth is that public safety depends not only on the bravery of first responders but on the discipline and judgment of the community around them. Every driver’s decision—whether cautious or careless—can either protect or endanger the people risking their lives to protect everyone else. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
To help prevent disasters, we must plan well in advance. Efforts to preserve farmland and maintain buildable land for future generations often lead to discussions about population growth and long‑term planning. Some people argue that immigration levels should be managed carefully to ensure that infrastructure, housing, and land use remain sustainable. Others suggest that, when immigration does occur, programs that encourage broad representation can help communities reflect the diversity of the wider world. When Americans purchase goods made in the United States, it strengthens local businesses and signals to investors that these products are in demand. Strong sales give investors confidence to reinvest in domestic companies, helping keep jobs, production, and wages within the country. As businesses grow, they contribute more to the tax base, which can reduce the burden on taxpayers over time. Supporting American businesses also keeps more money circulating within the national economy. The government increases the national debt when it spends more than it collects in tax revenue or borrows from private or foreign lenders. When people shop locally, more tax revenue stays in the community and supports public services. This helps keep jobs in the United States and increases the tax contributions that fund government operations. Purchasing foreign-made goods, by contrast, often sends money overseas and may benefit companies that operate under lighter tax or environmental regulations. Buying American-made products can also reduce environmental impact because they travel shorter distances and are produced under stricter standards for air, land, and water protection. In this way, consumer choices influence not only the economy but also environmental stewardship and long-term national sustainability. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
Under President Trump’s administration, he has made America a priority. President Trump has hermetically sealed the southern border, illegal crossings have been terminated, 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. 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.” Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
In honor of America’s upcoming 250th birthday, join Winchester House Historian Mrs. Janan Boehme for a presentation exploring the events, inventions, and social shifts that transformed America during Mrs. Sarah Winchester’s lifetime – 1839 through 1922. June 27th, 2026 at 12PM and 3PM. $5 entry. Link in bio. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Where History, Mystery, and Imagination Intertwine
Step inside one of California’s most extraordinary landmarks and experience a world unlike any other. The Winchester Mystery House is more than a Victorian mansion—it is a living work of art, a labyrinth of architectural wonders, and one of America’s most captivating historical estates. Built over 36 years without pause, the mansion stands today as a testament to craftsmanship, curiosity, and the enduring legend of Mrs. Sarah Winchester.
Visitors are invited to explore miles of elegant hallways, beautifully restored rooms, and the mansion’s famously perplexing features: staircases that lead nowhere, doors that open into walls, windows overlooking other rooms, and secret passages woven throughout the estate. Every corner of the house reflects Sarah Winchester’s unique vision, blending Victorian elegance with an eccentricity that continues to fascinate architects, historians, and guests from around the world.
Beyond its architectural marvels, the Winchester Mystery House offers a rare glimpse into the life of a woman who defied convention. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, poured her grief, creativity, and resources into building a home unlike any other. Her story—part tragedy, part triumph, part enduring mystery—adds emotional depth to every room you enter. Visitors leave not only impressed by the mansion’s scale, but moved by the humanity behind its creation.
The estate’s lush gardens, ornate fountains, and tranquil outdoor spaces provide a peaceful contrast to the mansion’s winding interior. Guests can stroll through beautifully landscaped grounds, enjoy seasonal displays, and take in the serene beauty that surrounds the historic home. Whether you’re a lover of history, architecture, horticulture, or simply a seeker of unforgettable experiences, the Winchester Mystery House offers something for everyone.
A visit to the Winchester Mystery House is more than a tour—it is an encounter with legend. It is a place where imagination thrives, where history whispers through every corridor, and where the line between fact and folklore blurs in the most enchanting way. Come discover why millions of visitors from around the world consider the Winchester Mystery House a must‑see destination and one of California’s most iconic treasures.
PRIVATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS
at WINCHESTER ESTATE
Many event locations claim to be unique, but nothing compares to the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re truly seeking a distinct, one‑of‑a‑kind setting for your milestone celebration or special occasion, reserve a venue that delivers on uniqueness many times over. Whether you’re planning a wedding, birthday or anniversary celebration, corporate gathering, holiday party, or any other meaningful event, the Winchester Mystery House offers an unforgettable backdrop. Give your guests an experience they’ll be talking about for years to come.
Café 13: A Rest Stop on the Edge of the Mystery
After wandering the winding halls of the Winchester Mystery House—where staircases defy logic and whispers seem to cling to the walls—Café 13 offers a welcome return to warmth and grounding. Newly reopened and serving guests daily from 10 AM to 3 PM, this cozy hideaway invites you to pause, breathe, and gather yourself before diving back into the mansion’s secrets. Settle in with a warm meal, challenge a friend to a board game, or simply rest and recharge as sunlight filters through the windows. Café 13 is more than a café—it’s a moment of calm between chapters of the Winchester legend, a place to steady your nerves before returning to the gardens, the grandeur, and the mysteries that await.
Winchester Mercantile Gift Shop
Your journey into the Winchester Mystery House begins long before you cross the mansion’s threshold. It starts at the Mercantile gift shop—a welcoming outpost standing at the edge of a world where history and myth intertwine. Here, beneath warm lights and shelves lined with curiosities, you can secure your tour tickets and prepare for the adventure ahead. Guests often pause for a souvenir photograph, capturing the moment before they step into Sarah Winchester’s enigmatic domain. As you explore the shop, you will find an eclectic array of gifts and keepsakes: tokens of the mansion’s lore, echoes of Victorian elegance, and mementos that carry a touch of the house’s enduring mystery. The Mercantile is more than a gift shop—it is the gateway. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
The Differnece Between Crisis and Drama
In modern workplaces, “escalate” has become a fashionable badge of initiative, yet its true meaning is far more perilous: to escalate is not to demonstrate power, but to accelerate conflict, amplify risk, and invite consequences that can embarrass, injure, or even destroy the very people who invoke it. Corporate jargon makes escalation sound strategic, like “leveraging,” “optimizing,” or “driving impact.” Social media and startup culture glamorize urgency, making slow, careful problem-solving seem weak or passive. Escalation feels like action, and action feels like competence—especially to someone still proving themselves. It mimics authority, because managers escalate; therefore, escalating feels like acting managerial. But this is a misreading of how power actually works inside organizations. Escalating a minor issue can make the initiator look impulsive, dramatic, or unable to solve problems independently. It signals immaturity rather than leadership. Escalation often implies blame. People feel accused, bypassed, or undermined. Relationships fracture, and trust erodes. Escalation pulls in managers, Human Resources, legal, or executives. What was once a solvable misunderstanding becomes a formal dispute. This is the part most people never consider. In high‑stakes environments—security, law enforcement, healthcare, transportation, customer conflict—escalation can lead to: injuries, wrongful termination, lawsuits, criminal charges, and even death. Escalation is not a metaphor in these settings; it is a literal increase in danger. #RandolphHarris 1 of 27
Escalation often emerges when someone feels: threatened, insecure, disrespected, and powerless. Employees often want to escalate an issue to regain a sense of control. But escalation rarely restores dignity; it usually intensifies the very humiliation or conflict they were trying to avoid. In this sense, escalation becomes a self-defeating defense mechanism—a way of “solving” anxiety by creating a bigger problem. Escalation is often a failure of judgment, restraint, and emotional maturity. Is all that drama even necessary? Instead of using techniques that focus on power forcing, a better model is to focus on de-escalation. De-escalation tends to focus on problem-solving, and it allows professionals to keep their composure, which is a true sign of competence. Instead of ratcheting up the drama, it is better to have a “resolution department.” Many frontline employees now behave as if the customer’s presence is an inconvenience rather than the very reason their job exists. For most of the 20th century, businesses operated under a simple principle: the customer pays everyone’s bills. That was not just a slogan—it was an economic truth. When employees forgot that, businesses failed. “The customer is always right” is now mocked as naïve or outdated. When rudeness becomes normalized, managers stop correcting it, and it becomes the store’s culture. Viral videos reward snark, clapbacks, and public humiliation, making hostility feel clever or justified. This creates a workplace where disrespect is not an accident—it is a performance. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27
Why do some employees now enjoy being rude? Ever since the hit TV show “Gossip Girl,” aired, people have taken as a signal to come off as elite to be rude. However, you must remember, not that it was right for the fictional characters to be rude, but they actually were the elite. They did not have to work for a living. These young men and women had personal bank accounts with millions of dollars in them. So, it mirrors the behavior of this elite class, some employees believe that being rude creates a momentary sense of dominance. It also signals a sense of belonging in workplaces where hostility is the norm. It allows people who feel rejected, threatened, disrespected, or under paid to be condescending to someone who cannot retaliate without consequences. Being rude to customers for no reason also masks insecurity. This is a defensive posture disguised as confidence. Being rude to patrons also flips the script: instead of serving, the employee becomes the judge of who “deserves” service. However, people in customer service are what the elite would consider servants. When you accept that someone will always have more—looks, money, talent, status—you stop treating life as a competition you are supposed to win. That dissolves the corrosive comparison that drives so much workplace hostility and escalation. Humility grounded in reality—not false modesty—keeps you from inflating your own importance. It prevents the entitlement that makes some employees rude to customers or reckless with conflict. #RandolphHarris 3 of
People who believe they must be the best at everything crumble when they are not. My perspective gives me resilience: I do not break when someone surpasses me, because I never built my identity on being untouchable. This is the opposite of the insecure bravado I have been describing in new employees who escalate issues or mistreat customers. My background gives me a vantage point many people never develop: I have seen what it means to work hard for what I have. I understand that respect is earned, not demanded. I know that power is not proven through aggression. I have lived enough life to recognize that everyone is replaceable—including myself. This creates a humility that is not weakness, but clarity. These very reasons are exactly why millions of people all over the world also loved Aaliyah. Allow your status in the world to anchor you. Remember that power is not proven through escalation or rudeness, but through restraint, respect, and the ability to stay grounded when others lose themselves in their fragile egos. When I talk to my mother, she always reminds me of Galatians 6.7, “A man reaps what he shows; good or bad actions will return to him.” Morbidly dependent relationships often begin with what looks like a simple choice of partner, but the choice is rarely “unfortunate” by accident. It reflects deeper psychological patterns—unmet needs, unresolved wounds, and internal narratives about love, safety, and worth. When those patterns go unexamined, people can be drawn toward partners who intensify their vulnerabilities rather than support their growth. The self-effacing person actually does not choose but instead is “spellbound” by certain types. He is naturally attracted by a person of the same or opposite sex who impresses him as stronger and superior. Leaving out of consideration here the healthy partner, he may easily fall in love with a detached person, provided the latter has some glamour through wealth, position, reputation, or particular gifts; with an outgoing narcissistic type possessing a buoyant self-assurance similar to his own; with an arrogant-vindictive type who dares to make open claims and is unconcerned about being haughty and offensive. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27
Several reasons combine for his being easily infatuated with these personalities. He is inclined to overrate them because they all seem to possess attributes which he may not only bitterly misses in himself but ones for the lack of which he despises himself. It may be a question of independence, of self-sufficiency, of an invincible assurance of superiority, a boldness in flaunting arrogance or aggressiveness. Only these strong, superior people—as he sees them—can fulfill all his needs and take him over. To allow the fantasies of one-woman patient: only a man with strong arms can save her from a burning house, a shipwreck, or threatening burglars. However, what accounts specifically for being fascinated or spellbound—id est, for the compulsive element in such an infatuation—is the suppression of his expansive drives. As we have seen, he must go to any length to disavow them. Whatever hidden pride and drives for mastery he has, remain foreign to him—while, conversely, he experiences the subdued helpless part of his pride system as the very essence of himself. However, on the other hand, because he suffers under the results of his shrinking process, the capacity to master life aggressively and arrogantly also appears to him to be most desirable. Unconsciously and even—when he feels free enough to express it—consciously, he thinks that if only he could be as proud and ruthless as the Spanish conquistadors, he would be “free,” with the world at his feet. However, since this quality is out of reach for him, he is fascinated by it in others. He externalizes his own expansive drives and admires them in others. It is their pride and arrogance that touch him to the core. #RandolphHarris 5 of 27
Not knowing that he can solve his conflict in himself only, he tries to solve it by love. To love a proud person, to merge with him, to live vicariously through him would allow him to participate in the mastery of life without having to own it to himself. If in the course of the relationship he discovers that the god has feet of clay, he may sometimes lose his interest because he can no longer transfer his pride to him. On the other hand, the person with self-effacing trends does not appeal to him as a sexual partner. He may like him as a friend because he finds in him more sympathy, understanding, or devotion than in others. However, when starting a more intimate relationship with him, he may feel even repelled. He sees in him, as in a mirror, his own weakness and despises him for it or at least is irritated by it. He is also afraid of the clinging-vine attitude of such a partner because the mere idea that he himself must be the stronger one terrifies him. These negative emotional responses then may render it impossible to value existing assets in such a partner. Among the obviously proud people those of the arrogant-vindictive type, as a rule, exert the greatest fascination on the dependent person although, in terms of his real self-interest, he has stringent reasons to be afraid of them. The cause of the fascination lies, in part, in their pride in the most conspicuous way. However, even more crucial is the fact that they are most likely to knock his own pride out from under him. The relationship may start, indeed, with some crude offense on the part of the arrogant person. In Ann Rice’s film Queen of the Damned (2002), we see this behavior mirrored in Prince Lestat when he meets the mortal woman, Jessie. #RandolphHarris 6 of 27
In this case, the dependent person (Jessie) responds with first with anger and impulse to get back at the offender (Prince Lestat), who she is obsessed with and has tracked to a bar in London called the Admirals Arms. When she finds herself in danger, Prince Lestat rushes in and saves her. But when he is about to leave, Jessie upsets him by bringing up a painful memory his holds close to his heart. As the film roles on, he simultaneously becomes so fascinated that he “falls” for her hopelessly and passionately and has thereafter but the one driving interest: to win her love. Thereby, he ruins, or almost ruins himself by exposing his existence and the existence of others like him to the public. Insulting behavior frequently precipitates a dependent relationship. It need not always be as dramatic as in Queen of the Damned (2002). It may be much more subtle and insidious. However, I wonder if it is ever entirely missing in such a relationship. It may consist of a mere lack of interest or an arrogant reserve, of paying attention to others, of joking or facetious remarks, of being unimpressed by whatever assets in the partner usually impresses others—such as name, profession, knowledge, beauty. These are “insults” because they are felt as rejections, and—as I have mentioned—a rejection is an insult for anybody whose pride is largely invested in making everybody love him. The frequency of such occurrences throws light upon the appeal detached people have for him. Their very aloofness and unavailability constitute the insulting rejection. #RandolphHarris 7 of 27
Incidents such as these seem to lend weight to the notion that the self-effacing person merely craves for suffering and avidly seizes the prospect of it offered by the insults. Actually, nothing has more blocked a real understanding of morbid dependency than this notion. It is all the more misleading since it contains a grain of truth. We know that suffering has manifold neurotic values for him and it is also true that insulting behavior attracts him magnetically. The error lies in establishing too neat casual connection between these two facts by assuming that the magic attraction is determined by the prospect of suffering. The reason lies in two other factors, both of which we mentioned separately: the fascination that arrogance and aggressiveness in others exert on him, and his own need for surrender. We now can see that these two factors are more closely interlinked than we have hitherto realized. He craves to surrender himself body and soul, but can do so only if his pride is bent or broken. In other words, the unconditional love that Queen Akasha and the fact that she saved his life meant nothing to him. Jessie’s initial offense was not so much intriguing because it hurt as because it opens the possibility for self-riddance and self-surrender. Prince Lestat hated himself because he was a Vampire. He was so fascinated with being mortal and the mortal woman he got the violin from that it broke his heart when he had to kill her. Because vampires could not be known to humans. When Jessie brought up that point about the violin, it reminded him of the deep hatred he felt for his own kind and for himself. To use a patient’s words: “The person who shakes my pride from under me releases me from my arrogance and pride.” Or: “If he can insult me, then I am an ordinary human being”—and, one might add, “only then can I love.” We may think here too of Anne Rice’s 2022 American gothic, horror television series Interview with the Vampire, when Prince Lestat’s passion is only inflamed when he is not loved by Louis de Pointe du Lac. #RandolphHarris 8 of 27
No doubt, the abandoning of pride as a rigid condition for love-surrender is pathological, particularly since the pronounced self-effacing type can love only if he feels, or is, degraded. However, if we remember that for the healthy person love and true humility go together, the phenomenon ceases to seem unique and mysterious. It also is not quite as widely different from what we have seen in the expansive type as we might at first be led to believe. The latter’s fear of love is mainly determined by his unconscious realization that he would have to relinquish much of his neurotic pride for the sake of love. To put it succinctly: neurotic pride is the enemy of love. Here the difference between the expansive and the self-effacing type is that the former does not need love in any vital way but, on the contrary, shuns it as a danger; while for the latter, love-surrender appears as a solution for everything, and hence as a vital necessity. The expansive type, too, can surrender only if his pride is broken, but then may become passionately enslaved. Stendhal has described this process in the proud Mathilde’s passion for Julien in The Red and the Black. It shows that the arrogant person’s fear of love is well founded—for him. However, mostly he is too much on his guard to allow himself to fall in love. Being too on guard to fall in love is not a flaw—it is a protective stance shaped by experience, memory, and the lessons your life has already taught you. It signals that you have seen enough of human behavior to know that intimacy is not a game, and that choosing the wrong person can cost far more than loneliness ever will. The paradox of being guarded, however, is that guarded people often love the deepest, but only when they feel truly safe. That is why Prince Lestat chose Jessie over Queen Akasha. As the saying goes, men fear powerful women, at least some do. #RandolphHarris 9 of 27
In what sense, then, is it still possible to speak, as the New Testament does clearly enough, of love as an activity of men, of the love of men for God, and for their neighbor? In view of the fact that God is love, what can now be meant by saying that man, too, can love and ought to love? “We love him, because he first loved us,” reports 1 John 4.19. This means that our love for God rests solely upon being loved by God, in other words that our love can be nothing other than the willing acceptance of the love of God in Jesus Christ. “If any man love God, the same is known of him,” reports 1 Corinthians 8.3). “Known” in the language of the Christian Bible means “elected” and “engendered.” To love God means to accept willingly His election and His engendering in Christ. If we say that divine love precedes the human love, but solely for the purpose of setting human love in motion as a love which, in relations to the divine love is an independent, free and autonomous activity of man, the relation between the divine love and human love is wrongly understood. On the contrary, everything which is said of human love, too, is governed by the principle that God is love. The love with which man loves God and his neighbor is the love of God and no others; for there is no other love; there is no love which is free or independent from the love of God. In this, then, the love of men remains purely passive. Loving God is simply the other aspect of being loved by God. Being loved by God implies loving God; the two do not stand separately side by side. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27
In order to make this clearly intelligible, a further word of explanation is necessary with regard to the use of the concept of passivity in this context. Here, as always in theology when there is reference to the passivity of men, we are not concerned with a psychological concept but with one which applies to the existence of men before God, that is to say, with a theological concept. Passivity with respect to the love of God does not mean that exclusion of all thoughts, words and deeds which is possible when I seek repose in a love of God that can come to me only in a particular “quiet hour.” The Love of God is not only that haven of refuge in which I take shelter in distress. Being loved by God does not by many means deprive man of his mighty thoughts and his spirited deeds. It is as whole men, as men who think and who act, that we are loved by God and reconciled with God in Christ. Ans it is as whole men, who think and who act, that we love God and our brothers. All of us define our identities to ourselves and to others in terms of the roles we have had assigned to us and those we have sought to assume because of the status and privilege associated with them. Thus, I define myself as a man (my gender role and gender at birth), father of my children and husband to my wife; son of my parents and brother of my siblings (family roles); and psychotherapist, teacher of my students, researcher, and writer (occupational roles). I had to be trained for some of these roles, whereas I seemed to “grow” into others. There are norms and rules governing the ways in which I age my age, my gender, my family roles, and my occupational roles. People come to depend upon me to act in stable and predictable ways, and I come to expect such stability of myself. #RandolphHarris 11 of
Each social role that persons embody serves as a kind of badge entitling them to participate in life with others in prescribed ways, and each role sets limits on their freedom and access to material good. Roles, in short, entitle a person to the privileges association with high status in a group, or they condemn them to the dregs reserved for those of low status. A Caucasian person used to have to tan their skin to discover the discrimination an African American person faced. However, across many societies, rapid changes—globalization, demographic shifts, economic restructuring, and public debates about historical injustices—have altered how different groups experience social status. These changes can create a sense of dislocation or loss of certainty, especially for groups that historically held more social or economic stability. Several factors contribute to this. Global competition has reshaped industries, reducing the economic security that many workers once relied on. Public conversations about history have highlighted injustices that were previously minimized or ignored, which can feel like criticism to people who did not personally participate in those events. Immigration debates often become emotionally charged, creating a sense of cultural or economic threat for some individuals. Inequality has grown across many countries, affecting people of all backgrounds and creating frustration that sometimes gets misdirected. These forces can combine to create a feeling among some White men that they are being pushed aside or blamed, even if the underlying issues are structural rather than personal. Common experiences include: Feeling scrutinized in public conversations about privilege or inequality, feeling that opportunities are more competitive than before, feeling that cultural narratives no longer place them at the center, and feeling blamed for historical or systemic issues they did not personally cause. These reactions are not unique to any one group; they appear whenever social hierarchies shift. #RandolphHarriis 12 of 27
Women have become keenly aware that the female role, in most societies, condemns women to inferior education, lower occupational status, and usually the exclusive responsibility of rearing children, unless they resist this definition. People in their sixties or seventies find themselves treated by younger people as if they were fragile, stupid, and lacking in fundamental human traits such as the needs for companionship, love, and ennobling work. Also, other persons stigmatized by society are given a rile to play by society and are under pressure to play that role. Thus, Paris Hilton might be expected to act in certain ways by the rest of society, and she may do so, even though she ordinarily would choose not to do so. Even sickness is governed by social norms. When persons feel unwell, they enter the role of patient, which entitles them to interact with physicians and nurses, or with psychotherapists if they are diagnosed as “mentally ill.” Recent, research has shown that people are trained to act like a “good patient” in hospitals, and this training has nothing to do with the treatment of illness. Moreover, the hospital itself is a complex web of profession, uniforms, titles, and badges that define status, authority, and responsibility. I worked for several years with a college of nursing; the hospital where the nursing students trained has as employees the graduates of four-year colleges of nursing, who earned a B.A. degree as well as the Registered Nurse (R.N.) diploma; R.N.’s with a degree from a community junior college; licensed practical nurses who had has no college training; and nursing assistants. The bewildering array of backgrounds puzzled the nurses and the physicians as much as it did the patients; the nurses with each type of training felt somehow different from the others and felt entitled to more responsibility, salary, and freedom. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27
The patients in hospitals are often made to feel like the least important, lowest caste members of the hospital community. They are treated as children about to be disobedient, and they are often kept in the dark about the nature of their illness and the precise nature of the medicines or operations that were prescribed for or conducted upon them. In mental hospitals I visited, even to be there as a patient insured that the staff would not treat the patient as a free, responsible human being; rather, the patient was seen and talked about—sometimes in his or her presence—as the embodiment of the mental illness. The patient was required to participate in therapeutic processes, to take medicine, and so on. For research purposes, a group of psychologists were admitted to mental hospitals as patients, to study the career of the mental patient firsthand. They found that they could not convince the attendants and professional staff that they were “sane,” though the authentic patients knew they were. Role and the badges, titles, and uniforms that identify them enable others to predict how we will act in social situations. The ability to master a variety of roles throughout life is a decided asset for healthy personality, because it facilitates the interactions with others that bring satisfaction of many basic needs. Not to be able to enter roles because of an unhealthy self-structure of irrational fears thus impedes healthy personality development. If a young woman cannot make a career choice because she lacks confidence in her ability to master the training, she may face a life of low economic status. A man with sexual inhibitions may avoid intimate relationships with woman and live a life that is safe but devoid of loving relationships. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27
Although role conformity implies some limitations on one’s freedom of expression and action, there is a sense in which the ability to act in ways appropriate to one’s family position, age, gender, and profession is liberating. Not to adhere to reasonable definitions of appropriate behavior is to invite social censure, which can interfere radically with effective living and the attainment of satisfactions. It sometimes appears hypocritical to students that older people may display politeness and feign delight at being with people they dislike. Actually, the ability to conform with the “niceties” in a variety of situations can be life-giving and liberating, because it clearly separates personal relationships (where spontaneity is expected) from the more formal relationships between strangers. In some cultures, like the English, the French, and the Spanish, much time is spent in ceremonious interaction with others, yet there is room in those cultures for great freedom in the privacy of personal relationships. Europeans often complain that Americans seem friendly in impersonal situations, as in business, but that in private they avoid deepening relationships. If not all of the substance of behavior, roles function to aid in the development of the healthy person by structuring the skeleton of behavior. At the party, my role will be that of the great seducer; with my grandparents, I shall play the role of the dutiful son; in class, the role of scholar will help me decide what to do and how to be. The roles provide stability in some cases so that you can know how to behave initially in new situations. They provide a context that enables you, as in the case of a good actor, to also build in your own unique self and characterization of the role. One might expect the healthy personality to utilize the role concept and then proceed onward from there to fashion full selfhood with his other repertoire of roles or through fashioning an entirely new role. #RandolphHarris 15 of 27
Within institutions, their linguistic objectifications, from their simple verbal designations to their incorporation in highly complex symbolizations of reality also represent them (that is, make them present) in experience. And they may be symbolically represented by physical objects, both natural and artificial. All these representations, however, become “dead” (that is, bereft of subjective reality) unless they are ongoingly “brought to life” in actual human conduct. The representation of an institution in and by roles is thus the representation par excellence, on which all other representations are dependent. For example, the institution of law is, of course, also represented by the ultimate legitimations of the institution and its norms in ethical, religious, or mythological systems of thought. Such man-made phenomena as the awesome paraphernalia that frequently accompany the administration of law, and such natural ones as the clap of thunder that may be taken as the divine verdict in a trial by ordeal and may eventually even become a symbol of ultimate justice, further represents the institution. All these representations, however, derive their continuing significance and even intelligibility from their utilization in human conduct, which here, of course, is conduct typified in the institutional roles of the law. When individuals begin to reflect upon these matters, they face the problem of binding the various representations together in a cohesive whole that will make sense. Any concrete role performance refers to the objective sense of the institution, and thus to the others complementary role performances, and to the sense of the institution as a whole. While the problem of integrating the various representations so involved is solved primarily on the level of legitimation, it is also dealt with in terms of certain roles. #RandolphHarris 16 of 27
All roles represent the institutional order in the afore-mentioned sense. Some roles, however, symbolically represent that order in its totality more than others. Such roles are of great strategic importance in a society, since they represent not only this or that institution, but the integration of all institutions in a meaningful world. Ipso facto, of course, these roles help in maintaining such integration in the consciousness and conduct of the members of the society, that is, they have a special relationship to the legitimating apparatus of the society. Some roles may have no function other than this symbolic representation of the institutional order as an integrated totality, others take on this function from time to time in addition to the less exalted functions they routinely perform. The judge, for instance, may, on occasion, in some particularly important case, represent the total integration of society in this way. The monarch does so all the time and, indeed, in a constitutional monarchy, may have no other function than as a “living symbol” for all levels of the society, down to the man in the street. Historically, roles that symbolically represent the total institutional order have been most commonly located in political and religious institutions. More important for our immediate considerations is the character of roles as mediators of specific sectors of the common stock of knowledge. By virtue of the roles he plays, the individual is inducted into specific areas of socially objectivated knowledge, not only in the narrower cognitive sense, but also in the sense of the “knowledge” of norms, values and even emotions. When it comes to you, your family, and your institution, think about how you want to be viewed. Your behavior speaks volumes about you and your organization. As a reminder, it is important to never let anything escalate. Find a reasonable solution that is amicable for both parties. People and businesses known for have arduous relationships tend to carry about reputation and reputable people choose to avoid them. #RandolphHarris 17 of 27
The award-winning Sacramento Fire Department stands out as one of the region’s most established and respected public‑safety institutions. Its reputation is grounded not in slogans but in a long, documented history of service, scale, and operational capacity. The department’s mission is explicitly centered on protecting the community through comprehensive emergency response and prevention services, which aligns directly with your point that they are “in the business of saving lives.” Few public institutions maintain continuous service for as long as the Sacramento Fire Department. Its longevity is not just a historical footnote—it’s a marker of institutional stability, community trust, and operational evolution. The department’s origins in the mid‑19th century place it at the heart of Sacramento’s early civic development, and its transformation into a fully paid, modern agency by 1872 reflects the city’s rapid growth and the increasing complexity of urban fire protection. A structural collapse is one of the most feared events in firefighting because it represents true escalation—the kind that threatens lives, demands expertise, and requires humility in the face of forces larger than oneself. A structural collapse embodies everything escalation actually means. Acceleration — A building can go from stable to deadly in seconds. Amplification — A small fire becomes a catastrophic event. Loss of control — Even trained professionals cannot fully predict or contain it. Life‑or‑death stakes — Firefighters risk injury or death; civilians may be trapped. This is escalation in its purest form: a situation where the stakes rise beyond human control. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27
Not long ago, two firefighters were killed when a wall collapsed during an emergency response, and only a few years later another crew narrowly escaped the same fate. Around midnight on a September morning, firefighters arrived at an abandoned building already engulfed in flames, the roof gone and the windows blown out. A strong east wind threatened to carry the fire into a row of nearby homes, so crews surrounded the structure and fought to contain it. During the height of the blaze, the roof caved inward, destroying the wall supports. The west wall began to buckle, giving the men only seconds to retreat before it crashed down where they had been standing. That is what real escalation looks like—sudden, deadly, and beyond human control. When I compare that to the way people in offices escalate minor issues to feel powerful, the difference is sobering. Firefighters face true danger; many workers only imitate it. Firefighters know that no amount of training, strength, or confidence can stop a collapsing wall. That awareness keeps them grounded. The Sacramento Fire Department understands that forces larger than oneself exist, and that ego has no place in environments where lives are at stake. The way an emergency call is reported and dispatched affects response. Calls such as building fires, heat attacks, and trench rescues are usually presumed to be emergences based on the dispatcher matching the caller’s information to predetermined response procedure. Service calls for animal rescues, water leaks, and other investigations or complaints generally are regarded as nonemergency responses. Sometimes additional information categorizes a call to an emergency or nonemergency response. For instance, a carbon monoxide alarm with no illness in many jurisdictions gets a nonemergency response to check for the poisonous gas, whereas a carbon monoxide alarm with people ill upgrades it to an emergency response with advanced life support (ALS). Other calls are not quite as cut and dry when it comes to determining the severity of the emergency, but some specific types of calls could benefit from a national standard for response including automatic alarms, odor or smoke investigation calls, EMS assists, and ambulance transports. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27
What is the standard response to an automatic fire alarm with no supporting information at a hotel? Some departments deploy multiple stations responding with lights and siren, whereas others wait for conformation from hotel security before dispatching. It could be that your department responds as the first-due company with lights and siren (emergency), whereas secondary units continue nonemergency care until further information cancels them or has them upgrade the response. A risk-benefit mode would have to take into account the number of false alarms, the potential for the loss of life and property with a delayed response, as well as the potential risk for an apparatus crash. Although motor vehicle crashes are a significant cause of death for fire fighters, hotel fires have the potential to cause numerous deaths as well. Many commercial and industrial buildings these days have automatic fire alarms, and sometimes automatic alarm response needs more planning. For example, a childcare center or school might require a heavier response during occupied hours than when it is closed, and the chance for a real emergency at the city outdoor pool pavilion in January that requires a heavy response for a fire alarm is unlikely. Sometimes the alarm is better at describing the problem. Thunderstorms are notorious for setting off false alarms due to power outages or surges, but alarms cannot be assumed false, because lightning can be the cause of an actual fire. An automatic alarm that comes in as water flow alarm at an unoccupied store in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm should be treated a little more seriously than a pull station. The reliability of an alarm that distinguishes the special problem before the fire department arrives depends on the design and performance of the system. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27
Why odor and smoke investigations matter? Fire service literature consistently emphasizes that odor calls are deceptively dangerous. They are statistically less common and often low‑acuity, but they can mask high‑risk situations. One emergency dispatch journal notes that even a caller reporting a “rotting animal smell” could actually be describing a natural gas leak or something more severe. Fire engineering sources reinforce that odor investigations require firefighters to act as both investigators and responders, because while many odors turn out to be harmless, some are early indicators of electrical failures, chemical hazards, or hidden fires. This duality—routine on the surface, dangerous underneath—makes odor calls a perfect example of true professional vigilance, not the performative escalation you have been critiquing in workplace culture. How these calls escalate in real life? Odor and smoke investigations can escalate in several ways: Hidden structural fires — A smell of burning can be the first sign of fire inside a wall, attic, or crawlspace. Electrical failures — Overheating wires or failing appliances can ignite suddenly. Gas leaks — A faint odor may precede an explosion. Chemical hazards — Industrial or household chemicals can produce toxic fumes. Unknown sources — Many calls never reveal a clear cause, which means responders must assume the worst until proven otherwise. FireRescue1 warns that “smells and bells” calls have, over the years, progressed into serious fires that claimed firefighters’ lives when crews or dispatchers underestimated the risk. Why dispatch classification is critical? Emergency dispatch systems track odor calls under specific protocols, and while they are statistically rare, dispatchers are trained not to assume low severity until they gather complete information. This is the opposite of casual escalation. It is measured escalation, based on evidence, risk, and public safety. Even though most of these calls turn out to be harmless, the fire department approaches each one with disciplined caution because the consequences of being wrong can be catastrophic. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27
Back in 2012, a fire alarm in a low‑rise building turned into a full‑scale emergency when someone on the first floor was smoking and the fire spread faster than anyone expected. Elevators are supposed to shut down during a fire alarm so no one unknowingly rides into danger, but this building kept them active because many elderly residents could not use the stairs. By the time firefighters arrived—within minutes—the first floor was already engulfed in flames. Before that incident, a former tenant had a violent quarrel with her partner. In his anger, he filled a gas can, placed it inside the elevator, and sent it up to the ninth floor where she lived. The resulting blaze destroyed the entire floor. It wasn’t an isolated event—other fires and serious incidents have occurred in the building over the years as well. This fits into a long, troubling pattern: a building that has accumulated layers of unresolved danger, human volatility, and managerial neglect—each incident stacking on top of the last until the place itself becomes a kind of archive of near‑catastrophes. One person’s emotional outburst can weaponize the building’s own infrastructure. And when a building’s systems—elevators, alarms, ventilation, access points—can be turned into tools of destruction, it means the structure is already compromised at a deeper level. A fire alarm that turns out to be a real fire is one thing; a fire alarm in a building where the elevators are intentionally left active—despite the presence of elderly residents who cannot use stairs—is something else entirely. It becomes a case study in how small policy decisions can escalate into life‑threatening conditions, and it fits directly into the them of real danger, real escalation, and the difference between professional responsibility and organizational negligence. Elevators are designed to shut down during fire alarms to prevent occupants from being delivered directly into a fire zone. Disabling that safety feature—even for compassionate reasons—creates a structural vulnerability. A first‑floor fire is especially dangerous because it can trap people above it and cut off escape routes. Fire spreads faster than most people realize, especially in older or low‑rise buildings with compromised fire barriers. The fire department’s rapid response cannot compensate for unsafe building policies. “By the time firefighters arrived, the first floor was already engulfed.” That is not a failure of the fire department—it is a failure of the building’s safety systems and decision‑making. #RandolphHarris 22 of 27
Most multi‑unit residential buildings in California either restrict or completely prohibit smoking, but the exact rules depend on a mix of state law, local ordinances, and individual landlord policies. The trend is overwhelmingly toward smoke‑free housing, especially in apartments, condos, and senior‑living buildings. This is important because: A cigarette becomes a smoldering ignition source. A smoldering ignition becomes a room fire. A room fire becomes a floor fire. A floor fire becomes a building‑wide emergency. A building‑wide emergency becomes a life‑threatening situation for residents and responders. This is escalation in its literal, physical sense: a small hazard accelerating into a catastrophic event. It also shows how human decisions—keeping elevators active—can unintentionally amplify risk. Without local ordinances, many buildings default to smoke‑free policies because: It reduces fire risk. It lowers insurance costs. It prevents secondhand smoke complaints. It protects vulnerable residents (children, elderly, disabled). California cities and counties have gone much further than state law. As of 2024: 190 California municipalities regulate smoking in multi‑unit housing to some extent. 100 municipalities prohibit smoking inside private units of multi‑unit housing. These local rules often apply to: Individual apartment units, balconies and patios, shared outdoor areas, and entire multi‑unit complexes. This means that in many parts of California, smoking is banned not just in common areas but inside the apartments themselves. Once a landlord includes a no‑smoking clause in the lease or house rules, it becomes a binding term of tenancy. That means: They must enforce it like any other rule (noise, pets, parking). They must respond to complaints in a reasonable timeframe. If smoking creates a habitability issue (exempli gratia, secondhand smoke entering units), they must act. They may issue warnings, notices to cure, or even terminate tenancy for repeated violations. If they fail to enforce their own rules, tenants may argue that the landlord is violating their duty to maintain a habitable environment—especially because secondhand smoke can drift through walls, vents, and floors. #RandolphHarris 23 of 27
When does non‑enforcement becomes a legal or safety problem? A landlord’s failure to enforce smoking rules can become serious when: Secondhand smoke affects vulnerable tenants (elderly, disabled, asthmatic). Smoke enters other units, violating habitability standards. Smoking increases fire risk in older or multi‑unit buildings. Local ordinances require smoke‑free housing and the landlord ignores them. The building participates in subsidized housing programs with stricter rules. In these cases, tenants may have grounds to file complaints with local housing authorities or pursue remedies under habitability laws. Building‑management liability in California sits at the intersection of fire safety law, habitability standards, and negligence principles. When a landlord or property manager fails to enforce safety rules—such as smoking bans, fire‑alarm protocols, or elevator shutdown requirements—they can be exposed to significant legal and financial consequences. The key is that California law imposes affirmative duties on building owners to maintain safe premises, and courts evaluate liability based on whether the owner took reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm. Under California negligence law, property owners owe tenants and visitors a duty of care to keep the property reasonably safe. This includes preventing hazards that could cause injury or death. Fire safety is explicitly part of this duty, reinforced by the State Fire Marshal’s regulations and the California Building Code, which governs fire and smoke protection features in structures. If a landlord adopts a no‑smoking policy or other safety rule, they must enforce it consistently. Non‑enforcement can create liability if: A fire occurs due to smoking in prohibited areas, secondhand smoke creates habitability violations, vulnerable tenants (elderly, disabled) are placed at risk, and the landlord ignored repeated complaints. Courts look at whether the landlord acted reasonably once they knew—or should have known—about the hazard. Smoking in multi‑unit housing is serious. If a landlord allows smoking in violation of local ordinances or their own lease terms, and a fire results, they may be liable for: Negligence, breach of the implied warranty of habitability, wrongful death or injury claims, and property damage claims. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27
When it comes to firefighting, no matter how large or small the fire is or how routine the call seems to be, there is always the potential for injury. 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 25 of 27
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. 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. #RandolphHarris 26 of 27
Under President Trump’s administration, he has made 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. 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 27 of 27
People say the Winchester Mansion is strange because Mrs. Sarah Winchester built it that way — staircases to nowhere, doors that open into air, rooms that appear without warning. But those who have studied the deeper folklore whisper something else: that the house inherited stories far older than California, stories that drifted across oceans and centuries until they found a place to root themselves again. They say the mansion carries echoes of another place — a fortress of stone, a house of trials, a home of restless spirits. And at the center of those echoes stands a single figure. The Watcher. Long before the mansion rose from the California soil, the Watcher belonged to a different tower — a high, narrow room where he kept vigil over a land filled with fear, accusations, and unanswered questions. But when Mrs. Sarah Winchester began her endless construction, something in her grief called to him.
Visitors to the mansion sometimes see him in the uppermost windows: a tall silhouette, unmoving, always looking outward as if guarding something only he understands. Guides say the tower is empty. Workers say no one goes up there. Yet the figure appears, night after night, watching. Some believe he is a guardian. Others say he is a witness. But the oldest version claims he is both — a presence drawn to places where sorrow builds walls and fear carves corridors. In the eastern wing, guests sometimes report a pale woman drifting through the hallways, her gown trailing like mist. She never speaks. She never approaches. She simply moves from room to room as though searching for something she lost long ago. Some say she is a memory Mrs. Sarah could not let go of. Others believe she is one of the mansion’s “unfinished stories,” a spirit who followed the Watcher across the sea and found a new home in the labyrinth Mrs. Sarah built.
On fog-heavy nights, the mansion grounds echo with the sound of a horse-drawn carriage approaching the front steps — though nothing ever arrives. The clatter of wheels, the snort of horses, the creak of leather harnesses… all vanish the moment someone opens the door. Locals say it is the carriage of a former visitor returning to the house, eternally repeating his journey. Others whisper that it is the Watcher’s escort, arriving to collect the lost or guide the wandering. In the farthest corridors, where the house seems to fold in on itself, visitors sometimes hear heavy footsteps pacing behind them — too slow for a person, too deliberate for an animal. Some claim to hear low growls echoing from the walls, as though something unseen is patrolling the mansion’s edges. Mrs. Sarah herself once wrote of “shadows that walk like men but breathe like beasts.” Whether she meant it literally or metaphorically, no one knows. But the stories persist.
The legend says Mrs. Sarah Winchester did not create these hauntings — she inherited them. Her grief, her isolation, her relentless building formed a kind of beacon. The house became a sanctuary for wandering spirits, a place where old stories could settle into new rooms. And the Watcher, drawn by the same sorrow he had known in his first tower, took up his post again — not to frighten Mrs. Sarah, but to accompany her. To stand guard over a woman who built a labyrinth not to trap spirits, but to give them somewhere to go. Some nights, when the mansion is especially still, visitors swear they see him turn from the window, as if acknowledging them. As if reminding them that every house with a history has someone watching over it.
PRIVATE EVENTS & WEDDINGS
at WINCHESTER ESTATE
Many event locations claim to be unique, but nothing compares to the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re truly seeking a distinct, one‑of‑a‑kind setting for your milestone celebration or special occasion, reserve a venue that delivers on uniqueness many times over. Whether you’re planning a wedding, birthday or anniversary celebration, corporate gathering, holiday party, or any other meaningful event, the Winchester Mystery House offers an unforgettable backdrop. Give your guests an experience they’ll be talking about for years to come.
Café 13: A Rest Stop on the Edge of the Mystery
After wandering the winding halls of the Winchester Mystery House—where staircases defy logic and whispers seem to cling to the walls—Café 13 offers a welcome return to warmth and grounding. Newly reopened and serving guests daily from 10 AM to 3 PM, this cozy hideaway invites you to pause, breathe, and gather yourself before diving back into the mansion’s secrets. Here, you can enjoy breakfast, lunch, snacks, and refreshing drinks in a calm indoor space that feels worlds away from the mansion’s twisting corridors. Settle in with a warm meal, challenge a friend to a board game, or simply rest and recharge as sunlight filters through the windows. Café 13 is more than a café—it’s a moment of calm between chapters of the Winchester legend, a place to steady your nerves before returning to the gardens, the grandeur, and the mysteries that await.
Your journey into the Winchester Mystery House begins long before you cross the mansion’s threshold. It starts at the Mercantile gift shop—a welcoming outpost standing at the edge of a world where history and myth intertwine. Here, beneath warm lights and shelves lined with curiosities, you can secure your tour tickets and prepare for the adventure ahead. Guests often pause for a souvenir photograph, capturing the moment before they step into Sarah Winchester’s enigmatic domain. As you explore the shop, you will find an eclectic array of gifts and keepsakes: tokens of the mansion’s lore, echoes of Victorian elegance, and mementos that carry a touch of the house’s enduring mystery. The Mercantile is more than a gift shop—it is the gateway. https://winchestermysteryhouse.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
Welcome
to Cresleigh Homes
Within each Cresleigh neighborhood, you’ll find new homes thoughtfully designed to suit the needs of any generation and any lifestyle, with energy efficiency and reliability at their core. Every Cresleigh team member is passionate about building a new home that you can rely on and a new home that helps you to focus on what truly matters: creating memories with the people you love. Welcome to the neighborhood.
From bustling Northern California to active Arizona communities, Cresleigh delivers homes that blend everyday convenience with well-planned community amenities. Each location reflects a commitment to comfort, value, and connection to local lifestyle and regional opportunities.
Cresleigh Havenwood is a newer residential development offering modern single‑family homes with open‑concept layouts, owned solar, and smart‑home features. It’s positioned as an upper‑mid‑market community with relatively low Mello‑Roos fees compared to surrounding areas. The sales center operates on a Friday–Tuesday schedule and serves as the hub for touring models and reviewing floor plans.
Havenwood – A Community Designed for Modern Living
Sales Office: 758 Havenwood Drive, Lincoln, CA 95648
Base Price: Starting at $700,000
Homes: 4+ Bedrooms | 2–3.5 Baths | 2,293–2,827 Sq. Ft.
Discover Havenwood, a thoughtfully planned neighborhood where contemporary architecture meets everyday comfort. Each home is crafted with open‑concept living spaces, generous natural light, and flexible floor plans designed to grow with your lifestyle.
Home Features Include:
- Spacious 4+ bedroom layouts
- Designer kitchens with modern finishes
- Expansive great rooms ideal for entertaining
- Luxurious primary suites with spa‑inspired baths
- Energy‑efficient construction and smart‑home technology
- Two- and three-car garage options
Located in the heart of Lincoln, Havenwood offers the perfect blend of suburban tranquility and convenient access to shopping, dining, parks, and top‑rated schools. With homes ranging from 2,293 to 2,827 square feet, you’ll find the ideal space for your family, your work, and your future. https://www.cresleigh.com/communities/california/lincoln-ca/havenwood
No One Would Be More Astonished to Find Him Dead Than….
Fanatical partisans full of pet theories naturally become intoxicated over them; thus, they are unable to see straight and perceive truth until they recover their intellectual sobriety again. The fates drag the one who does not will; they lead the one who does. Freedom consists not in realizing alleged historical necessities but rather in making deliberate choices between open alternatives. Rather than merely repeating or unfolding the past, the future presents a field for strategy. Yet the possibilities of the future are not infinite, nor are they clay in the hands of the willful man. The soundness of a theory does not depend upon the number of its adherents. Such half-articulate nonsense atones for the poverty of its philosophical authenticity by the pose of its linguistic authority. When it possesses some meaning, we can discuss, accept, or deny a statement. Social life is a polytheism of values in combat with one another, and choices are possible among these values. The decision making, morally responsible individual is, of course, a specifically modern and Occidental type of personality. This man can be more than a mere cog in his occupational groove. If he is responsible, he will have to make informed decisions. It is quite natural for those whose thinking flounders incoherently, to hold views which stop inconclusively. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31
The flimsy materials out of which some “philosophies” have been constructed are fit only for the attention of the fabulist, certainly not for the serious scientists. The entire structure rests on a base of fiction unmixed with the concrete of a single fact. One may well exclaim with Macaulay, “When the consequences of a doctrine are so startling, we may well require that its foundations shall be very solid.” To oversimplify such a problem is to falsify it. If the assumptions with which they start are inaccurate, then the conclusions with which they finish must be regarded as unacceptable. Only by strengthening faith and weakening reason, we may accept such doctrines. Social knowledge is of a kind that the complexity of modern civilization requires of one who would take intelligent stands on public issues. Such responsible decisions are equally remote from the emotional fanaticism of followers of demagogues as from the cynical sophistication of the snob or the blasé smugness of the Philistine. Many people are not willing to see bureaucrats as harbingers of freedom, and the field of responsible freedom is shrinking. Growing masses are old-fashioned, unafraid of being on the defensive or of swimming against the stream. If we were to rely upon the lawful effects of material interests for their development, the opportunities for democracy and individualism would look very bad. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31
For the development of material interests points, as distinctly as possible, in the opposite direction: in the American “benevolent feudalism,” in the so-called “welfare institutions” of America, in the Mexican factory constitution…everywhere the house is ready-made for a new servitude. It only waits for the tempo of technical economic “progress” to slow down and for rent to triumph over profit. The latter victory, joined with the exhaustion of the remaining free soil and free market, will make the masses “docile.” The man will move into the house of servitude. At the same time, the increasing complexity of the economy, the partial governmentalization of economic activities, the territorial expansion of the population—these processes create ever-new work for the clerks, an ever-new specialization of functions, and expert vocational training and administration. All this means caste. Those American workers who are against the Republican Party, know what they are about. They wish to be governed by parvenus of doubtful morals rather than by a certified caste of mandarins. However, their protests will be in vain. In the face of all this, those who constantly fear that in the world of the future too much democracy and individualism may exist and too little authority, aristocracy, esteem for office, or such like, may calm down. Only too much provision has been made to see to it that the skyscrapers of democratic individualism do not shoot into the sky. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31
Those who live under idealistic delusions are not less foolish than those who live under realistic ones. To the precise kind of mind, the use of generalizations is perilous. According to all experience, history relentlessly gives rebirth to aristocracies and authorities; and those who deem it necessary for themselves, or for “the people,” may cling to them. If only material conditions and interest-constellations directly or indirectly created by them mattered, then every sober reflection would convince us that all economic weathercocks point in the direction of increasing servitude. It is utterly ridiculous to see any connection between high capitalism of today—as it is now being imported to Africa and as it exists in America—with democracy or with freedom in any sense of these words. Yet this capitalism is an unavoidable result of our economic development. The question is: how are freedom and democracy in the long run at all possible under the domination of highly developed capitalism? Freedom and democracy are only possible where this resolute will of a nation not to allow itself to be ruled like sheep is permanently alive. We are “individuals” and partisans of democratic institutions against the stream of material constellations. He who wishes to be the weathercrock of an evolutionary trend should give up these old-fashioned ideals as soon as possible. The historical origin of modern freedom has had certain unique preconditions which will never repeat themselves. #RandolphHarris 4 of 31
To enumerate these most important aspects, we first must consider the overseas expansions. In the armies of Cromwell, in the French constituent assembly, in our whole economic life even today, this breeze from across the ocean is felt…but there is no new continent at our disposal. Irresistibly, the point of gravity of the population of Western civilization advances toward the great inland areas of the North American continent on the other side and of Russia on the other. This happened once before, in the late antiquity. The monotonous plains of Russia and the United States of America facilitate schematism. Second, the uniqueness of the economic and social structure of the early capitalist epoch in Western Europe. Third, the conquest of the life by science, the self-realization of the spirit. The rational construction of institutional life, doubtless after having destroyed innumerable values, today, at least in principle, has done its work. In the wake of the standardization of production, it has made the external way of life uniform. Under the present conditions of business, the impact of such standardization is universal. Today, science itself no longer creates universal personalities. Finally, certain conceptions of ideal values, grown out of a world of definite religious ideas, have stamped the ethical peculiarity and cultural values of modern man. They have done so by working with numerous political constellations, themselves quite unique, and with the material preconditions of early capitalism. #RandolphHarris 5 of 31
One need merely ask whether any material preconditions or even any development of the high capitalism of today could maintain or create again these unique historical conditions of freedom and democracy in order to know the answer. No shadow of probability speaks for the fact that economic socialization as such must harbor in its lap either the development of inwardly free personalities or altruistic ideals. The defensive pessimism for the future of freedom, which is displayed in this passage, is reinforced by the fate of charisma in the modern world. The concept of charisma serves as a metaphysical vehicle of man’s freedom in history. Freedom, as carried by charisma, is doomed, as evidenced by the disrespect for the Constitution of the United States of America, federal law enforcement, and the working and unhoused citizens of this nation. Our concern with freedom is not only historical; it is influenced by our image of contemporary man as an individual. The individual man is a composite of general characteristics derived from social institutions; the individual as an actor of social roles. However, this holds only for men insofar as they do not transcend the routines of everyday institutions. The concept of charisma serves to underline the view that all men everywhere are not to be comprehended merely as social products. #RandolphHarris 6 of 31
We may admit their devout emotions while we rebut their doubtful reasonings. In a broad sense, one may say that externality is identified with constraint and charisma with freedom. Part of the humanist tradition is based on liberalism in the sense that democracy and freedom of the individual has created capitalism and free institutions. Therefore, we must keep in mind that the economic system is not only a compulsive apparatus, but also a locus of freedom. As people climb up the economic ladder, they gain more freedom. Without capitalism, people would not have access to this freedom, and actual slavery would still be the law. The system is still not fair, and everyone knows that, nor do they want it to be. If it was not for the investors on Wall Street speculating, many banks would not have money to risk on people who do not truly qualify for a mortgage. Also, with some limits, the Constitution of the United States of America does allow non-citizens some rights, even though, without any denial, in most cases, they are criminals because they have entered the nation illegally. Capitalism is the embodiment of rational impersonality; the quest for freedom is identified with irrational sentiment and privacy. Freedom is at best a tarrying for loving companionship and for the cathartic experience of art as a this-worldly escape from institutional routines. It is the privilege of the propertied and educated: it is freedom without equality. #RandolphHarris 7 of 31
We are very concerned with the decline of the cultivated man as a well-rounded personality in favor of the technical expert, who, from the human point of view, is disabled. We must be concerned with all things human for the decline of the humanist and the decadence of the expert diminishes chances for freedom. Modern civilization is unique in world history. Architecturally, ceremonially, and in its total world-mood, it symbolizes life on this earth as self-imposed and as a self-conscious prison with only one exit, and that one, to eternity. The acceptance of this new frame of life may make one, for a while, peaceful and godly; however, without constant reinforcement and encouragement from a group of spiritual people. If we look at the “once-born,” youth can be the most exuberant, the most careless, the most self-sure, and the most unselfconsciously productive stage of life, or so it seems. The once-born are all those who, rather painlessly, fit themselves and are fitted into the ideology of their age, finding no discrepancy between its formulation of past and future and the daily tasks set by the dominant technology. However, the once-born are not the same as “sick souls” and “divided selves” who search for a second birth, a “growth-crisis” that will “convert” them in their habitual center of…personal energy. Conversation is in, its essence, a normal adolescent phenomenon, and that theology brings those means to bear which will intensify the normal tendencies and yet also shorten the period by bringing the person to a definite crisis. #RandolphHarris 8 of 31
The Sick Soul, the Divided Self, and Conversion all face spontaneous changes in the habitual center of personal energy, and at one time, were once almost exclusively people in their late teens and early twenties—an age which can be most painfully aware of the need for decisions, most driven to choose new devotions and to discard old ones, and most susceptible to the propaganda of ideological systems which promise a new world-perspective at the price of total and cruel repudiation of an old one. However, we are now seeing senior citizens also suffering from a crisis of identity. Self-hate is culminating in pure and direct self-destructive impulses and actions. These may be acute or chronic, openly violent or insidious and slow grinding, conscious or unconscious, carried out in action or performed in imagination only. They may concern minor or major issues. They aim ultimately at physical, psychic, and spiritual self-destruction. When one considers all these possibilities, suicide ceases to be an isolated enigma. There are many ways in which we can kill something which is essential to our life; actual physical suicide is simply the most extreme and the final expression of self-destructiveness. Self-destruction drives directed against the body are the most easily accessible to observation. Actual physical violence against self is more or less restricted to psychoses. In neuroses, we find minor self-destructive activities, which mostly pass as “bad habits”—such as nail biting, scratching, picking at rashes, pulling out hair. #RandolphHarris 9 of 31
However, there are also sudden impulses of stark violence which, in contrast to the psychotic, stay in imagination. They seem to occur only in those who live in imagination to such a degree that they scorn reality, including, of course, the reality of themselves. They emerge often after flashes of insight, and the whole process goes on with such lightning speed that we can catch the sequence only in the analytic situation: a sudden penetrating vision of some imperfection, flaring up and passing quickly, is followed just as abruptly by a violent impulse to tear out one’s eyes, to slash one’s throat, or to stab a knife into one’s stomach and cut one’s gut to pieces. This type may also have, at times, suicidal impulses, such as jumping from a balcony or a precipice, impulse which arise under similar conditions and seem to come out of the clear sky. They may vanish so quickly that there is hardly a chance of carrying them out. On the other hand, the urge to jump from a height may suddenly be so strong that the person must hold on to something in order not to give in and do it. Or it may lead to an actual suicide attempt. Even so, this type has no realistic notion of the finality of death. He rather feels like jumping from the twentieth floor and then picking himself up and going home. It often depends on accidental factors whether or not such attempts succeed. Nobody would be more astonished to find him actually dead than he himself. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31
The far-gone alienation from self must be kept in mind for many more serious attempts at suicide. However, as a rule, an unrealistic attitude toward death is more characteristic for suicidal impulses or abortive attempts than those which are planned and seriously tried. Of course, there are always many reasons leading to such steps, the self-destructive tendency being simply the most regular element in them. Self-destructive impulses may remain unconscious as such and yet be actualized in reckless driving, swimming, climbing, or in a rash disregard for physical disabilities. We have seen that these activities may not appear reckless to the person himself because he harbors a claim for being inviolable (“nothing can happen to me”). In many instances, this is the main factor involved. However, we should always be aware of the possibility of self-destructive drives operating in addition, particularly when the disregard for actual dangers assumes drastic proportions. Finally, there are those who unconsciously but systematically ruin their health by drinking or by using drugs, though here too other factors—such as the constant need for a narcotic—operate. We can see in Stefan Zweig’s picture of Balzac the tragedy of a genius who, driven by a pathetic craving for glamor, actually ruined his health by excessive work, neglect of sleep, and abuse of coffee. To be sure, Balzac’s need for glamor rushed him into debt so that his overwork in part was a consequence of a wrong way of living. However, certainly the question is justified—here as in similar instances—whether self-destructive drives were not also at work, leading in the end to a premature death. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31
In other cases, bodily damage is incurred, as it were, accidentally. We all know that in a “bad mood” we are more likely to cut ourselves, to take a wrong step and fall, to pinch our fingers. However, if we do not pay attention to traffic when crossing the street or to traffic regulations when driving, it can be fatal. Human expressivity is capable of objectivation, that is, it manifests itself in products of human activity that are available both to their producers and to other men as elements of a common world. Such objectivations serve as more or less enduring indices of the subjective processes of their producers, allowing their availability to extend beyond the face-to-face situation in which they can be directly apprehended. For instance, a subjective attitude of anger is directly expressed in the face-to-face situation by a variety of bodily indices—facial mien, general stance of the body, specific movements of arms and feet, and so on. These indices are continuously available in the face-to-face situation, which is precisely why it affords me the optimal situation for gaining access to another’s subjectivity. The same indices are incapable of surviving beyond the vivid present of the face-to-face situation. Anger, however, can be objectivated by means of weapons. Say, I have had an altercation with another man, who has given me ample expressive evidence of his anger against me. That night, I wake up with a knife embedded in the wall above my bed. The knife qua object expresses my adversary’s anger. It affords me access to his subjectivity, even though I was sleeping when he threw it and never saw him because he fled after his near-hit. Indeed, if I leave the object where it is, I can look at it again the following morning, and again it expresses to me the anger of the man who threw it. What is more, other men can come and look at it and arrive at the same conclusion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31
In other words, the knife in my wall has become an objectively available constituent of the reality I share with my adversary and with other men. Presumably, this knife was not produced for the exclusive purpose of being thrown at me. However, it expresses a subjective intention of violence, whether motivated by anger or by utilitarian considerations, such as killing for food. The weapon qua object in the real world continues to express a general intention to commit violence that is recognizable by anyone who knows what a weapon is. The weapon, then, is both a human product and an objectivation of human subjectivity. The reality of everyday life is not only filled with objectivations; it is only possible because of them. I am constantly surrounded by objects that “proclaim” the subjective intentions of my fellowmen, although I may sometimes have difficulty being quite sure just what it is that a particular object is “proclaiming,” especially if it was produced by men whom I have not known well or at all in face-to-face situations. Every ethnologist or archaeologist will readily testify to such difficulties, but the very fact that he can overcome them and reconstruct from an artifact the subjective intentions of men whose society may have been extinct for millennia is eloquent proof of the enduring power of human objectivations. Persons discover who they are and what they must do to live effectively, eventually, and then something changes. Their needs vary moment by moment, sometimes subtly, occasionally in obvious ways. Other people with whom they live change their habits, and their attitude toward them. #RandolphHarris 13 of
The machines, the environment, the domestic and foreign policies of the government, even, one’s own taste in music alter in time. It is our task, no less than it was the task of the dinosaurs, to come to terms with this change. Dinosaurs were endowed with small brains and very specialized bodies. When their world changed too abruptly, they could not change, and so they became extinct. Human beings have vast brains and untapped potential for new ways of experiencing and coping. Our bodies are relatively unspecialized. We can live under fantastically diverse circumstances, ranging from the Australian desert to the concrete of New York. We must specialize in order to survive. The Australian aborigine who wanders the desert carrying nothing but spear or two is a superb specialist at desert survival, as was the polar Eskimo, who needed nothing more than warm clothes and a harpoon. Aborigines, Eskimos, and city dwellers alike retain the capacity to despecialize when circumstances change, in order to respecialize for living effectively in new circumstances. Anything that blocks our awareness of our capacity to suspend an ineffective way of being (so we can learn another way) is a threat to life itself, or to the quality of life. Our identity can become a glorified image for the sake of which we might sacrifice our vitality and the quality of our existence. We may even choose to die rather than live in ways out of keeping with our identity. It is not easy to be human, because there are so many ways to be, and no guidelines for choosing the identity that is most viable. This is one aspect of the “dreadful freedom” of which the existentialist philosophers speak. We must live with it. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31
The capacity to experience threat is our margin of safety. Anxiety and guilt are early warning signals. They indicate that unless we change something, our life, our self-esteem, or our very identity may be taken from us. It is good to be able to experience threat. However, threat opens options. It can spur defensive maneuvers that are themselves barriers to life, and it can promote enlarged awareness and greater competence. If every time a person was threatened, he or she put on a heavier suit of armor, then in time, that person would be immobile—safe but out of touch. If the person could postpone defensive maneuvers long enough, he or she could act in ways that further growth. Threat to the self originate from external as well as internal sources. We are considering threats to the way we feel we are, to our sense of our own identity. Human beings need confirmation from one another: “Man wishes to be confirmed in his being by man…The human person needs confirmation because man as man needs it.” Without such confirmation from one’s fellow human beings, a person can doubt he or she exists at all. Few people are that “ontologically secure,” so firmly grounded in their sense of self that they can withstand a barrage of disconfirmation, or a life in which their perspective is ignored. A person may experience himself being treated like a thing or an animal, for example, by his father. If he says, “You are not treating me right—I feel like a machine or an animal when I am with you,” the father might say, “You are crazy, son. Your mother and I love you, and we are doing what is best for you.” The father is disconfirming his son’s perspective and threatening his sense of identity. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31
If the son says, “I do not like the Democratic party because its policies cost Americans too much in terms of finances and safety,” the father may disconfirm him by saying, “You conservatives are racist and have no idea what you are talking about.” Such disconfirmation is common, unfortunately, in family life. People who disconfirm one another’s perspectives in this way certainly do not contribute to each other’s senses of identity, except to help one another feel worthless. A threat to one’s identity related to disconfirmation is invalidation. This is most commonly seen in the behavior of grownups with children, and in members of some dominant group in the presence of those over whom they are dominant. Thus, parents may talk about their children in her presence, as if she were a doll or a robot: “She never seems to be happy; she does not dress properly, messes up her room, and will not work hard enough at her studies.” Physicians may discuss a patient with each other and with students while the patient is present; thus, a psychiatrist may say, “Notice, with this patient, how rigidly he sits, the blank expression in his eyes, and if I pinch him, how angry he becomes.” The patient’s perspective here is not even acknowledged, much less consulted. His sense of being a worthwhile human being is threatened by such experiences. Women are frequently invalidated in similar fashion by insensitive men: “The little woman cooks well, but she does not say anything worth listening to about business or politics.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 31
Disconfirmation and invalidation do not threaten a person’s life, but they certainly undermine the sense of being a person, of existing as that very person. Upbringing marked by continuous invalidation and disconfirmation is a factor in the development of schizophrenia. The anger of marginalized populations, all of whom have felt thus treat, is testimony that no one wishes to be invalidated or disconfirmed. Persons’ sense of being who they believe they are, and wish to be, is assaulted by some aspects of their own experiencing. Thus, a parent who wishes to be seen as kind and loving toward children will be threatened by the experience of rage toward them. A student who believes she is bright and competent will be terribly threatened by the realization that she does not know enough to pass an exam. A person who believes he is morally pure (whatever that means to him) may be terribly threatened by erotic daydreams involving someone close to him. Men especially are threatened by the experience of helplessness and dependency. If a man feels unable to cope with some problem, he may accept total failure rather than admit he feels the need for help from others. However, remember that trust is the most important thing in the life of a human being because it is the energy, the motor, the wave of creativity, the enthusiasm that makes life possible. When we lose this trust, we fall into a state of confusion, and we feel disoriented on the inside and on the outside. #RandolphHarris 17 of 31
Firefighting is a job where trust is very important. The award-winning Sacramento Fire Department must deal with emergency situations every day, and they need to be able to trust their team. Last week, we discussed the possibility of adding alerts to emergency vehicles. This also opens the opportunity for pedestrian altering. Automobile manufacturers are currently improving a pedestrian avoidance system in which a vehicle computer compares stored images of pedestrians and small animals with images of objects in the path ahead. High-visibility traffic vests could someday give off warning signals that vehicles recognize as special hazards, protecting roadside workers at crash scenes. Sometimes it is the firefighter’s own apparatus that they must watch out for. Much like the technology used as backup warning devices on family cars, sensors mounted to the running boards of fire trucks could be capable of sensing an object in its path, setting off alarms. Recently, a new tone of safety green was introduced that is extremely noticeable. Traffic vests have adopted the color, and they have also been seen on road signs. Unfortunately, this color will likely show up on billboards, real estate signs, and car dealership flags in the future. The more the color is seen, the more it becomes normal and therefore invisible. Efforts to reserve a certain color exclusively for pedestrians would be a great step toward reducing pedestrians being stuck. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31
Another location where potential energy can be encountered by emergency responders is at the scene of a motor vehicle crash. Hybrid vehicles have high-voltage electrical systems that have the potential for injury or death, and many vehicles are equipped with airbags and pressurized cylinders. Cutting one of these vehicles with extrication tools can be a dangerous ordeal. Technology has come to the rescue in the form of smartphone applications (or apps) that allow a responder to look up the vehicle they need to rescue a victim from and learn where to disconnect power and where to (and where not to) cut. Taking lessons from construction crews on the highway has already affected emergency services in the form of high-visibility vests, arrow sticks, and chevron stripping. Construction zones utilize two more methods to reduce or minimize the effects of crashes by deflecting the energy exerted during a crash. Concrete “jersey walls” allow a wayward vehicle to stay in a specific lane with vehicles traveling in the same direction, and truck-mounted impact attenuators (crash cushions) help absorb some of the energy from a crash into a parked vehicle. Although the fire department is not quite ready to carry a flatbed full of concrete walls or mount a 10-foot yellow rubber bumper on the back of a pumper, there are many ways to apply the same theories. Many times, construction companies sacrifice old vehicles and mount the attenuators to them. Future technologies may allow the side of some emergency vehicles to be designed to take a glancing hit with less damage, or winches could be added that deploy a temporary steel cable guardrail to prevent a car from hitting the back of the engine. Inflatable structures that could be assembled quickly and filled with compressed air or water might be practical and effective in some situations. #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
California is the third most expensive state in the nation. In 37 percent of counties, 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
Additionally, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics. Newsom has spent $300 million to try to stop proposition 50. Proposition 50 would replace the maps drawn by the state’s independent commission with districts drawn by legislators solely to gain or protect Democratic seats. Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration of incompetence by Governor Gavin Newsom, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of feces, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century, and by 2030, Mexico plans to dump one hundred and twenty million gallons of sewage a day into Imperial Beach. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure such as the 2025 Palisades fire. Southern California ran out of water because Newsom is totally neglecting the state and the American people. And while the fire departments in California are critically understaffed and underfunded, Governor Newsom vetoed firefighter pay raise. THe Palisades fire cost $275 billion, which is money that could have been used to insure the State of California had the resources it needed. Furthermore, when Southern California is located next to an ocean, Newsom should have invested in desalination plants to help with the water shortage in California. The water in the ocean is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. #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. 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
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.
According to legend, 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.
However, in 1866, the death of their infant daughter drove Mrs. Sarah Winchester into a deep depression from which many thought she would never emerged. Several years later, she lost her husband to tuberculosis, and her grief was overwhelming. Mrs. Winchester sought the counsel of a Boston medium to reach her beloved dead family members. The medium told the grieving widow that she was cursed and demons straight from hades had sought revenge by ending the lives of her beloved husband and darling baby girl.
She also told Sarah they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits. In addition, Sarah 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.
Experience an unforgettable journey back to the time of kings and queens with this entry ticket for The Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara, California, which was the residence of Heiress Sarah L. Winchester. Come and see what secrets this so-called, “Winchester Mystery House” may hold. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After the tour, there will be time to enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.
Please 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/
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Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers
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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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“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” -Abraham Lincoln
Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
Do you understand how much God loves you? Do you understand how significant God’s sacrifice was? If you could save your community from devastation, would you give up your son’s life? If you did, could you imagine how painful that would be and how it would haunt you for eternity? Your son, on Earth, suffering, begging you to save him, and you allowing him to be terrorized and tortured to save other people. Could you endure that? Well, God was strong enough to because he loves every living soul that much, and all he asks us to do in return is to praise Him and be good people. “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.” reports John 3.16 and Proverbs 24.16.
America is a nation founded on godly principles, by God-fearing men. As a nation, we have convinced ourselves of our uniqueness with concepts such as Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism. Manifest destiny was the imperialist belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand from sea to shining sea. American exceptionalism, idea that the United States of America is a unique and even morally superior country for historical, ideological, or religious reasons. As a nation we appear favored and blessed by the Lord with success and prosperity unparalleled in human history.
Lost Like Bats in the Daytime
When we face the apparent tragedies of sorrow, suffering, and death, we must put our trust in God. Tragedy sometimes comes like a thunderbolt. However, the enduring appeal of tragedy lies in its ability to connect us to something larger than ourselves. By confronting the darkest aspects of human existence, tragedy offers us a glimpse into the shared vulnerabilities and anxieties that bind us together. It reminds us that we are all susceptible to suffering, loss, and ultimately death. Yet, it also celebrates the human capacity for courage, resilience, and compassion in the face of adversity. Think about how tragic it was for Mrs. Sarah L. Winchester to suffer the death of her newborn daughter, and just a few short years later, the loss of her husband. Still, even while facing the deep sadness of such experiences, she found comfort in prayer. With the loss of her daughter and husband weighing so heavily upon her tender heart, she bravely battled with her grief and sought comfort in building the Winchester Mansion. Mrs. Winchester did not remain limited in her visions. Her eyes did not see but a few miles. With her heart, she built a magnificent palace to house all the spirits whose light had gone out in this life, as she was able to see beyond mortal limitations. Inside this fabulous mansion, the veil goes down, time ends, and distance fades and vanishes as we step into eternity, into a great world in which there are no earthly limitations. Mrs. Winchester enjoyed the pleasures of the imagination while constructing her home, as well as those of the senses. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31
She used her tragedy to reflect the highest pleasures of the understanding, the charming, varied pleasures of the imagination, and the vast pleasures of the senses. Mrs. Winchester’s mansion is proof that at no stage of her existence was she left without some pleasure. The fact that it was never completed over the 38 years of construction reflects eternity because eternity never ends, therefore, it is never completed. Tragedy challenges us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the world around us, and it ultimately affirms the enduring power of the human spirit. The world of everyday life is structured both spatially and temporally. The spatial structure is quite peripheral to our present considerations. Suffice it to point out that it, too, has a social dimension by virtue of the fact that my manipulatory zone intersects with that of others. More importantly, for our present purpose, is the temporal structure of everyday life. Temporarily is an intrinsic property of consciousness. The stream of consciousness is always ordered temporally. It is possible to differentiate between different levels of this temporality as it is intrasubjectively available. Every individual is conscious of an inner flow of time, which in turn is founded on the physiological rhythms of the organism, though it is not identical with these. It would greatly exceed the scope of these prolegomena to enter into a detailed analysis of these levels of intrasubjective temporality. As we have indicated, however, intersubjectivity in everyday life also has a temporal dimension. The world of everyday life has its own standard time, which is intersubjectively available. This standard of time may be understood as the intersection between cosmic time and its socially established calendar, based on the temporal sequences of nature, and inner time, in its afore-mentioned differentiations. There can never be full simultaneity between those various levels of temporality, as the experience of waiting indicates most clearly. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31
Both my organism and my society impose upon me, and upon my inner time, certain sequences of events that involve waiting. I may want to take part in a sports event, but I must wait for my bruised knee to heal. Or again, I must wait until certain papers are processed so that my qualification for the event may be officially established. It may readily be seen that the temporal structure of everyday life is exceedingly complex because the different levels of empirically present temporality must be ongoingly correlated. The temporal structure of everyday life confronts me as a facticity with which I must reckon, that is, with which I must try to synchronize my own projects. I encounter time in everyday reality as continuous and finite. All my existence in this world is continuously ordered by its time, and is indeed enveloped by it. My own life is an episode in the externally factitious stream of time. It was there before I was born, and it will be there after I die. The knowledge of my inevitable death makes this time finite for me. I have only a certain amount of time available for the realization of my projects, and the knowledge of this affects my attitude to these projects. Also, since I do not want to die, this knowledge injects an underlying anxiety into my projects. Thus, I cannot endlessly repeat my participation in sports events. I know that I am getting older. It may even be that this is the last occasion on which I have the chance to participate. My waiting will be anxious to the degree in which the finitude of time impinges upon the project. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31
The same temporal structure, as has already been indicated, is coercive. I cannot reverse at will the sequences imposed by it—“first things first” is an essential element of my knowledge of everyday life. Thus, I cannot take a certain examination before I have passed through certain educational programs, I cannot practice my profession before I have taken this examination, and so on. Also, the same temporal structure provides the historicity that determines my situation in the world of everyday life. I was born on a certain date, entered school on another, started working as a professional on another, and so on. These dates, however, are all “located” within a much more comprehensive history, and this “location” decisively shapes my situation. Thus, I was born in the year of the great bank crash, in which my father lost his wealth, I entered school just before the revolution, I began to work just after the great war broke out, and so forth. The temporal structure of everyday life not only imposes prearranged sequences upon the “agenda” of any single day but also imposes itself upon my biography as a whole. Within the co-ordinates set by this temporal structure, I apprehend both daily “agenda” and overall biography. Clock and calendar ensure that, indeed, I am a “man of my time.” Only within this temporal structure does everyday life retain for me its accent of reality. Thus, in cases where I may be “disoriented” for one reason or another (say, I have been in an automobile accident in which I was knocked unconscious), I feel an almost instinctive urge to “reorient” myself within the temporal structure of everyday life. I look at my watch and try to recall what day it is. By these acts alone, I re-enter the reality of everyday life. #RandolphHarris 4 of 31
So much easier to miss than to hit, to fall on one side or the other. And yet, if only I can get rid of what prevents me, I seem to be so made that I can do it. Then, I “take my time” when my time should be taken, permitting others to take their time too. I do not hurry them or me. When I am in a hurry, it takes longer, and my peace is lost. (This is probably why it took Mrs. Winchester 38 years to build her mansion, which is still incomplete.) Or as one young man said, “I feel that I am going 90 miles an hour inside and 5 miles an hour outside.” When I slow down, the inner speed decreases and the outer speed increases until they match. This is my subjective feeling. (When a small child seems to me to be dawdling and protests, “But I am hurrying,” he may be speaking the truth of himself.) Objectively (as I am seen by others) I have slowed down, may even seem “dull,” but although I “do” less, I accomplish more. I am in harmony with me, and whatever I do goes easily and well. I do not do all that I would like to do, but I do all that I can do (at any time). By limiting myself, I have the feeling of it, throughout my body and my mind, with all the worlds open to me? When I am bored, time slows down, and it accelerates when I am involved. It seems to me that this is true only when I am in the wrong place, where there are these either/ors. There is another place (or world) in which time changes differently: I am not bored. I am involved, and yet I am surprised at how much has got done, that a usual day’s work has taken only a few hours. I look at the clock and am astonished that so little time has passed. During those few hours, time has not seemed to be either fast or slow. Time and I have flown together, so how can I feel it moving or note its speed? It has neither got stuck nor run away from me. I can only be conscious of time when I am not living fully in the present. #RandolphHarris 5 of 31
This masterless slavery in which capitalism enmeshes the worker or the debtor is only debatable ethically as an institution. In principle, the personal conduct of those who participate, on either side of the rulers or of the ruled, is not morally debatable, as such conduct is essentially prescribed by objective situations. If they do not conform, they are threatened by economic bankruptcy, which would, in every respect, be useless. From our special point of view, where the increased fear of the world has led to a flight from occupational pursuits in the private economy, pietism not only turns into something differing in degree but into an element differing in quality. The study of the ego in psychoanalysis has hardly begun to account for the relationship of “inner agency” to social life. Men who share the concerns of an ethnic group, who are contemporaries in a historical era, or who compete and co-operate in economic pursuits are also guided by common images of good and evil. Infinitely varied, these images reflect the elusive nature of cultural differences and of historical change; in the form of contemporary social models, they assume decisive concreteness in every individual’s struggle for ego synthesis—and in every patient’s residence, ethnic background, and occupation are the first items to be radically altered when it is necessary to disguise his personal identity. The essence of the inner dynamics of a case, it is judged, is thereby left intact. The exact nature, then, of the values common to the patient’s background are considered to be so close to the “surface” that they are not necessarily of “psychoanalytic” interest. Contemporary social models are both clinically and theoretically relevant and cannot be shunted off by brief and patronizing tributes to the role “also” played by “social factors.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 31
The general neglect of these factors in psychoanalysis naturally has not furthered a rapprochement with the social sciences. Students of society and history, on the other hand, blithely continue to ignore the simple fact that all individuals are born by mothers; that everybody was once a child; that people and peoples begin in their nurseries; and that society consists of generations in the process of developing from children into parents, destined to absorb the historical changes of their lifetimes and to continue to make history for their descendants. Only psychoanalysis and social science together can eventually chart the course of individual life in the setting of a changing community. Ambitious steps in this direction have been made by eminent psychoanalysts, generally called neo-Freudians, who bypass the efforts of “ego psychology.” We were distressed when we saw ourselves caricatured in patients who, in social life, spread a compulsive attitude of mutual mental denuding under the guise of being alert to the defensive tricks of the ego. And we were dismayed when we saw our purpose of enlightenment perverted into a widespread fatalism, according to which man is nothing but a multiplication of his parents’ faults and an accumulation of his own earlier selves. We must grudgingly admit that even as we were trying to devise, with scientific determinism, a therapy for the few, we were led to promote an ethical disease among the many. The existence and the multiplicity of defensive regressive mechanisms in adolescence were systematically demonstrated in Anna Freud’s The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence. Her book defines inner defense in the widest sense; but it does not foreclose the psychoanalysis of adolescent development. When she states: “The abstract intellectual discussions and speculations in which young people delight are not genuine attempts at solving the tasks set by reality. Their mental activity is rather an indication of a tense alertness for the instinctual processes and the translation into the abstract thought of that which they perceive,” she presents the defensive half of the story of adolescent rumination, the other half being its adaptive functions, and its functions in the history of changing ideas. #RandolphHarris 7 of 31
There is a historical concomitance which teaches us how, in the period between puberty and adulthood, the resources of tradition fuse with new inner resources to create something potentially new: a new person; and with this new person, a new generation, and with that, a new era. The question of what happens to persons, generations, and eras because of guiding ideologies are of postadolescent origin, and are dedicated to the proposition that what we have learned as pathologists must become part of an ecology of the mind before we can take full responsibility for the ideological implications of our knowledge. We cannot even begin to encompass the human life cycle without learning to account for the fact that a human being under observation has grown stage by stage into a social world, always for the worse and for the better, has step by step prepared for him an outer reality made up of human traditions and institutions which utilize and thus nourish his developing capacities, attract and modulate his drives, respond to and delimit his fears and phantasies, and assign to him a position in life appropriate to his psychosocial powers. We cannot even begin to encompass a human being without indicating for each of the stages of his life cycle the framework of social influences and of traditional institutions which determine his perspectives on his more infantile past and on his more adult future. In this sense, we can learn from patients only to the extent that we realize (and the patient realizes) that what is said and done in treatment is based on a formal contract between healer and patient and must be carefully transposed before being applied to the general human condition. This is the reason why the fragments of case histories or psychoanalytic interpretations which flutter around in increasing numbers in our newspapers and magazines seem lost like bats in the daytime. #RandolphHarris 8 of 31
On the other hand, we cannot leave history entirely to nonclinical observers and to professional historians who often all too nobly immerse themselves into the very disguises, rationalizations, and idealizations of this historical process from which it should be their business to separate themselves. Only when the relation of historical forces to the basic functions and stages of the mind has been jointly charted and understood can we begin a psychoanalytic critique of society as such without falling back into mystical or moralistic philosophizing. Dr. Siegmund Freud warned against the possible misuse of his work as an ideology, a “Weltanschauung;” but a man who inspires new ideas has little power to restrict them to the area of his original intentions. And Dr. Freud did not refrain from interpreting other total approaches to man’s condition, such as religion, as consequences of man’s inability to shake off the bonds of his prolonged childhood, and thus, comparable to collective neuroses. The psychological and historical study of the religious crisis of a young great man renews the opportunity to review this assertion in the light of ego-psychology and of theories of psychosocial development. There are four consequences of self-contempt. The first is the compulsive need of certain neurotic types to compare themselves with everybody whom they come in contact, and to their own disadvantage. The other fellow is more impressive, better informed, more interesting, more attractive, better dressed; he has the advantage of age or youth, of a better position, of greater importance. However, even though the comparisons may strike the neurotic himself as lopsided, he does not think them through clearly; of if he does, the feeling of comparative interiority still remains. The comparisons made are not only unfair to himself; they often do not make any sense. Why should an older man who could be proud of his own accomplishments compare himself with a youngster who is a better dancer? Or why should somebody who has never been interested in music feel inferior to musicians? #RandolphHarris 9 of 31
The practice makes sense, however, when we remember the unconscious claims to be superior to others in every regard. We must add here that the neurotic’s pride also demands that he should be superior to everybody and everything. Then, of course, any “superior” skill or quality of others must be disturbing, and must call forth a self-destructive berating. Sometimes the connection operates in reverse: the neurotic, already in a self-berating frame of mind, utilizes the “shining” qualities of others, as he encounters them, to reinforce and buttress his castigating self-criticism. To express it in terms of two people: it is as if an ambitious and sadistic mother used the better marks or cleaner fingernails of Leo’s friend to put Leo to shame. It is insufficient to describe these processes simply as a recoiling from competition. The recoiling from competition in these instances is rather the result of self-disparagement. A second consequence of self-contempt is vulnerability in human relations. Self-contempt makes the neurotic hypersensitive to criticism and rejection. On little or no provocation, he feels that others look down on him, do not take him seriously, do not care for his company, and in fact slight him. His self-contempt adds considerably to the profound uncertainty he has about himself, and hence cannot but make him as profoundly uncertain about the attitudes of others toward him. Being unable to accept himself as he is, he cannot possibly believe that others, knowing him with all his shortcomings, can accept him in a friendly or appreciative spirit. What he feels in deeper layers is much more drastic, and may amount to an unshakable conviction that others plainly despise him. And such a conviction may live in him, although he is not consciously aware of even a trace of self-contempt. Both of these factors—the blind assumption that others despise him and a relative or total awareness of his own self-contempt—point to the fact that the bulk of self-contempt is externalized. This may lead to a subtle poisoning of all his human relations. He may become unable to take any positive feelings of others at their face values. A compliment may, in his mind, register as a sarcastic comment; an expression of sympathy as condescending pity. Somebody wants to see him—it is because he wants something from him. Others express a liking for him—it can only be because they do not know him well, because they themselves are worthless or “neurotic,” or because he has been or could be useful to them. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31
Similarly, incidents which in fact have no hostile meaning are interpreted as evidence of an existing contempt. Somebody has not greeted him on the street or in the theater, has not accepted his invitation, or has not replied right away—it can only be a slight. Somebody makes a good-natured joke about him—it is a clear intent to humiliate him. An objection to, or a criticism of, some suggestion or activity of his does not constitute an honest criticism of the particular activity, et cetera, but becomes evidence of the other’s despising him. The person himself, as we see in analysis, is either unaware of his experiencing his relations with others in this way, or he is unaware of the distortions involved. In the latter case, he may take it for granted that others’ attitudes toward him are really of this sort, and even pride himself on being “realistic.” In the analytic relationship, we can observe to what extent a patient can take it for granted that others look down on him. After much analytic work is done, and the patient is apparently on good friendly terms with his analyst, he may mention casually and without affection that it was also so self-evident to him that the analyst was looking down on him that he did not feel it necessary to mention it or to give it any extended thought. All of these distorted perceptions in human relations are understandable because the attitudes of others are indeed open to several interpretations, particularly when torn out of context, while the externalized self-contempt feels unmistakably real. Also, the self-protective character of such a shift in responsibility is evident. If possible, at all, it is probably intolerable to live with a constantly awake, sharp self-contempt. The neurotic has an unconscious interest in regarding others as the offenders. Although it is painful for him, as it would be for anybody, to feel slighted and rejected, it is less painful than coming face to face within his own self-contempt. It is a long and hard lesson for anybody to learn that others can neither hurt nor establish self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31
The vulnerability in human relations caused by self-contempt combines with that brought about by neurotic pride. It is often difficult to say whether a person feels humiliated because something has hurt his pride or because he has externalized his self-contempt. They are so inseparably interwoven that we must tackle such reactions from both angles. Of course, at a given time, one or the other aspect will be the more easily observable and the more accessible. If a person reacts to a seeming disregard with vindictive arrogance, hurt pride is uppermost in the picture. If, as a result of the same provocation, he turns abject and tries to ingratiate himself, as self-contempt sticks out most clearly. However, in either case, the reverse aspect is also operating and should be kept in mind. Thirdly, a person in the clutches of self-contempt often takes too much abuse from others. He may not even recognize a flagrant abuse, whether it be humiliation or exploitation. Even if indignant friends call it to his attention, he tends to minimize or justify the offender’s behavior. This occurs only under certain conditions, such as in a morbid dependency, and is the outcome of a complicated inner constellation. However, essential among the factors producing it is the defenselessness produced by the person’s conviction that he does not deserve any better treatment. For instance, a woman whose husband is flaunting his affairs with other women may be unable to complain or even to feel conscious resentment because she feels unlovable and regards most other women as more attractive. A last consequence to be mentioned is the need to alleviate or balance self-contempt with the attention, regard, appreciation, or love of others. The pursuit of such attention is compulsive because of the compelling need not to be at the mercy of self-contempt. It is also determined by a need to triumph, and may amount to an all-consuming life goal. The result is a total dependence on others for self-evaluation: it rises or falls with the attitudes of others toward him. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31
Thinking along the broader theoretical lines, observations like these help us to understand better why the neurotic clings so tenaciously to the glorified version of himself. He must maintain it because he feels only one alternative: to succumb to the terror of self-contempt. There is thus a vicious circle operating between pride and self-contempt, one always reinforcing the other. This can change only to the extent that he gets interested in the truth about himself. However, again, self-contempt renders it difficult to find himself. As long as his degraded image of himself is real to him, his self appears despicable. Alienation is the name that Dr. Hegel gives to the condition that arises from the experience of the failure of personhood as a conception of the self. When the predominant conception of what it means to be a self fails to capture those elements of my constitution that are essential to my own self-understanding, alienation arises. Intersubjective relations are alienating when others strive to recognize me according to that incomplete and flawed conception of the self. There are several indicators of self-alienation that a person can look for in self or in others: The general capacity for conscious experience is impaired. The person is living “as if in a fog. Nothing is clear to them. Not only their own thoughts and feelings but also other people, and the implications of a situation, are hazy.” There may be a decrease in awareness or concern for the body, for its needs and feelings, or for material possessions such as a house, car, or clothing. There is a loss of the feeling of being an active, determining force in one’s own life. There are a few factors that are responsible for the process of self-alienation which include: The development of compulsive solutions to neurotic conflicts, such as striving for affection, detachment from others, or chronic hostility to others. Active moves away from the real self, such as the drive for glory and striving to live up to an impossible self-ideal. Active moves against the real self, as in self-hate or self-destruction. #RandolphHarris 13 of 31
The consequence of alienation from the self is that the person’s relation to himself has become impersonal. More specifically, in the self-alienated person, pride governs feelings—the individual does not react with spontaneous emotion. Instead, the person feels what he or she should feel. Further, the self-alienated person does not feel in possession of his or her own energies; the person’s powers are not his or her own. Another consequence of self-alienation is an impairment in the ability to assume responsibility for the self. The self-alienated person is lacking in plain, simple honesty about self and his or her life. The lack of honesty manifests itself as an inability to recognize oneself as one really is, without minimizing or exaggerating, an unwillingness to accept the consequences of one’s actions and decisions, and an unwillingness to realize it is up to oneself to do something about one’s difficulties. Self-alienated persons insist that others, fate, or time will solve these difficulties for them. Self-alienation means, basically, that a person is not choosing action by consulting all components of the real self, such as needs and values; instead, the person serves as some part of the real self. However, if the total self is not the source of direction for the individual’s behavior, what is? Dr. Riesmen’s concept of the “inner-directed character” is an excellent illustration of persons whose behavior expresses the dictates of conscience and self-ideal rather than the real self. When choices for action arise, such persons experience a conflict between what they really want to do and what they believe they ought to do. Implicitly, such persons believe that real selves are unreliable guides to conduct, and so they repress them. The consequence of ignoring the real self in favor of a rigid conscience is that these persons may behave in a moral and exemplary fashion, but their real needs are ignored, and they will be perpetually thwarted. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31
The “authoritarian character” is a person who seeks some authority figure to direct his or her conduct. These persons strive to discern what behavior the authority figure expects of them, and they hasten to comply. If there is any conflict between their own wishes and the demands of authority, they habitually suppress their wishes and compulsively comply with the authority’s wishes. Indeed, they experience their real selves as evil or weak, not worth considering. Dr. Fromm interprets the manner in which authoritarian characters perceive authority as a byproduct of real-self repression, followed by a projection to the authority figure of all of one’s own repressed “powers.” Hence, authoritarian characters perceive themselves as weak and the leader as all-powerful and possessing unusual strength and wisdom—the “charismatic” leader. Dr. Riesman’s concept, the “other-directed” character, describes an individual who allows the wishes and expectations of social peers to direct personal actions. The other-directed character becomes sensitized to others’ wishes and actively seeks to comply with them. The result may be popularity and acceptance, but it is purchased at the cost of knowledge of the real self and of thwarting many basic needs. Dr. Riesman’s concept, the “other-directed” character, describes an individual who allows the wishes and expectations of social powers to direct personal actions. The other-directed character becomes sensitized to others’ wishes and actively seeks to comply with them. The result may be popularity and acceptance, but it is purchased at the cost of knowledge of the real self and of thwarting many basic needs. Impulses and emotions are a part of the real self, just as are will and ideals. Everyone has to struggle to reconcile the conflicting demands of impulses, ideals, and the expectations of other people. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31
An impulse-directed person is one who habitually ignores all demands upon behavior save those imposed by personal impulses and feelings. This person ignores the conscience, the rights of other people, even his or her own long-range welfare and growth. All is subordinated to the immediate expression of the feelings. Psychoanalysts refer to such individuals as “instinct-ridden” characterss; they idealize and rationalize their drives and emotions because they cannot voluntarily control them. They are like adult children who have evaded growth. The goal is to get the patient “out of his script” during his treatment hours so he will behave like a real person, called colloquially, “a card-carrying member of the human race.” The chief difficulty to be overcome is the pull of the script, something like the “Id resistance” of Dr. Freud. The unconscious, instinctual forces that oppose the therapeutic process often manifest as the patient’s compulsion to repeat unhealthy patterns rather than explore them. The “resistance” is driven by the id’s fundamental nature to satisfy innate desires and impulses, such as urges for pleasures of the flesh and aggressive urges, and the inherent pleasure principle of immediate gratification. It opposes the ego’s efforts and the superego’s moral constraints by clinging to the “disease” or symptom. Professional patients adopt that role because they decided when they were very young, with encouragement from their parents, to be mental cripples, and may have been helped along by their previous therapists. This is usually a family script, and the brothers and sisters and parents may also be in treatment. A typical example is where a brother or sister is in a psychiatric hospital, where he or she continually “acts out” (as the staff calls it), or “acts crazy,” as Jeff now learns to call it. Jeff is a little huffy, and will soon say quite frankly that he is jealous of his brother or sister, because he or she is in a hospital while Jeff must be contented without-patient therapy. As one man put it, “How come my brother is in a nice plushy mental hospital on the East Coast while I have to be contented with this lousy little therapy group? I was enjoying it much more when I was a professional patient.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 31
While such things are said jokingly, they are the core of the resistance against getting well. First of all, Jeff is losing all the advantages of being in a hospital and all the fun of acting crazy. However, more than that, he says quite frankly (after he begins to understand his script), his Child is scared to get well and cannot accept the permission offered by the therapist and the other group members to do so, because if he does, his mother (in his head) will desert him. No matter how miserable he is with all his fears, anxieties, obsessions, and physical symptoms, he is still better off, he thinks, than being out in the world on his own without his Parent to protect him. At this point, there is a phase where script analysis becomes almost indistinguishable from psychanalytic probing. The protocol of his script becomes the subject of investigation, and the early influences which led him to decide on a not-O.K. position and way of life come under scrutiny. Here is pride at being a neurotic, a paranoid schizophrenic, an addict, or a criminal will begin to emerge, and he may bring in his diary or talk about his plans for writing an autobiography, as so many of his predecessors have done. Even people who are cured of “mental retardation” may have some nostalgia for their previous condition. People who are mentally healthy often do not know what they think or how they really feel until they have a chance to express themselves and to hear themselves and then decide whether that is actually what they believe. Sometimes just saying something aloud to another person is enough to make one realize that they do not fully believe what they have said—which frees them to change their minds. If you do not try to make every disagreement into a federal case, speaking your mind is important and helpful. People do not have to agree on everything. #RandolphHarris 17 of 31
People always think that they understand themselves, and they always think that they are being honest with themselves, and then later, after something happens and they see themselves differently, they can see how wrong they were. One can kid about how they feel until it hurts too much to go on pretending. Like you might walk with a Lego in your shoe, but sooner or later it would hurt too much and one would have to stop walking and get rid of it. Where there is gathered a sufficient number of facts on which to base a reasonably correct decision, it is still possible that one or more fact, of an importance outweighing all the others, could induce a man’s mind to alter the decision. The order of his thoughts may be perfectly logical yet the truth of them may be largely absent. For the premises with which they start may be ready-made theories, the facts upon which they rest may be less important than those which they ignore, and personal factors may have unconsciously accepted the one and chosen the other. Just as mysticism may give the dangerous illusion that it is dealing with reality when it is not, so logic may give the equally dangerous illusion that it is dealing with truth when it too is not doing so. To call a man a “philosopher” when he is only a mere logician is to demean the word. Logic is a useful tool, for certain limited purposes, but it can as easily lead a man into great error as into great wisdom. Let them not mistake exercises in logic for penetration into truth. Logic is always beset by the serious charge that its so-called truths are fallacious ones. For instance, it insists on the law of contradiction, the law which says that a statement of facts cannot be true and false at the same time. However, the careful study of illusions produces conclusions which falsify this law. We do not mean by this criticism to declare logic to be useless. We mean only that it is a good servant but a bad master. If our original assumptions are wrong, then the irony is that the more logically we travel from them to our conclusions, the more distantly we travel from truth. You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31
Heroes and heroines are archetypal in that they emanate and embody an immediate, recognizable pattern. Humans know one when they see one. The hero can be seen as the central human archetype of transformation for wholeness. The transformation comes through the hero’s own journey. Like the magical threshold, the sphere of rebirth, the awakening to the flow of forces, and the creation of wakefulness to dissolve the unconscious into timelessness, the hero emerges. Although talk of improving health and fitness is nothing new to emergency response providers, there are signs that it has now been moved to the front burner. As a result of the unacceptable number of line-of-duty deaths every year, movements have come from different directions to ensure that health and fitness standards are developed that apply to what these heroes do. Some argue that firefighting is a strenuous job, and that sudden cardiac arrest is just the cost of doing business. If that were really true, we would see the same trend of fatalities in other physical occupations, such as professional sports. Although professional athletes have to try out each year and firefighters tend to have a longer career, not many active athletes die from overexertion. When a professional team invests a significant amount of money in a player, they insure their investment through proper diet, physical training, and medical observation. Although the award-winning Sacramento Fire Department does not get as much attention or money as an NFL star, they still have a physically demanding job. As the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1583, Standard on Health-Related Fitness Programs for Fire Fighters, explains, firefighters need “to be medically and physically fit in order to perform the required tasks. #RandolphHarris 19 of 31
In every city, there seems to be one place or street where everything seems to happen. In Sacramento, California, one particular block of Capitol Avenue seems to be that place. Just a sampling of events in less than twenty years reveals several major fires, gang activity, drug dealing, mail theft, threats, over sixty-six deaths, animal attacks, stalking, many instances unlawful entries, a few missing persons cases, shootings, hit and run accidents, sexual assaults, felony assault, theft and vandalisms, financial crimes, and miraculous rescues. The amount of death and destruction that happened in just this one block area of the city is unparalleled in the community’s history. Upon one occasion, a night watchman discovered a fire burning. The fire department came quickly, but the blaze had spread to two adjoining buildings. The fire department, however, was able to prevent the massive blaze and stop the spread to the rest of the street. Despite the roaring fire, there were no deaths or injuries. Compared to automobiles, fire apparatus and ambulances do not provide the amount of protection you would expect. Much of the engineering designated to automobile design is related to either fuel efficiency or meeting federal crash standards. In contrast, custom emergency vehicles are engineered more to function and aesthetics. For instance, a modern sports utility vehicle (SUV) with three rows of seats might safely transport seven people. Lap and shoulder seat belts are in every riding position, and side curtain airbags protect the driver and passengers in an intersection crash. Padded seat backs and cushioned door liners assist in containing passengers in the event of a rollover. Compare that to a Type III ambulance with the same wheelbase. It may have lap and shoulder belts for the two front seats and the captain’s chair, yet only provide lab belts for the other bench positions, which are positioned perpendicular to the direction of travel. Although it may be capable of transporting seven occupants, very little restraint protection is provided. Now factor in that some of the occupants in the back will be providing patient care and might not be restrained at all. By the 1980s, most “impaling hazards” had been removed from the dashboards of automobiles, replaced with flush-mount knobs and rounded corners on the dash. Take a look in the back of the ambulance. How many sharp corners, after-market interior modifications, or potential missiles are present during patient transport? Some ambulances do a good job of securing the sharps container for contaminated needles, yet the container has an open top or nonlatching lid. A rollover could pepper the back of the ambulance with poisoned darts. #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
California is the third most expensive state in the nation. 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. In 37 percent of counties, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom of Democratic controlled California, brags about being the world’s “fifth largest economy,” but it also facing a $12 billion deficit, looking to cut $747 million for state worker’s pay, pushing to keep medical insurance for illegal immigrants, but wants to cut medical for anyone who has assets over $2,000 and the state has the largest homeless population in the nation. 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. 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. 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. This is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. #RandolphHarris 22 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 will housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. 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 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 risks 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 23 of 31
Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure are the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalination plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. As we see gangs fighting with federal law enforcement, states and cities refusing to honor federal laws, and politicians showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, anarchy is becoming increasingly common. 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. #RandolphHarris 24 of 31
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 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. 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. #RandolphHarris 26 of 31
Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area. 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. The State of California has a budget deficit of $12 billion because Governor Gavin Newsom 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. Additionally, Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics and is proposing to fast-track his plan to build a $20 billion water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which would eliminate environmental reviews and limit avenues for legal challenges. Gavin Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of poop, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century. #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. 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 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. #RandolphHarris 30 of 31
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. As of 31 August 2025, President Trump has brought $8 Billion in Tariff revenue into America and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. However, if President Trump’s Tariffs are deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, taxpayers will have to pay back trillions and trillions of dollars. 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. 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. 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
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. Come and see what secrets this so-called, “Winchester Mystery House” may hold.
Experience an unforgettable journey back to the time of kings and queens with this entry ticket for The Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara, California, which was the residence of Heiress Sarah L. Winchester. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After the tour, there will be time to enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.
Please 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/
Ah, yes. The BMW 3 Series. Happy 50th birthday to the most iconic BMW ever! It is really hard to decide on a BMW model. However, the 3 series is a favorite of everyone. All the upper-class suburban families had one in the 1980s and 1990s; everyone from teenagers and housewives to executives and diplomats. Now that they are larger in size, but still sporty and luxurious, the audience has grown tremendously. These are very stylish and reliable cars, which is why BMW continues to dominate the luxury car space.
With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW 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
At Millhaven Homes our professionals bring extensive experience in creating custom luxury properties. Your needs are the central focus. We savor the sanctuary of awe-inspiring spaces, unique architectural details and fine craftsmanship. The key to a successful relationship is communication. We will incorporate your thoughts and ideas into your new home.
With vast experience in all types of custom home construction, our premier services are created for you, so you can get the most out of the function and design of your dream home. Discover Millhaven Homes today. Let us design and build a custom home that reflects your style, comfort, and aspirations. We are here to bring your vision to life with creativity, care, and attention to every detail.
Each home we create is a masterpiece—crafted with care, harmony, and sophistication. Be sure to ask about our legendary “Costco” door. https://millhavenhomes.com/
Now He Tells Me
The reality of everyday life is taken for granted as reality. It does not require additional verification and beyond its simple presence. It is simply there, as a self-evidentnt and compelling facticity. I know that it is real. While I can engage in doubt, as I routinely exist in everyday life. This suspension of doubt is so firm that to abandon it, as I might want to do, say, in theoretical or religious contemplation, I must make an extreme transition. The world of everyday life proclaims itself and, when I want to challenge the proclamation, I must engage deliberate, by no means easy effort. The transition from the natural attitude to the theoretical attitude of the philosopher or scientist illustrates this point. However, not all aspects of this reality are equally unproblematic. Every day life is divided into sectors that are apprehended routinely, and others that present me with problems of one kind or another. Suppose that I am an automobile engineer for Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (BMW) who is highly knowledgeable about all German-made cars. Everything that pertains to the latter is a routine, unproblematic facet of my everyday life. However, one day someone appears in the garage and asks me to repair his Buick. I am now compelled to enter the problematic world of American-made cars. I may do so reluctantly or with problems that I have not yet routinized. At the same time, of course, I do not leave the reality of everyday life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 32
Indeed, the latter becomes enriched as I begin to incorporate into it the knowledge and skills required for the repair of American-made cars. If what appears as a problem does not pertain to a different reality altogether (say, the reality of theoretical physics, or of nightmares), the reality of everyday life encompasses both kinds of sectors. If the routine of everyday life continues without interruption, they are apprehended as unproblematic. However, even the unproblematic sector of everyday reality is so only until further notice, that is, until its continuity is interrupted by the appearance of a problem. When this happens, the reality of everyday life seeks to integrate the problematic sector into what is already unproblematic. Commonsense knowledge contains a variety of instructions as to how this is to be done. For instance, if they perform their familiar, taken-for-granted routines—say, typing away at desks next to mine in my office, the others with whom I work are unproblematic to me. If they interrupt these routines—say, huddling together in a corner and talking in whispers, then they become problematic. As I inquire about the meaning of this unusual activity, there is a variety of possibilities that my commonsense knowledge is capable of reintegrating into the unproblematic routines of everyday life: they may be consulting on how to fix a broken typewriter, or one of them may have some urgent instructions from the boss, and so on. #RandolphHarris 2 of 32
On the other hand, I may find that they are discussing a union directive to go on strike, something as yet outside my experience but still well within the range of problems with which my commonsense knowledge can deal. It will deal with it, though, as a problem, rather than simply reintegrating it into the unproblematic sector of everyday life. If, however, I conclude that my colleagues have gone collectively mad, the problem that presents itself is of yet another kind. I am now faced with a problem that transcends the boundaries of the reality of everyday life and points to an altogether different reality. Indeed, my conclusion that my colleagues have gone mad implies ipso facto that they have gone off into a world that is no longer the common world of everyday life. Any person living that way is bound to feel he is guilty. He is always on the lookout for somebody else to solve his problems instead of turning to himself and his own resources. There is profound wisdom in this analysis, and I certainly agree with the concept applied in it. However, I think it is incomplete. It does not consider the futility of the self-accusations, their merely condemnatory character. It leaves out the attitude towards his guilt and how it is, in its turn, unproductive. It is so because he deals with it in the spirit of self-hate. This too is unconscious; he does not feel that he accuses himself mercilessly. The whole process is externalized. #RandolphHarris 3 of 32
Finally, a person may accuse himself of actions or attitudes which, viewed objectively, seem harmless, legitimate, or even desirable. He may brand taking sensible care of himself as pampering; enjoying food as gluttony; considering his own wishes instead of blindly complying as hard-boiled selfishness; considering analytic treatment—which he needs and can afford—as self-indulgence; asserting an opinion as presumptuous. Here, too, we must ask which inner dictate or which pride is offended by a pursuit. Only a person taking pride in asceticism would accuse himself of “gluttony”; only a person proud of self-effacement would brand an assertive move as egotistical. However, the most important thing about this kind of self-accusation is that it often concerns the fight against the emerging real self. They mostly occur—or, more precisely, come into the foreground—in later phases of analysis, and are an attempt to discredit and discourage moves toward healthy growth. The viciousness of self-accusations (as in any form of self-hate) calls for self-protective measures. And we can observe these clearly in the analytic situation. As soon as the patient is faced with one of his difficulties, he may go on the defensive. He may respond with righteous indignation, with feeling misunderstood, or by becoming argumentative. #RandolphHarris 4 of 32
He points out that it was true in the past, but is already better; if his wife did not behave the way she does, the difficulty would not exist; if his parents had been different, it would not have developed in the first place. He may also develop counterattacks and find fault with the analyst, often in a threatening manner—or, on the contrary, become appeasing and ingratiating. In other words, he reacts as if we had hurled at him a severe accusation too frightening for him to be able to test it out quietly. He can fight it blindly, according to the means at his disposal: by wriggling out of it, by blaming somebody else, by pleading guilty, by going on the offensive. We have here one of the major delaying factors in psychoanalytic therapy. However, also, apart from analysis, it is one of the main causes preventing people from being objective toward their problems. The necessity to ward off any self-accusation stunts the capacity for constructive self-criticism and thereby mars the possibility of learning from mistakes. Through chronic lying to others and himself, a person may develop a self-structure radically estranged from the reality of spontaneous experiencing. He may believe that he is a devoted husband (self-concept), he may approve of his attitude toward his wife (conscience), and he strives to get his wife to see him as a devoted spouse by the way he speaks to her (public self). Yet his wife may act in ways that infuriate him, and he may be carrying on an affair. #RandolphHarris 5 of 32
If he acknowledged the anger that his wife’s actions engendered in him, it might threaten his sense of identity and undermine his self-esteem. If he evaluated the moral significance of his infidelity, it might make him feel guilty and embarrassed by repressing the unpleasant dimensions of his experience. To the extent that a person represses aspects of his experience, we can assert that he is alienated from his real self. He is pretending to be someone other than his real self; he can believe his own pretense only because he continuously represses his experience. The patient must find a spiritual solution, not without the well-timed help of a therapeutically clever superior in the Augustinian order. His solution must be roughly bridged with a political and psychological vacuum which history has created in a significant portion of Western Christendom. Such a coincidence, if further coinciding with the deployment of highly specific personal gifts, makes for historical “greatness.” We must follow the man through the crisis of his youth, and the unfolding of his gifts, to the first manifestation of his originality as a thinker, namely, to the emergence of his life philosophy, which was not perceived as a radical innovation either by him or his friends and family. What happened to him after he had acquired an identity is what we need to investigate to help him. #RandolphHarris 6 of 32
As clinicians, we have learned that we cannot lift a case history out of history. Human nature can best be studied in the state of conflict; and human conflict comes to the detailed attention of interested recorders mainly under special circumstances. One such circumstance is the clinical encounter, in which the suffering, for the sake of securing help, has no other choice than to become case histories; and another special circumstance is history, where extraordinary beings, by their own self-centered maneuvers and through the prodding of the charismatic hunger of mankind, become (auto) biographies. We have learned by going back and forth between a person’s present life and their history. This helps clinical as well as historical scholars develop a special awareness of their patients. For those who are more comfortable thinking that their patients have “weak egos,” at my very first encounter with a group of psychiatric in-patients, even very disturbed ones, after only a very short period of preparation and getting acquainted (say, thirty minutes), I would not doubt of the beneficial effects from getting to know a patient in the present, after reviewing his medical history. During the first interview, the therapist makes sure he gets the script background, unobtrusively as far as possible, swinging along with the patient’s conversation; but, later, if there are omissions, he makes a clear point of filling them in. #RandolphHarris 7 of 32
First, the clinician gets a medical and psychiatric history. During this, he asks for a dream—any dream, because that is the quickest way to get a picture of the patient’s script protocol and his worldview. Then, he asks about each of the previous therapists: why the patient went to him, how he selected him, what he learned from him, why he left, and under what circumstances. From these inquiries, the script analyst gets many clues. He follows some of them up by asking about other activities: how Jeff selects jobs or spouses, and why and how he quits or gets divorced. If this is done competently, the patient will not terminate therapy prematurely, as he often does if the therapist is apprehensive about the transference and hides his fear behind a poker face (a facial expression that is blank and hides his real emotions), a ritualistic courtesy, or a tape recorder. Nothing is as reassuring as competence. A common situation is where the patient is obviously collecting failures in therapy and elsewhere to justify a psychotic or suicidal script payoff, and quits with, “Now He Tells Me”; that is, by springing some major surprise without previous discussions, and quitting without notice. At the end of the thirtieth session, to further highlight this illustration, when everything appears to be going well and Jeff is making “progress,” he may say casually as he rises to leave: “By the way, this’ll be my last visit because I’m going to commit myself to the State Hospital this afternoon”—something he has not previously brought up. #RandolphHarris 8 of 32
If Dr. Harris has taken a careful history, he will abort this in the third session by saying: “Now what I think you are heading for is to come here for six months or a year, and then quit suddenly.” If Jeff objects, Dr. Harris responds: “But that is what you did on your two last jobs, and with three of your former therapists. If you want to go through with it, it is all right because I can always learn something meanwhile, but if you really want to get well, that is the first thing we must talk about. Otherwise, you will just waste six months or a year of your life. However, if we can thrash it out right now, you will save that much time, and we can go ahead.” Alcoholics who crave absolute control or complete surrender are most likely to take umbrage at this abortion of their games, while patients who want to get well will be grateful. If the patient nods or laughs, the prognosis is very good. Now, how did man’s need for individual identity evolve? Before Dr. Darwin, the answer was clear: because God created Adam in His own image, as a counterplayer of His Identity, and thus bequeathed to all man the glory and the despair of individuation and faith. I admit to not having come up with any better explanation. The Garden of Eden, of course, has had many utopian transformations since that expulsion from the unity of creation—an expulsion which tied man’s identity forever to the manner of his toil and of his co-operation with others, and with technical and communal pride. #RandolphHarris 9 of 32
A certain New Englander was once working in the garden of The Winchester Mystery House when a parson walked by and congratulated him on what God and he had wrought together as evidence in such a commendable yield. “Yep,” the man said, “and you should have seen it when God had it all to Himself.” In such a story, God is not dead, just put in His place. Each cultural consolidation around a state of technology has its way of creating familiarity with the Unfamiliar. Technological and enlightened man, however, seems to flatter himself more than any man before him that he has the universe to himself and that an experimentally inclined God, very much made in man’s image, is glad to step aside for him. At any rate, I have heard very clever men (but never a woman) claim that in principle there is nothing in nature that man cannot now learn to understand. “Death, too?” I heard a woman ask one of these metaphysical technocrats, and he nodded with an enigmatic smile. And man, he continued, therefore can, in principle, change anything in nature or in his own nature to fit my blueprint. “Whose blueprint?” the woman asked. Another smile. Thus, it is part of today’s consolidation that man reinteralized the eternal Identity whom he had projected on the (now, in principle, conquerable) heavens, and tries to remake himself in the blueprint of a manufactured identity. In conjunction with the fact that man also can now totally unmake himself, however, an all-human identity becomes an inescapable goal. #RandolphHarris 10 of 32
In this, however, revived forms of humanisms and libertarianisms will not do. Their original proponents, we must remember, did not know of the two objects already mentioned, the gigantic bomb and the tiny pill, which, if they do not give man power over life and death, certainly give him the decision as to whose life and death it shall be—decisions which will call for new “political” forms. For man’s need for a psychosocial identity is anchored in nothing less than his sociogenetic evolution. It has been said (by Dr. Waddington) that authority-accepting is what characterizes man is what characterizes man’s sociogenetic evolution. I would submit that identity formation is inseparable from this, for only within a defined group identity can true authority exist. Man, as a species, has survived by being divided into pseudospecies. First, each horde or tribe, class, and nation, but then also every religious association has become the human species, considering all the others a freakish and gratuitous invention of some irrelevant deity. To reinforce the illusion of being chosen, every tribe recognizes a creation of its own, a mythology and later a history: thus, loyalty to a particular ecology and morality was secured. One never quite knew how all the other tribes came to be, but since they did exist, they were at least useful as a screen of projection for the negative identities which were necessary, if most comfortable, counterpart of the positive ones. #RandolphHarris 11 of 32
This projection, in conjunction with their territoriality, gave men a reason to slaughter one another in majorem gloriam. If, then, identity can be said to be a “good thing” in human evolution—because good things are those which seem to have been necessary for what, indeed, has survived—we should not overlook the fact that this system of mortal divisions has been vastly overburdened with the function of reaffirming for each pseudospecies its superiority over all others. Maybe we and our youth are turning to thoughts of identity precisely because the world wars have shown that a glorification of the pseudospecies can now spell the end of the species, wherefore an all-inclusive human identity must be part of the anticipation of a universal technology. It is this anticipation, also, which will unite some of the majority and of the minority among our youths in one universe. However, this places all older identities in deadly danger. “Prejudiced” people, wherever they are, may therefore fight a murderous rear-guard battle; and ascending nations and even ancient ones endangered in their “young” national identities may well delay and endanger a worldwide identity. The pseudospecies, then, is one of the more sinister aspects of all group identity. However, there are also “pseudo” aspects in all identity which endanger the individual. For man’s development does not begin or end with identity; and identity, too, must become relative for the mature person. #RandolphHarris 12 of 32
Psychosocial identity is necessary as the anchoring of man’s transient existence in the here and the now. That it is transient does not make it expendable. If, to those who seek an identity, Norman Brown advocates “Get lost” and Timothy Leary “Drop out,” I would suggest that to get lost one must have found oneself, and to drop out, one must have been in. The danger of all existentialism which chooses to remain juvenile, is that it shirks the responsibility for the generational process, and thus advocates an abortive human identity. We have learned from the study of lives that beyond childhood, which provides the moral basis of our identity, and beyond the ideology of youth, only an adult ethics can guarantee to the next generation an equal chance to experience the full cycle of humanness. And this alone permits the individual to transcend his identity—to become as truly individual as he will ever be, and as truly beyond all individuality. We realize, then, the widening context of the problem of identity. Beginning with veterans of war and severely disturbed young people, we have come to formulate a normative crisis in individual development. From that of delinquent and violent upheavals, we have come to suspect a significance of identity in the whole scheme of sociogenetic evolution. And from the social boundness of identity, we have come to envisage its own transcendence. #RandolphHarris 13 of 32
When it comes to central aspects of man’s existence, we can only conceptualize at a given time what is relevant to us for personal, for conceptual, and for historical reasons. And even as we do so, the data and the conclusions change before our eyes. Especially at a time when our conceptualizations and interpretations become part of a historically self-conscious scene, and when insight and conduct influence each other with an immediacy that hardly leaves a pause for any new “tradition” to form—in such a time all thinking about man becomes an experiment in living. The newness of man’s self-awareness and of his attention to his awareness has, at first, led to a scientific mythology of the mind or to a mythological use of scientific terms and methods, as if social science could and would repeat in a short time, and in view of immediate practical goals, the whole long progress of natural science from nature philosophy to pure and applied science. However, man, the subject of psychosocial science, will not hold still enough to be divided into categories both measurable and relevant. When we look at human nature during the Russian Revolution of 1905, the rebels at the frontier on which they stand united, teach us, to the sound of exploding bombs, that rebellion cannot lead, without ceasing to be rebellion, to consolation and to the comfort of strict and rigid doctrines. Their only evident victory is to triumph at least over solitude and negation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 32
In the midst of a world which they deny and which rejects them, they try, man after man, like all the great-hearted ones, to reconstruct a brotherhood of man. The love they bear for one another, which brings them happiness even in the desert of a prison, which extends to the great mass of their enslaved and silent fellow men, gives the measure of their distress and of their hopes. To serve this love, they must first kill; to inaugurate the reign of innocence, they must accept a certain culpability. This contradiction will be resolved for them only at the very last moment. Solitude and chivalry, renunciation and hope will only be surmounted by the willing acceptance of death. Jeliabov, who organized the attempt on Alexander II in 1881 and was arrested forty-eight hours before the murder, had asked to be executed at the same time as the real perpetrator of the attempt. “Only the cowardice of the government,” he said, “could account for the erection of one gallows instead of two.” Five were erected, one of which was for the woman he loved. However, Jeliabov died smiling, while Ryssakov, who had broken down during his interrogations, was dragged to the scaffold, half-mad with fear. Jeliabov did this because of a sort of guilt which he did not want to accept and from which he knew he would suffer, like Ryssakov, if he remained alone after having committed or been the cause of a murder. #RandolphHarris 15 of 32
At the foot of the gallows, Sofia Perovskaia kissed the man she loved and her two other friends, but turned away from Ryssakov, who died solitary and damned by the new religion. For Jeliabov, death in the midst of his comrades coincided with his justification. He who kills is guilty only if he consents to go on living or if, to remain alive, he betrays his comrades. To die, on the other hand, cancels out both the guilt and the crime itself. Thus, Charlotte Corday shouts at Fouquier-Tinville: “Oh, the monster, he takes me for a human value that stands halfway between innocence and guilt, between reason and irrationality, between history and eternity. At the moment of this discovery, but only then, these desperate people experience a strange feeling of peace, the peace of definitive victory. In his cell, Polivanov says that it would have been “easy and sweet” for him to die. Voinarovsky writes that he has conquered the fear of death. “Without a single muscle in my face twitching, without saying a word, I shall climb on the scaffold. And this will not be an act of violence perpetrated on myself, it will be the perfectly natural result of all that I have lived through.” Very much later, Lieutenant Schmidt will write before being shot: “My death will consummate everything, and my cause, crowned by my death, will emerge irreproachable and perfect.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 32
Kaliayev, condemned to the gallows after having stood as prosecutor before the tribunal, declares firmly: “I consider my death as supreme protest against a world of blood and tears,” and again writes: “From the moment when I found myself behind bars, I never for one moment wanted to stay alive in any way whatsoever.” His wish is granted. On May 10, at two o’clock in the morning, he walks towards the only justification he recognizes. Entirely dressed in black, without an overcoat, and wearing a felt hat, he climbs the scaffold. To Father Florinsky, who offers him the crucifix, the condemned man, turning from the figure of Christ, only answers: “I have already told you that I have finished with life and that I am prepared for death.” Yes, the ancient value lives once more, at the culmination of nihilism, at the very foot of the gallows. It is the reflection, historic on this occasion, of the “we are” which we found at the termination of our analysis of the rebel mind. It is privation and at the same time enlightened conviction. It is this that shone with such mortal radiance on the agonized countenance of Dora Brilliant at the thought of him who died for himself and for tireless friendship; it is this that drives Sazonov to suicide in prison as a protest and “to earn respect for his comrades”; and this, again, which exonerates even Nechaiev on the day when he is asked to denounce his comrades by a general, whom he knocks to the ground with a single blow. #RandolphHarris 17 of 32
By means of this, the terrorists, while simultaneously affirming the world of men, place themselves above the world, thus demonstrating for the last time in our history that real rebellion is a creator of value. Thanks to them, 1905 marks the highest peak of revolutionary momentum. However, from then on, a decline sets in. Martyrs do not build Churches; they are the mortar, or the alibi. Then come the priests and the bigots. The revolutionaries who follow will not demand an exchange of lives. They accept the risk of death, but will also agree to preserve themselves as far as they can for the sake of serving the revolution. Thus, they will accept complete culpability for themselves. Acquiescence in humiliation—that is the true characteristic of twentieth-century revolutionaries, who place the revolution and the Church of man above themselves. Kaliayev proves, on the contrary, that though the revolution is a necessary means, it is not a sufficient end. In this way, he elevates man instead of degrading him. It is Kaliayev and his Russian and German comrades who, in the history of the world, really oppose Hegel, who first recognize universal recognition as necessary and then as insufficient. Appearances did not suffice for him. When the whole world would have been willing to recognize him, a doubt would still have remained in Kaliayev’s mind: he needed his own form of acquiescence, and the approbation of the whole world would not have sufficed to silence the doubt that a hundred enthusiastic acclamations give rise to in the mind of any honest man. #RandolphHarris 18 of 32
Kaliayev doubted to the end, but this doubt did not prevent him from acting; it is for that reason that he is the purest image of rebellion. He who accepts death, to pay for a life with a life, no matter what his negations may be, affirms, by doing so, a value that surpasses him in his aspect of an individual in the historical sense. Kaliayev dedicates himself to history until death and, at the moment of dying, places himself above history. In a certain way, it is true, he prefers himself to history. However, what should his preference be? Himself, who he kills without hesitation, or the value he incarnates and makes immortal? The answer is not difficult to guess. Kaliayev and his comrades triumphed over nihilism. Even men of much experience find it hard, at times, to arrive at beneficial decisions on worldly matters, especially without a belief in God, when these offer as many arguments for one conclusion as for a different one. Even their matured minds may sway back and forth, unsettled and uncertain at such a time, until they decide to wait for the turn of events to give them a beneficial direction what to do. If judgment is withheld on what appears to be fantastic claims, it bespeaks a well-matured, well-balanced mentality to wait until they have been investigated. A statement which holds a half-truth because it is based on a selected half-fact removed from a contradictory context, can neither be accepted nor denied. It must be analyzed and its parts carefully measured, until it is truth and its falsity are likewise properly revealed. Time will either develop or deform this idea. #RandolphHarris 19 of 32
That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, indeed, without a doubt, is a real superhero. Researchers from a variety of fields continue to explore the causes and limits of altruism. Extraordinary altruists have different beliefs about humanity. Altruists score lower on the Belief in Pure Evil scale compared to others. This includes items such as, “Some people are just pure evil” and “Evil people harm others for the joy of it.” The researchers found that even after “controlling for empathy and religiosity, for every one-unit decrease in belief in pure evil, the odds of classification as an altruistic organ donor increased by 31 percent.” Pure altruism is a genuine form of ethical commitment. Many of the superheroes who work with the award-winning Sacramento Fire Department are purely altruistic. Many of their behaviors are driven by genuine concern for the well-being of others, without any expectation of anything in return. In the winter, oftentimes, water-soaked and half-frozen, firefighters return to the station, where they do not stay long before the alarm sounds again. On one particular morning, at 6 a.m., a fire had broken out in the basement of a home. The family escaped with only the clothes on their backs as they rushed out into the icy night. #RandolphHarris 20 of 32
The fire department arrived to find the fire burning in the basement and spreading to the first floor and kitchen near the rear of the home. When the water at the hydrant was turned on, firemen found that the pressure was not enough to get the stream to the roof. While a fireman was in the building, he had succeeded in making his way to the back of the first floor near the kitchen. Suddenly, the fire burst through the ceiling, and the firefighter did not have enough pressure to spray the ceiling. He then jumped out of a window as conditions had deteriorated rapidly around him, making it impossible to stay in the house. A strong wind had begun to blow, and the fire spread rapidly as the ice-coated firemen fought the flames from the outside of the house. Their efforts were futile, and only the four outside walls remained after the fire was finally extinguished. The fire department was brought under intense scrutiny after the blaze because of the low pressure in the mains, but they countered by saying the engineer had been called and had increased the pressure. City aldermen were asked to investigate the matter, but no further findings were offered. The Sacramento Fire Department depends on an adequate water supply to fight fires. Low water pressure during a fire is primarily caused by municipal water systems being overwhelmed by unprecedented demand from large-scale wildfires, leading to the depletion of water tanks and stretching the infrastructure beyond its limits. This insufficient water supply and distribution capability cannot meet the high flow rates needed for extensive firefighting, especially compared to the demands of fighting a structural fire. #RandolphHarris 21 of 32
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 22 of 32
California is the third most expensive state in the nation. 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. In 37 percent of counties, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom of Democratic controlled California, brags about being the world’s “fifth largest economy,” but it also facing a $12 billion deficit, looking to cut $747 million for state worker’s pay, pushing to keep medical insurance for illegal immigrants, but wants to cut medical for anyone who has assets over $2,000 and the state has the largest homeless population in the nation. 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. 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. 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. This is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. #RandolphHarris 23 of 32
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 will housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. 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 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 risks 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 32
Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure are the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalination plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. As we see gangs fighting with federal law enforcement, states and cities refusing to honor federal laws, and politicians showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, anarchy is becoming increasingly common. 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. #RandolphHarris 25 of 32
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 26 of 32
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. 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. #RandolphHarris 27 of 32
Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area. 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. The State of California has a budget deficit of $12 billion because Governor Gavin Newsom 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. Additionally, Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics and is proposing to fast-track his plan to build a $20 billion water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which would eliminate environmental reviews and limit avenues for legal challenges. Gavin Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of poop, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century. #RandolphHarris 28 of 32
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 29 of 32
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 30 of 32
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. 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 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. #RandolphHarris 31 of 32
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. As of 31 August 2025, President Trump has brought $8 Billion in Tariff revenue into America and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. 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. 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. 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 32 of 32
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. Come and see what secrets this so-called, “Winchester Mystery House” may hold.
Experience an unforgettable journey back to the time of kings and queens with this entry ticket for The Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara, California, which was the residence of Heiress Sarah L. Winchester. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After the tour, there will be time to enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.
Please 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/
Ah, yes. The BMW 3 Series. Happy 50th birthday to the most iconic BMW ever! It is really hard to decide on a BMW model. However, the 3 series is a favorite of everyone. All the upper-class suburban families had one in the 1980s and 1990s; everyone from teenagers and housewives to executives and diplomats. Now that they are larger in size, but still sporty and luxurious, the audience has grown tremendously. These are very stylish and reliable cars, which is why BMW continues to dominate the luxury car space.
With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW 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
Park Haven
Rancho Cordova, CA | low $500s
Now Selling!
Welcome to Cresleigh Park Haven; the newest home community in Rancho Cordova.
Nestled in the heart of Rancho Cordova, Park Haven is a thoughtfully planned community offering 71 homes —perfect for those seeking comfort, convenience, and more time to enjoy life. Located adjacent to the beloved Exploration Park, this neighborhood blends modern living with outdoor adventure right at your doorstep.
Choose from five beautifully crafted floor plans ranging from approximately 1,342 to 2,547 square feet, with options for 3 to 5 bedrooms, flexible living spaces, and open-concept layouts designed for today’s lifestyles.
Whether you’re a first-time buyer, growing family, or looking to simplify without sacrificing style, Park Haven offers a home that fits your needs.
Enjoy the ease of a maintenance-friendly yard, the charm of a close-knit community, and the everyday convenience of nearby parks, trails, shopping, and top-rated schools. At Park Haven, you’ll find more than just a house—you’ll find your place to thrive.
Our team of experienced professionals at Cresleigh Homes can help you select the perfect location for your dream home, guide you through the site planning, design and construction process.
The quality in each of the homes we build speaks volumes about the culture of our company. We’re relentless in our pursuit to create beauty that lasts and we’re as passionate about serving our customers as we are about building the finest homes.
We pride ourselves in clear communication and strong company ethics, so your expectations are always met or exceeded. Just ask our past and current clients — after all, they’re living in real-world examples of our dedication to relationships and a job well done. https://cresleigh.com/park-haven/
“My Cresleigh Home is the treasure chest of living. I’m grateful knowing that at this moment, all I have is all I need.” -Angelika Jurgen
Welcome to the Golden Age of America!
I am confident that we will literally be called upon to make an account before God concerning how we have used [our resources] to bless lives and build the kingdom. Accepting responsibility is not always easy. It can be tempting to try to shift blame or make excuses. However, doing so will only prevent us from learning from our mistakes and growing as individuals. When we accept responsibility for our actions, we take ownership of our mistakes and commit to doing better in the future. There are many benefits to accepting responsibility. First, it allows us to learn from our mistakes. When we take ownership of our mistakes, we can begin to understand what went wrong and how we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Second, accepting responsibility builds trust. When others see that we are willing to take responsibility for our actions, they are more likely to trust us and believe that we are genuine. Third, accepting responsibility can help us to feel better about ourselves. When we know that we have done wrong, it can weigh heavily on our conscience. However, when we accept responsibility and take steps to make things right, we can start to feel better about ourselves and move on from our mistakes. However, Ordinary blameworthiness is robust; it is not undermined by consideration of formative circumstances. It is only the realm of detached blame that is shrinking as we conceptualize more things as illness, and perhaps that is no bad thing: our talk of evil usually does not bring much of value to anything. #RandolphHarris 1 of 30
Ordinary blame depends on a shared moral community. Once we enter the realm of detached blame, we have already taken a step away from genuine interpersonal engagement. Someone who is not part of our moral community is not eligible for ordinary blame; our attitude towards them can only be a sort of detached blame: it cannot involve normative expectations, gratitude, or resentment. In detached blame, we stand back and disapprove, disdain, despise, disavow; we do not engage, or at least, not with the aim of reciprocity. Detached blame can involve a modification of the relationship, but in a one-sided way: we avoid such people, and not just for prudential reasons, it is done for its own sake. Detached blame can be fierce, but it can also be undermined. Reflecting on the way that an agent was caused to be the way they are draws us towards the truly objective stance. When we see people from a truly objective stance, we cease to see them as agents at all, and the notion of blame becomes inapplicable. There are many ways to make amends. Sometimes, the best way to make amends is to simply apologize. A sincere apology can go a long way in healing relationships and restoring trust. In other cases, we may need to do more than just apologize. We may need to make amends by offering to fix the damage that we have caused, or by providing support to the person we have wronged. #RandolphHarris 2 of 30
Making amends can be a difficult and humbling experience. However, it is also an incredibly rewarding one. When we make amends, we not only restore harmony in our relationships, but we also heal ourselves. By taking responsibility for our actions and making amends, we can move on from our mistakes and create a more positive and fulfilling life. Therefore, be honest with yourself. The first step to accepting responsibility is to be honest with yourself about your mistakes. This means acknowledging that you made a mistake and understanding the impact of your actions. Apologize sincerely. Once you have accepted responsibility for your actions, the next step is to apologize sincerely to the person you have wronged. Your apology should be genuine and heartfelt. It should not be conditional or full of excuses. Many say that the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted. However, the rich, the poor, and all of us in between have things that we need to overcome. When it comes to overcoming being greedy, selfish, and overly indulgent, we all need a lot more help. President Trump said: “The worst fear I have about these people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and Hos people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church. My greater fear is that they cannot stand wealth.” Our prosperity brings some real challenges because many are getting rich, more of us are waxing fat, and because of greed, selfishness, and overindulgence, we could lose the Spirit and literally lose our souls. #RandolphHarris 3 of 30
Money and material things are on the minds of almost everyone. The great question of the twenty-first century is, “How can I acquire wealth?” No question occupies a larger place in the minds and hearts of people today than this. This is true of men in every situation in every walk of life. Money, in and of itself, is not an evil. However, as Pau taught Timothy, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. There are some of the wealthy who deal with their prosperity very well, using their resources to bless others and build the kingdom. For many, however, wealth presents major difficulties. As we deal with the materialism that threatens us, there are some things we need to consider. Belonging to a perpetrator group can induce a distressing threat to the collective moral identity of the community. A victim sees the group that they belong to as being in a disadvantaged position of the self or the ingroup, and the perception of the disadvantage as unfair, and believes that better conditions are deserved (for the self or the ingroup), thereby provoking anger and resentment because there were no cries of alarm, no disapproval and virtually no support. Nonetheless, as humanitarian witnesses, we expect victims to feel bad. In fact, that is sometimes why people are victimized. When people are viewed as superior, having an advantage, being successful and virtuous, those without power or authority want these individuals to suffer. Victims, as a result, feel the same kind of rancor appropriate to those who are unjustly punished. #RandolphHarris 4 of 30
However, many victims of injustice continue to see themselves as unlucky, compared to other potential victims, without feeling any resentment toward perpetrators and beneficiaries. Some victims feel lost. Being lost, having losses, losing—as negative states, these are all ways of feeling bad. So, too, are forms of trauma associated with the infliction of violence, pain, or both, of which the victim seems presently unaware. Victims who do not yet feel bad are often said to be traumatized. When trauma is present, the mind becomes split or dissociated and is unable to register the memory of the event. As a result, the traumatized individual is unable to consciously recollect and integrate the traumatic experience and is haunted by intrusive memories. The experience of trauma becomes frozen in time: it is not represented as past, but rather reexperience repeatedly as a traumatic event in the present. High levels of emotional activation can lead to strong conditioned responses while also impairing the memory processes. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a timeless phenomenon that interrupts the ordinary continuum of the past, present, and future. In PTSD patients, intense memories of the trauma coexist with disorganized and incomplete narrative memory. The most common kind of recall of traumatic memories consists of flashbacks, which are usually vivid and yet involve a disruption of the sense of time. They are usually triggered involuntarily and imply the person’s avoidance of stimuli that can be reminders of the trauma. Trauma is timelessly preserved in memory—a fact that might account for the long-term effects of PTSD. Trauma is not part of a declarative or narrative memory, but remains implicit and non-declarative, encoded in bodily memories and conditioned responses lying outside the verbal domain of cognitive function. #RandolphHarris 5 of 30
By far, the most common contributor to suicide is the strain in social relationships. There can be no question that life insurance to the would-be suicide victim’s beneficiaries may be an advantage rather than a loss. The Metropolitan Life, during 1923, paid out $24,738,900.47 (2025 inflation-adjusted) on account of suicide claims against $9,001,439.60 (2025 inflation-adjusted). In four years, the company had paid out $15,737,406.87 million, suggestive of the pecuniary interests that some people have in not supporting victims of crime. Suicide is quite profitable for some people. What is fueling the culture of victimizing and terrorizing people is not only to make oneself feel superior, but also avarice or greed. Avarice is defined as an excessive, unsatisfying, and insatiable desire for wealth or gain. If you have hundreds, you are not satisfied until you get thousands, and when you get thousands, you are not satisfied until you get millions, and as soon as you get millions, of course, now you want billions. And so not only is it greed that is the driving force behind the notorious victimization of strangers, our friends, and even our families, but it is also the driving force of the American economy. Our banks and investment firms are all driven by greed, and when their greed gets them in trouble and their profits are marginalized, the federal government rides in on a $700 billion bailout horse to rescue these greedy corporations. For greedy families, they can simply hope and pray for one to get sick and capitalize on a life insurance policy, or they can try to kill a family member off or push that person to suicide. And that is why some families sit back and watch their relatives suffer, while offering no assistance. #RandolphHarris 6 of 30
Nearly every therapist likes to think that the patient chose him and his profession because, in this choice at least, he was rational, intelligent, and discriminating, no matter how confused he might be about everything else. This feeling of being chosen on merit—the merit of one’s profession and personal merit as well—is a healthy one, and is one of the rewards of our vocation. Every therapist, therefore, is entitled to bask in it and to enjoy it to the utmost—for about five or seven minutes. After that, if he wants the patient to get well, he should put it on the shelf with his other trophies and his diplomas and forget it permanently. Dr. Q may be a very good therapist, and he may have the diplomas and the reputation and the patients to confirm it. He may think that is the reason the patients come to him, or the patient may tell him so. He should be sobered, however, by the thought of all the patients who do not choose him. According to the available statistics, forty-two percent of troubled people go first to their clergyman, and not to a psychiatrist, and nearly all the rest go to their family doctors. And only about one patient out of five disturbed people do not choose psychiatry as their treatment, even though in almost all cases it is available at the state hospital, if nowhere else. In addition, a very large percentage of patients who have a choice deliberately choose the second-best therapist rather than the best, and a quite large percentage choose the worst. #RandolphHarris 7 of 30
The same thing happens in other branches of medicine. It is also well known that many people spend more money destroying themselves with liquor, drugs, and gambling than they would on the psychotherapy that might save them. Given a free choice, the patient will choose a therapist according to the needs of his script. In some places, he has no choice but must go to the local witch doctor, shaman, warlock, sorcerer, or angakok. In other places, he has a choice between a traditional doctor and a modern one, and will choose the magic of tradition or the magic of science according to local custom and political pressure. In China and India, traditional and modern approaches are often combined, as in the mental hospitals in Madras where Ayur-Vedic medicine and Yoga exercises were used in conjunction with modern treatments for psychoses. In many cases, his choice is forced by financial considerations. In America, most patients do not have a free choice of therapists, but are referred or assigned by various “authorities” to one type or another: psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, psychiatric nurses, counselors, and even sociologists. A patient in a clinic, social agency, mental hospital, or government hospital may be assigned to any of these professions. A schoolboy is sent to the school counselor, and a person on probation is sent to a probation officer who may have no therapeutic training at all. If the patient has no prior knowledge or fantasies about psychotherapy and he likes his first therapist, he will often favor that therapist’s profession if he seeks treatment elsewhere. #RandolphHarris 8 of 30
It is in private practice where free choice does exist that the “scripty” selections begin to emerge, particularly in the choice between psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and psychiatric social workers, and between the competent and the incompetent members of these professions. Christian Scientists, for example, if they do go to a medical therapist, often choose a less competent one, since their scripts prohibit them from being cured by a medical person. There are also subdivisions and schools in these professions to choose from. Among psychiatrists, for example, there are types colloquially called “shock treaters,” “drug-givers,” “shrinks,” and hypnotists, and if the patient makes his own choice among these, as he often does, he will choose the one that suits his script. If he is referred by the family doctor, the doctor may well choose the one that fits in with his own script. This is most clearly seen when the patient seeks or is referred to a hypnotist. If he calls a psychiatrist to request hypnosis and that psychiatrist does not use hypnosis, the ensuing conversation becomes very scripty as the patient insists that he must be put to sleep before he can get better. Some people automatically (id est, by script directive) go to the Mayo Clinic and others to the Menninger Clinic. Similarly, in choosing a psychoanalyst, some, for script reasons, select the most orthodox one possible, others prefer more flexibility, and still others go to “analysts” belonging to splinter schools. #RandolphHarris 9 of 30
Sometimes the age of gender of the therapist is important for scripty reasons, such as a need to seduce or a fear of seduction. Rebels often go to rebellious therapists. People with failure scripts pick the worst possible therapists, such as chiropractors or outright quacks. The only relics of Dr. Darwinian natural selection left in America, where everyone is “take care of,” are chiropractors, because the more widely they are allowed to practice, the more quickly will unfit members of humanity be eliminated by their treatment. There are clear indicators that three factors are determined by the patient’s script directives. Whether he seeks help at all, or just lets things run their course; the choice of the therapist, where there is a choice; whether the therapy is destined to be successful. Thus, a person with a loser’s script will either not go to a therapist, or may choose an incompetent one. In the latter case, when the treatment fails, he not only remains a loser, as his script calls for, but also has various other satisfactions from his misadventure; for example, he can blame the therapist, or obtain a Hemostatic satisfaction from being the “worst” patient, or boast that he had ten years of therapy with Dr. X at a cost of Y thousands of dollars with no benefit. Yet, if the major part is gold, we may still call it gold. If, in advising a friend, the major motivation is a friendly intention of constructive help, we may well be satisfied. Not so the person in the clutches of faultfinding. This is deceptive just because there are grains of truth in such reasoning. #RandolphHarris 10 of 30
It is hard to shake the neurotic loose from his self-hate. His error in judging the entirety of a situation is clearly shown. He may see that he overfocuses on certain aspects and ignores others. Nevertheless, he sticks to his verdict. The reason is that his logic operates on different premises from those of a healthy person. Since the advice he gave was not the absolute of helpfulness, the whole action was morally objectionable, and so he starts to beat himself down and refuses to let himself be dissuaded from his self-accusations. These observations refute the assumption sometimes made by the psychiatrists that self-blame is merely a clever device to elicit reassurance or to escape blame and punishment. That, of course, does occur. On the part of children, or of grownups, toward intimidating authorities, it may be nothing but a strategy. Even so, we must be careful with our judgment and should examine the need for so much reassurance. To generalize about these instances and to regard self-accusations as such as serving only strategic ends means a total failure to appreciate their destructive power. Self-accusations, furthermore, may focus on adversities that are outside the individual’s control. These are most conspicuous in psychotics, who may accuse themselves, for instance, of a murder they read about, of responsibility for a flood in the Middle West six hundred miles away. Seemingly absurd self-accusations often are the outstanding symptoms in melancholic conditions. However, the self-accusation in neurosis, while less grotesque, may be no less unrealistic. #RandolphHarris 11 of 30
Why do people manipulate? Many do so because they are beset by fear, fear of others, and fear of expressing the truth of their feelings and desires. They are afraid that if others know the truth of their feelings and desires, they will be at the mercy of others. However, manipulators are often selective about what they fear. Some who fear anger avoid conflict and confrontation with others. Others who fear love avoid closeness with others. And some fear being weak, while others fear being strong. It is the denial of what we fear that defines our manipulative style or pattern. If you are afraid of love, you may be avoiding it with phony expressions of anger. You are predominantly aggressive in your dealings with others and play the role of the blamer and attacker. In doing so, you avoid closeness with others, but you also lose touch with your authentic anger. If you are afraid of anger, you may be avoiding it with phony expressions of love. You play the role of pleaser and placater in the belief that you can get what you want from others without confrontation and conflict. This allows you to avoid feeling and expressing genuine anger, but you also lose touch with your authentic love. If you are afraid of being weak, you may avoid any hint that you are “just a human being” with phony expressions of superiority. You play the role of controller and dictator. By refusing to allow others to be strong, you enhance only the appearance of your own strength. You thereby lose both the power of genuine strength and the opportunities for closeness with others that authentic vulnerability (weakness) brings. #RandolphHarris 12 of 30
If you are afraid of being too strong, you avoid responsibility with phony expressions of incompetence, weakness, and humility. You play the role of avoider and withdrawer, avoiding opportunities to display adequacy and withdrawing from participation with others. You fear that someone might expect more from you than you are willing to give. In doing so, you never have to perform (be strong). You are also seldom able to achieve, and you often overlook your genuine feelings of weakness. Examples of manipulation: Fear and Denial of Lead to Phony Expressions of Lead to Phony Expressions of: Genuine Love….Blaming and Attacking. Genuine Anger….Pleasing and Placating. Genuine Weakness….Controlling and Dictating. Genuine Strength….Withdrawing and Avoiding. Since manipulation is learned by experience in actual encounter with the world, it is important to overcome manipulation by similar methods. The methods cannot be simply intellectual, but must be experiential as well. Self-affirmation. A healthy conscience is not experienced as an “alien power” within the total personality structure, a power compulsively obeyed out of dread. Rather, it is composed of a set of ideals and taboos, each of which has been examined by the person and affirmed so that it became a true part of the real self. A self-affirmed conscience is one to which the person conforms because he or she wants to, not through fear of disobeying. Another way of saying this is to assert that the person feels he or she owns the conscience. The individual has had a voice in determining the rules by which he or she will live, like the citizen in a democracy who does not mind conforming with the rules that the person has helped formulate. #RandolphHarris 13 of 30
A healthy conscience is based upon general values and ideals that remain fixed throughout life or that change only with difficulty. However, the specific behavior that these values call for is not rigidly defined. The person can challenge these self-demands when they are no longer relevant to his or her present life circumstances. For example, a student may have been trained to believe that premarital pleasures of the flesh relationships are evil and destructive of love. In his college career, he may live with a girl and enjoy intimacies involving pleasures of the flesh within the context of a loving relationship. He discovers that no harm befalls the young lady or himself. He may change one of the taboos that is at the root of his conscience. Another student who once believed that premarital pleasures of the flesh were permissible may change and accept a taboo against the practice. If the conscience is not authoritarian, this openness to change is most possible. Persons with a healthy conscience are living among other people, and so they will be obliged to share at least some of the other people’s ideals and taboos. This is not to say that their conscience must be congruent with social mores. These persons may find their values more ethical than the prevailing mores, and so they will follow their conscience rather than the moral expectations of their peers. It may be necessary for persons with a healthy conscience to resist the efforts of others to make them conform to their moral precepts. They may even have to leave home because of moral-ethical differences and seek a group more congenial to their outlooks. #RandolphHarris 14 of 30
It is not implied that a healthy conscience will be highly lenient, permitting any antisocial behavior. Indeed, it may be difficult to conform to the precepts of a healthy conscience. Dr. Fromm has stated that the voice of a humanistic conscience may be only dimly heard because it is readily masked by the authoritarian elements of the conscience. As Dr. Fromm puts it, conscience “is the voice of our true ‘selves’ which summons us back to ourselves, to live productively, to develop fully and harmoniously—that is, to become what we potentially are.” He points out further that guilt arising from violation of a healthy conscience may be difficult to identify; we might feel guilt arising from our authoritarian conscience when we ignore its demands to pursue the requirements of a healthy conscience. There have been several theories to explain why humans exhibit altruistic behavior. These include: evolutionary perspectives involving kin selection and reciprocal altruism; social exchange theory; and the empathy-altruism hypothesis. In Dr. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, he postulated that traits that aided humans to survive and reproduce were more likely to be passed on from one generation to the next. It would appear at first glance that genes promoting selfish behavior would likely be passed on. One way that evolutionary psychologists attempt to explain how a trait such as altruism could be passed on through kin selection. #RandolphHarris 15 of 30
Kin selection is the idea that behaviors that help a blood relative would be favored by natural selection. Not only can one pass on their genes by having children, but also by ensuring that their relatives have children. Evolutionary theorists also use the norm of natural selection to help explain altruism. This is the expectation that helping others will increase the likelihood that they will help us in the future. It is posited that groups that learned to cooperate were more likely to survive than selfish and isolated individuals. The emotion of gratitude may have evolved to facilitate reciprocity. That is, if someone is helped, they feel grateful, which motivates them to return the favor in the future. For the people of the award-winning Sacramento Fire Department, helping others is rewarding. It is an investment in the future, not unlike reciprocal altruism. It can feel distressing just to observe someone in pain. Helping that person can then relieve our own discomfort. This, in turn, can help us gain social rewards like approval from others and greater feelings of self-worth. From this perspective, altruistic acts only occur when the perceived gains of helping outweigh the perceived risks. One morning, at nearly 1 o’clock, a saloon was discovered to be on fire. By the time the fire department arrived, the entire structure was ablaze. The nearest building on the east, a carpenter shop, was quickly set ablaze as well from the intense heat and flames. A small dwelling house was also set ablaze. #RandolphHarris 16 of 30
The winds then changed to a westerly direction, spreading flames to another home. Another carpentry shop was thought to be next to succumb to the heat, but the Sacramento Fire Department managed to save the building through hard work. It must have been an incredible feat, for the building was only two feet from the previous home that had just caught fire. The losses on all the buildings added up to between $4 million and $6 million. The newspaper stated that “the fire department did as good a job as could be expected under the circumstances.” New firefighters are trained to take orders from their first day at the academy. They learn to trust their officer’s judgment and follow his or her lead the first time they enter a burning building. Providing them with the latest protective gear on their back and having an officer with years of experience escorting them, the sense of security the Sacramento Fire Department gives trainees far outweighs their worries of self-preservation. They are taught that what they had previously perceived as fear is both normal and exciting, and they cannot wait to impress their peers and instructors. The Sacramento Fire Department pushes firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics through dangerous scenarios repeatedly, and they emerge unscathed each time. As they gain more experience, their armor grows thicker and their confidence builds through recognition-primed decision making. Sure, the Sacramento Fire Department teaches them building construction and lightweight trusses and the dangers of collapse in the classroom, but then it is back to the burn building where they are victorious again, and nothing falls down. Eventually, they become firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics. During their career, they learn to pick up on the visual clues that allow them to make decisions for themselves. #RandolphHarris 17 of 30
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 18 of 30
California is the third most expensive state in the nation. 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. In 37 percent of counties, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom of Democratic controlled California, brags about being the world’s “fifth largest economy,” but it also facing a $12 billion deficit, looking to cut $747 million for state worker’s pay, pushing to keep medical insurance for illegal immigrants, but wants to cut medical for anyone who has assets over $2,000 and the state has the largest homeless population in the nation. 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. 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. 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. This is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. #RandolphHarris 19 of 30
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 will housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. 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 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 boarder 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 risks 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 20 of 30
Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure are the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalination plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. As we see gangs fighting with federal law enforcement, states and cities refusing to honor federal laws, and politicians showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, anarchy is becoming increasingly common. 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 is merely the product of property and authority. #RandolphHarris 21 of 30
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 22 of 30
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. 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 at Cresleigh Homes 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 or $88,724.00, and that typically means two to four people in the home are working and contributing to the mortgage. #RandolphHarris 23 of 30
Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area. 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. The State of California has a budget deficit of $12 billion because Governor Gavin Newsom 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. Additionally, Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics and is proposing to fast-track his plan to build a $20 billion water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which would eliminate environmental reviews and limit avenues for legal challenges. Gavin Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of poop, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century. #RandolphHarris 24 of 30
However, Mexico’s pollution of California has become a severe public health crisis as the population of Tijuana has drastically increased in recent years, and the waste treatment plants are no longer usable. Some of the beaches in San Diego have been closed for more than three years, and evidence suggests that even breathing the air may be harmful, as toxic particles in the water can become airborne. Yet, even though Gavin Newsom has been governor for six years, he has not rushed into action to stop this very preventable environmental disaster. Why? Because he is not getting kickbacks from China and Mexico, not being gifted mansions and cars, and he cannot tax the struggling California taxpayers to clean up this mess. Simply, it is not profitable for him. Gavin Newsom has been a total tyrant with no regard for taxpayers and no mind for business, and he should be impeached as soon as possible. He has criminalized poverty, increased taxes, increased taxes on gas, and insurance rates so high that people are struggling to survive. In addition to Gavin Newsom’s increased gas prices starting on 1 July 2025, the war between Iran and Israel is going to further exacerbate the prices of gas and cause more inflation and economic hardship for people in California. While everyone is making war over America and who belongs here and who she belongs to, so many people forget about the people who are Indigenous to this land. Open borders have allowed hundreds of thousands of cartel operatives to infiltrate reservations across the United States of America and use the isolated lands as havens to traffic fentanyl pills and other drugs into the country without protection from federal authorities. #RandolphHarris 25 of 30
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 26 of 30
If Gavin Newsom is not stopped, next he will euthanize the poor and sterilize the disabled. Under Governor Gavin Newsom, California has the highest car theft rate in the United States of America. Violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people have overtaken cities. Wars and fires are breaking out on the streets. This monster is unfit to be governor and must never be allowed to be President of America! Stop Gavin Newsom now! Save California and impeach this unreasonable man. Meanwhile, with President Trump, we are seeing crime rates sharply decrease. He is restoring law and order, starting in Washington D.C., and he just signed the “HALT Fentanyl Act” into law, which permanently classifies the narcotic as a “Schedule I drug” under the “Controlled Substances Act.” Also, President Trump recently secured $10 trillion in investments for the United States of America. Additionally, in May of 2025, the United States of America collected a record $100 billion in tariff revenue, and that number will increase to $300 billion by the end of 2025. Also, President Trump has just sealed a $550 billion deal with Japan. This means Japan will invest $550 billion in the United States of America. Furthermore, President Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for making Iran and Israel cease fire. As you can see, President Trump is creating solutions and remediating problems to protect America and the American people, while Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is making life hard on American citizens and causing economic hardship, and totally ignoring Mexico’s polluting beaches in San Diego. If elected president for an unprecedented third term, to make housing more affordable and to offset the cost of homeowners’ insurance and auto insurance, President Trump plans to abolish property taxes. #RandolphHarris 27 of 30
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 28 of 30
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. 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 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. #RandolphHarris 29 of 30
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. 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 fulness 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. 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 30 of 30
On Friday, September 5th, we invite you to join us in honoring Sarah Winchester on the 103rd anniversary of her passing.
The gardens will be open with free admission that day, and guests are welcome to enter the Front Parlor to offer their respects to Sarah. The bell will ring at the 13th hour (1:00 PM) in remembrance of her life. We hope you will take this opportunity to honor the life and legacy of the woman behind the mansion. 🌹 🖤https://winchestermysteryhouse.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/
Ah, yes. The BMW 3 Series. Happy 50th birthday to the most iconic BMW ever! It is really hard to decide on a BMW model. However, the 3 series is a favorite of everyone. All the upper-class suburban families had one in the 1980s and 1990s; everyone from teenagers and housewives to executives and diplomats. Now that they are larger in size, but still sporty and luxurious, the audience has grown tremendously. These are very stylish and reliable cars, which is why BMW continues to dominate the luxury car space.
With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW 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
Magnolia Station at Cresleigh Ranch
Rancho Cordova, CA | 4 Bedrooms – 3.5 Bathrooms – 3,377 sq. ft. – $796,485.
Homes built by Cresleigh Homes are made to last. Throughout each community you will find thoughtful design crafted with YOU in mind. We offer homes for any lifestyle and stand by our construction quality – it’s why we’ve been in the business for over 30 years.
Welcome to 770 Havenwood, where Residence Four, the largest floor plan offered in the community offers an impressive 3,377 square feet of thoughtfully designed living space. This expansive two-story home features four bedrooms, including a private suite on the first floor, three and one-half bathrooms, and a true three car garage to meet the needs of growing families or multigenerational living.
Inside, you’ll find four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and a generous three-car garage. A versatile den provides the flexibility to be used as a private study or converted into an optional fifth bedroom. The thoughtfully designed kitchen and dining area create a seamless flow, making entertaining effortless.
A covered porch welcomes you into a warm and inviting entry, where the dining room is thoughtfully placed just off the foyer. The gourmet kitchen connects seamlessly to the dining area through a convenient butler’s pantry, providing both elegance and additional storage.
Upstairs, the spacious loft and generous great room offer flexibility for entertainment, relaxation, or work from home needs, easily adapting to your lifestyle. With no HOA fees, complimentary solar, and up to $41,000 in Flex Cash to be used toward closing costs or interior upgrades on select homes, this residence presents a rare opportunity for exceptional value.
Every Cresleigh home includes the All Ready Connected smart home package, designed to simplify and enhance your daily life. Enjoy integrated features such as a video doorbell, digital deadbolt, smart switches, USB outlets, and a connected home hub that allows you to create personalized scenes and routines. As a bonus, your home also comes with a Google Home Hub and Google Home Mini to help you stay connected and in control. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/move-in-ready-homesite-5/
The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of Cresleigh Homes. There is a magic in that little world, of my Cresleigh Home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits.
Discover a home built with your future in mind. Schedule your private tour today.
Heavenly Father, please guide our steps as a nation. With grace and great discernment, lead us in the direction that aligns with Your will. Grant America the strength to overcome challenges and persevere in our endeavors. Lord, let Your favor be upon us. Open doors of opportunity and bless the work of our hands. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Happy 250 Years, America.
Disenchantment of the World
Migrants to America are certainly relevant for the money market, but that does not make them economic enterprises. The import of religious or political ideas for economic institutions does not thereby transform these ideas into economic factors: the question concerns their “economic relevance.” A struggle for the means of political rule is taking place in America between Democrats and Republicans, each attempting to appropriate the financial and military means that in feudal society were relatively dispersed. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is trying to usurp power from President Trump. However, national units are historical ultimates that can be integrated into more comprehensive and harmonious wholes. If Democrats take power, at best, there will be strong socialist nation-states energetically exploiting weaker states. The nation and national interests are controlled by the President, and at the same time, this constitutes America’s ultimate value. For Democrats, capitalism is irrational; this irrationality of capitalism results from a contradiction between the rational technological advances of the productive forces and the fetters of private property, private profit, and unmanaged market competition. For Republicans, on the other hand, modern capitalism is not “irrational”; indeed, its institutions appear to them to be the very embodiment of rationality. As a type of bureaucracy, the large corporations are rivaled only by the state bureaucracy in promoting rational efficiency, continuity of operation, speed, precision, and calculation of results. And all this goes on within institutions that are rationally managed, and in which combined and specialized functions occupy the center of attention. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31
The whole structure is dynamic, and by its anonymity compels modern man to become a specialized expert, a “professional” man qualified for the accomplishment of a special career within pre-scheduled channels. Man is thus prepared for his absorption in the clattering process of the bureaucratic machinery. For Republicans, there is nothing attractive in socialism, and it is not even a possibility. In their eyes, socialism would merely reincorporate into the economic order an institution that was abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and became the 13th Amendment to the United States of America’s Constitution in 1865. While Republicans do not deny that there is a class struggle in America, they do not see it as the central dynamic of this nation. Further, socialization of the means of production would merely subject autonomous economic life to the bureaucratic management of the state. The state would indeed become total, and would be a shackle upon the liberal individual, and socialism would thus lead to a further serfdom. The achievements of bourgeois capitalism are wiping out archaic survivals, the idiocy of rule life, and various spooks of the mind. Republicans deplore Democrats and see them as a routine creature, lacking in heroism, human spontaneity, and inventiveness: “The Puritan willed to be the vocational man that we have to be.” The principle of rationalization is the most general element in the Republicans’ philosophy of history. The urge towards such a comprehensive and meaningful interpretation of the universe is ascribed to groups of intellectuals, religious prophets and teachers, self-actualized Christians and philosophers, jurists, experimental artists, and students. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31
“Rationalization,” socially and historically differentiated, thus comes to have a variety of meanings. In this sense, it is a masterful contribution to the sociology of knowledge. Man is in a period of enlightenment. His philosophy has construed man’s history as a unilinear progress towards moral perfection or cumulative technological rationalization. In this, there is a more concise notation and establishment of the well-tempered scale; harmonious tonal music and the standardization of the quartet of woodwinds and string instruments are the core of the symphony orchestra. These are seen as progressive rationalizations. This process of rationalization is punctured, however, by certain discontinuities of history. Hardened institutional fabrics may thus disintegrate, and routine forms of life prove insufficient for mastering a growing state of tension, stress, or suffering. This is where we need to introduce a balancing conception for bureaucracy: the concept of charisma. Charisma, meaning literally “gift of grace.” We need leaders who are followed by those who are in distress and who need to follow the leader because they believe him to be extraordinarily qualified. The founders of world religions and the prophets, as well as military and political heroes, are the archetypes of the charismatic leader. Miracles and revelations, heroic feats of valor, and baffling success are characteristic marks of their stature. Failure is their ruin. Although social dynamics result from many social forces, we nevertheless place great emphasis on the rise of charismatic leaders in the Republican Party. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31
Republican movements are enthusiastic, and in such extraordinary enthusiasms, class and status barriers sometimes give way to fraternization and exuberant community sentiments. Charismatic heroes and prophets are thus viewed as truly revolutionary forces in history. Bureaucracy and other institutions, especially those of the household, are seen as routines of workaday life; charisma is welcomed in all institutional routines, those of tradition and those subject to rational management. This holds for the economic order. Stefan George, as well as Jeremiah, Napoleon, as well as Jesus Christ, a raving berserk warrior of Arabia, as well as the founder of Mormonism—all these are typified as charismatic leaders, for they have in common the fact that people obey them because of faith in their personally extraordinary qualities. A genuinely charismatic situation is direct and interpersonal. In contrast to the everyday life of institutions, with the personalized and spontaneous nature of charismatic leadership, one may readily discern the spiritual gifts as an exercise from God. Many Christians believe these gifts are signs of miracles and continue to call them “charismatic.” Early Latter-day Saints, believing in the Book of Mormon message that the “day of miracles” had not ceased, were charismatic: they sought for and expressed the gifts of the Spirit in a variety of ways. However, the Saints soon learned that not all charismatic displays came from God. The Lord also clarified that those ordained to “watch over the Church” would have the gift to discern whether the exercise of certain gifts was from God. Church leaders continued to counsel with each other and the Saints about the purpose and proper use of spiritual gifts. #RandolphHarris 4 of 31
The charismatic leader is in continuity with the concept of “genius” as it was applied since the Renaissance to artistic and intellectual leaders. This applies not only to men of ideas but ideal men. There arise from time to time men who bear to the moral condition of their age much the same relations as men of genius bear to its intellectual condition. They anticipate the moral standard of a later age, cast abroad conceptions of disinterested virtue, of philanthropy, or of self-denial that seem to have no relation to the spirit of their time, inculcate duties, and suggest motives of action that appear to most men altogether chimerical. Yet the magnetism of their perfections tells powerfully upon their contemporaries. An enthusiasm is kindled, a group of adherents is formed, and many are emancipated from the moral condition of their age. Yet the full effects of such a movement are but transient. The first enthusiasm dies away, surrounding circumstances with conceptions that are alien to its nature, dislocated, and distorted, till its first features have almost disappeared. The moral teaching, being unsuited to the time, becomes inoperative until its appropriate civilization has dawned, or at most it faintly and imperfectly filters through an accumulation of strict and rigid doctrines, and thus accelerates in some measure the arrival of the condition it requires. We are interested in the genius as an extraordinary man who transcends the bounds of everyday routines; and in this, we mean the routinization of charisma. #RandolphHarris 5 of 31
The history of cultures, civilizations, and technologies is the history of such consolidations, while it is only in periods of marked transition that the innovators appear: those too privileged in outlook to remain bound to the prevailing system; too honest or too conflicted not to see the simple truths of existence hidden behind the complexity of daily “necessities”; and too full of pity to overlook “the poor” who have been left out. As therapists and ideologists, we understand the uppermost and the lowest fringe better because of our therapeutic ideology. Thus, we often take for granted the vast middle which, for reasons of its own, maintains us. Yet, insofar as we aspire to contribute to “normal psychology,” we must learn to understand cultural and technological consolidation, for it, ever again, inhabits the earth. And always with it comes a new definition of adulthood, without which any question of identity is a self-indulgent luxury. The problem of adulthood is how to take care of those to whom one finds oneself committed as one emerges from the identity period, and to whom one now owes their identity. Another question is what the “typical” adult of any era’s consolidation is able and willing to renounce for himself and demand of others, for the sake of a style of cultural balance and, perhaps, perfection. Judging from the way of Sokrates, the philosopher, in his Apologia, exposed the fabric of Athenian consolidation, it was probably not only for himself that, at the very end, he pronounced death to be the only cure for the condition of living. #RandolphHarris 6 of 31
Dr. Freud revealed for the mercantile and early industrial period what havoc the hypocritical morality was wreaking, not only in his era, but in all human history. In doing so, he founded what Philipp Rieff has described as the therapeutic orientation, which goes far beyond the clinical cure of isolated symptoms. However, we cannot know what technological conformity does to man unless we know what it does for him. The ubiquitous increase in mere number, of course, at first transforms many erstwhile problems of quality into matters of mere quantitative management. If the majority of young people, therefore, can go along with their parents in a kind of fraternal identification, it is because they jointly leave it to technology and science to carry the burden of providing a self-perpetuating and self-accelerating way of life. This would make it plausible that the young are even expected to develop new values-as-you-go. However, the fact is that the values associated with indefinite progress, just because it strains orientation as well as imagination, are often tied to unbelievably old-fashioned ideas. Thus, technological expansion can be seen as the due reward of generations of hard-working Americans. No need is felt to limit expansionist ideals, as long as—together with technical discipline—old-fashioned decencies and existing political machineries survive, with all their hometown oratory. #RandolphHarris 7 of 31
There is always hope (a hope which has become an important part of an implicit American ideology) regarding any possible built-in evil in the very nature of supermachines, appropriate brakes and corrections will be invented in the nick of time, without any undue investment of strenuous new principles. And while they “work,” the supermachines organization, and associations provide a sufficiently “great,” or at any rate adjustable, identity for all those who feel actively engaged in and by them. Thus, also, that major part of the youth which sees no reason to oppose the United States of America’s global war on terrorism, which started in 2001, is animated by a combination of world-war patriotism, anticommunism, obedience to the draft and military discipline, and finally by the unshakable solidarity, the highest feeling among men, which comes from having renounced the same pleasures, facing the same dangers, and having to obey the same obnoxious orders. However, there is a new element in all this which comes from the technological ideology and makes a soldier an expert whose armament is mechanized and whose fidelity is an almost impersonal technical compliance with a policy or strategy which puts a certain target into the range of one of the admirable weapons at hand. No doubt certain “character structures” fit such a world view better than others, and yet, overall, each generation is prepared to participate in several consolidated attitudes in one lifetime. #RandolphHarris 8 of 31
However, a new ethics catches up with progress; one senses the danger that the danger that limits of technological expansion and national assertion may not be determined by known facts and ethical considerations or, in short, by a certainty of identity, but by a willful and playful testing of the range and the limit of the supermachinery which thus takes over much of man’s conscience. This could become affluent slavery for all involved, and this seems to be what the new “humanist” youth is trying to stop by putting its existence “on the line” and insisting on a modicum of a self-sustaining quality of life. However, the men of 1905, tortured by contradictions, really did give birth, by their very negation and death, to a value that will henceforth be imperative, which they brought to light in the belief that they were only announcing its advent. They ostensibly placed, above themselves and their executioners, that supreme and painful good which we have already found at the origins of rebellion. “How can we speak of terrorist activity without taking part in it?” exclaims the student Kaliayev. His companions, united ever since 1903, in the Organization for Combat of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, under the direction of Aze and later of Boris Savinkov, all live up to the standard of this admirable statement. They are men of the highest principles: the last in the history of rebellion, to refuse no part of their drama. If their loves were dedicated to the terror, “if they had faith in it,” as Pokotilov says, they never ceased to be torn asunder by it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 31
History offers few examples of fanatics who have suffered from scruples, even in action. However, the men of 1905 were always prey to doubts. The greatest homage we can pay them is to say that we would not be able, in 2026, to ask them one question that they had not already asked and that, in their life or by their death, they had not partially answered. They quickly passed into the realms of history, however. When Kaliayev, for example, in 1903, decided to take part with Savinkov in terrorist activity, he was twenty-six years old. Two years later, the “Poet,” as he was called, was hanged. It was a short career. However, to anyone who examines with a little feeling the history of that period, Kaliayev, in his breathtaking career, displays the most significant aspect of terrorism. Sazonov, Schweitzer, Pokptilov, Voinarosvsky, and most of the other anarchists likewise burst upon the scene of Russian history and poised there for a moment, dedicated to destruction, as the swift and unforgettable witness to an increasingly agonized protest. Almost all are atheists. “I remember,” wrote Boris Voinarovsky, who died in throwing a bomb at Admiral Dubassov, “that even before going to high school I preached atheism to one of my childhood friends. Only one question embarrassed me. Where did my ideas come from? For I had not the least conception of eternity.” Kaliayev himself believed in God. A few moments before an attempted assassination, which failed, Savinkov saw him in the street, standing in front of an ikon, holding the bomb in one hand, and making the sign of the cross with the other. However, he repudiated religion. In his cell, before his execution, he refused its consolations. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31
The need for secrecy compelled them to live in solitude. They did not know, except perhaps in the abstract, the profound joy experienced by the man of action in contact with a large section of humanity. However, the bond that untied them replaced every other attachment in their minds. “Chivalry!” writes Sazonov, and comments on it thus: “Our chivalry was permeated with such a degree of feeling that the word brother in one way conveyed with sufficient clarity the essence of our relations with one another.” From prison, Sazonov writes to his friends: “For my part, the indispensable condition of happiness is to keep forever the knowledge of my perfect solidarity with you.” As for Voinarovsky, he confesses that to a woman he loved who wished to detain him, he made the following remark, which he recognized as “slightly comic” but which, according to him, proves his state of mind: “I should curse you if I arrived late for my comrades.” This little group of men and women, lost among the Russian masses, bound only to one another, chose the role of executioner, to which they were in no way destined. They lived in the same paradox, combining in themselves respect for human life in general and contempt for their own lives—to the point of nostalgia for the supreme sacrifice. For Dora Brilliant, the anarchist program was of no importance; terrorist action was primarily embellished by the sacrifice it demanded from the terrorist. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31
“But,” says Savinkov, “terror weighed on her like a cross.” Kaliayev himself is ready to sacrifice his life at any moment. “Even better than that, he passionately desired to make this sacrifice.” During the preparations for the attempts on Plehve, he started his intention of throwing himself under the horses’ hoofs and perishing with the Minister. With Voinarovsky also the desire for sacrifice coincides with the attraction of death. After his arrest, he writes to his parents: “How many times during my adolescence the idea came to me to kill myself!” At the same time, these executioners who risked their own lives so completely, made attempts on the lives of others only after the most scrupulous examination of conscience. The first attempt on the Grand Duke Sergei failed because Kaliayev, with the full approval of his comrades, refused to kill the children who were riding in the Grand Duke’s carriage. Of Rachel Louriee, another terrorist, Savinkov writes: “She had faith in terrorist action, she considered it an honor and a duty to take part in it, but blood upset her no less than it did Dora.” The same Savinkov was opposed to an attempt on Admiral Dubassov in the Peter-Moscow express because “if there were the least mistake, the explosion could take place in the car and kill strangers.” Later Savinkov, “in the name of terrorist conscience,” will deny with indignation having made a child of sixteen take part in an attempted assassination. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31
At the moment of escaping from a Czarist prison, he decides to shoot any officers who might attempt to prevent his flight, but to kill himself rather than turn his revolver on an ordinary soldier. It is the same with Voinarovksy, who does not hesitate to kill men, but who confesses that he has never hunted, “finding the occupation barbarous,” and who declares in his turn: “If Dubassov is accompanied by his wife, I shall not throw the bomb.” Such a degree of self-abnegation, accompanied by such profound consideration for the lives of others, allows the supposition that these fastidious assassins lived out the rebel destiny in its most contradictory form. It is possible to believe that they, too, while recognizing the inevitability of violence, nevertheless, admitted to themselves that it is unjustifiable. Necessary and inexcusable—that is how murder appeared to them. Mediocre minds, confronted with this terrible problem, can take refuge by ignoring one of the terms of the dilemma. They are content, in the name of formal principles, to find all direct violence inexcusable and then to sanction that diffuse form of violence which takes place on the scale of world history. Or they will console themselves, in the name of history, with the thought that violence is necessary, and will add murder to murder, to the point of making of history nothing but a continuous violation of everything in man which protests injustice. This defines the two aspects of contemporary nihilism: the bourgeois and the revolutionary. However, the extremists, with whom we are concerned, forgot nothing. From their earliest days, they were incapable of justifying what they nevertheless found necessary, and conceived the idea of offering themselves as a justification and of replying by personal sacrifice to the question they asked themselves. For them, as for all rebels before them, murder is identified with suicide. A life is paid for by another life, and from these two sacrifices springs the promise of value. #RandolphHarris 13 of 31
Kaliayev, Voinarovsky, and the others believed in the equal value of human lives. Therefore, they do not value any idea above human life, though they kill for the sake of ideas. They live on the plane of their idea. They justify it, finally, by incarnating it to the point of death. We are again confronted with a concept of rebellion which, if not religious, is at least metaphysical. Other men to come, consumed with the same devouring faith as these, will find their methods sentimental and refuse to admit that any one life is the equivalent of any other. Even if they call it history, they will then put an abstract idea above human life, to which they have submitted in advance, and to which they will also decide, quite arbitrarily, to submit everyone else. The problem of rebellion will no longer be resolved by arithmetic, but by estimating probabilities. Confronted with the possibility that the idea may be realized in the future, human life can be everything or nothing. The greater the faith that the estimator places in this final realization, the less the value of human life. At the ultimate limit, it is no longer worth anything at all. Strength and weakness are extreme opposites—or so they seem. Yet, life experience demonstrates the paradoxical nature of the polarity that in weakness is strength and in strength is weakness. This polarity is like two sides of the same coin: Slice a coin in half, and each slice still has both sides. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31
Controlling and dictating manipulators, however, denying this reality, futilely try to divide and conquer their weakness, destroying in the process their genuine strength. Genuine strength, on one side, is to endure, to persevere, and to survive. Its qualities are adequacy, self-esteem, and self-reliance. On the other side, a genuine weakness is to be vulnerable, to be open-minded, and to be interdependent. Its qualities are trust, honesty, and cooperation. Inordinately fearful of helplessness, hurt, and humiliation, manipulators try to recreate themselves into invulnerable fortresses, totally self-contained. Never certain of their success, however, they try to disarm others, negating the power in everyone else. Not trusting others, they cannot acknowledge or tolerate strength in anyone but themselves. Self-accusations are taken as being a bluff or a fraud. They are not always directly thrust at self for some concrete matter. More often, a neurotic person feels a resulting vague uneasiness on his score—doubts which are not attached to anything and are dormant at times, and at others consciously tormenting. Sometimes he becomes aware only of the fear with which he reacts to his self-accusation, the fear of being found out: if people knew him better, they would see that he was no good. At the next performance, his incompetence will show. People will realize that he merely managed to show off, with no solid knowledge behind his “front.” Again, what exactly might be “found out” at closer contact, or in any test situation, remains vague. This self-reproach too, however, is not plucked from thin air. It refers to the total of existing unconscious pretenses—pretenses of love, of fairness, of interest, of knowledge, of modesty. And the frequency of this self-accusation corresponds to the frequency of pretense in each neurosis. Its destructive nature shows that it is merely producing feelings of guilt and fear rather than contributing to a constructive search for existing unconscious pretenses. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31
In a sharp contrast, a healthy conscience can be reflected upon. The person can formulate its component taboos, ideals, and ethical precepts in words. This accessibility to consciousness is important for the resolution of moral conflicts. If a person is faced with a decision, it can be made along moral lines much more readily when the person’s ideals can be clearly stated. When I say that a healthy conscience is conscious, I do not mean the person is always thinking about his or her moral standards. Most of the time, the healthy conscience will be unconscious; the person will conform to the conscience automatically. However, when the person does not feel guilt, he or she will be able to determine what aspects of the conscience have been violated; and when some conflict must be resolved, the person will make the relevant moral aspects explicit, so that the decision will be made after due consideration of the moral issues at stake. The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be any philosophy without the advanced forms of prayer which have been called ultraspiritual. The Spirit is guided by the light of reason alone, and admirably, so far as it goes, but that is not far enough. This is because all the thinking in the world will, in the end, only yields a conclusion, which is another thought. However, there is such a thing as the “Metaphysics of Truth,” which is reasoning—disciplined, chastened, and checked by the highest possible mystic experience. A beginner may certainly aid his search for knowledge through wide reading and, possibly, through attendance at suitable lectures. #RandolphHarris 16 of 31
Some very fine works have been written by philosophers and prophets of all ages. These writings may bring into his life a little emotional inspiration, intellectual guidance, and the power of will to help his struggle through the years of long and unavoidable endeavour, and they can, to that extent, act the part of a teacher and guide. If put under the proper restricting limits—erudition, education, and even scholarship offer a useful contribution. At last, he can meet with an expression of truth that has a recognizable face. Each time we read such truths, it comes with liberating freshness and becomes a stimulant to aspirations. The degree of its power to help us is conditioned only by its writer’s ability to catch its heart and convey his perception. It is better to look twice at some assertions. Sometimes it is wiser to look beneath the words themselves and scrutinize the character of the writer himself. The final realization of truth is not found in any documents however sacred and however worthy of men’s highest regard they are held to be. Just as the man who stands on the summit of a Himalayan Mountain does not need the testimony of an altitude meter to tell him that he really has ascended to a loftier level than that of the plains, so the man who enters his spiritual being does not need reason’s proof, someone else’s say-so, or scripture’s test to tell him so. There are many who read through such writings only to fasten on those paragraphs which agree with their own belief. #RandolphHarris 17 of 31
Hero narratives test the circumstances under which societies are willing to tolerate, even condone, transgressions of accepted norms. For instance, heroic actions frequently involve violence (committing suffering or preventing violence). Since violence is not normally condoned as a form of social interaction, such violence needs to be legitimized by presenting an ethically defensible motivation for the use of violence, such as defending innocent persons. More than just presenting the hero as the center of attention, typical hero narratives also use various forms of intensification through suspense, communication of increased danger, or heightened antagonism. The classic hero moves from departure through initiation, trials, transformation, and return. The journey narrative often includes an adventure narrative which increases suspense: the incursion of contingency in ordinary life and the hero’s strategies in mastering such incursions in the borderlands of civilization, combining heroism with masculinity and frequently also devotion to the nation state. Throughout the history of the award-winning Sacramento Fire Department, tradition has been the backbone of their operations. The paramilitary style that they have learned as rookies has proven itself repeatedly at countless emergencies. They have become experts at it, and it has proven its worth. Like military operations, successful firefighting relies on quick decisions and a coordinated attack. This type of success is not possible through group discussions or team meetings: it is only effective with swift actions and multiple resources. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31
Additionally, the Sacramento Fire Department adds unparalleled protective equipment that can withstand the harsh environment of fire. Protecting of protecting the firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs from their surroundings, they work in harms way to accomplish their missions. As with the Titanic, the reason they are great is the very reason for their demise: “We are told to expect the iceberg, but not to fear or question it. We will work alongside the iceberg but feel that it cannot hurt us. The iceberg is simply no match for the engineering and knowledge that humans have developed, and we will be fine.” This “no fear” starts very early in their careers. Much like icebergs to ship, emergencies pose real hazards to responders. They are expected to reduce the risk as much as is feasible, but their task is to ultimately save lives and property and then stabilize an incident. Some incidents exceed the capabilities of first-arriving units, but safe actions build the foundation for effective actions and, ultimately, a positive incident outcome. “Shortly after midnight, a major blaze broke out in a building on Broadway. Mr. X was the night watchman of the building. As he was cleaning, he noticed the smoke and immediately sounded the alarm. The building was very quickly engulfed in flames. The structure was built in 1869 and was built of wood, about 100 feet by 50 feet. Fortunately, it was roofed with an iron roof, which inhibited sparks from showering the entire neighborhood. After the iron roof collapsed, all danger was considered past. The loss in the plant was confined to the main building thanks to hard work. #RandolphHarris 19 of 31
“Because of the southwesterly breeze, a house situated just north of the building caught flame. The home was destroyed. The furniture of the home was removed, but in such a battered and broken condition, it was mostly all a loss. The loss of the home was estimated at around $900,000.00, most of which was covered by insurance. The person who lived next door, his house also caught fire as well and required an evacuation of the premises. Firefighters explained that, ‘copious floods of water from fire hoses prevented the flying sparks from gaining a hold on the dry roof, and the owner is very thankful he got off with only a scorching.’ The fire department was quick to respond to the scene. When the engine arrived, the heat was so intense that bystanders stopped in their tracks. According to the fire chief, ‘it seemed for a few moments as if the bystanders would get well scorched, but the trembling audience were quickly evacuated. We also were beginning to get scorched by the intense heat.’ But the fire department was on hand and in a good time and though the building was beyond help when we arrived, it was generally conceded that we performed a good service in saving other buildings in the vicinity. The loss of the building was nearly two million dollars. There was no insurance on the building. The only part of it left standing was the brick chimney. Another great loss was the 25 sets of carpenter’s tools that would have to be replaced at nearly $5,000.00 per set. Nearly 40 men who worked there were thrown temporarily out of work.” Fire training continues to become safer but people often wonder, “How do you know if the porch is going to collapse on you? Is your lieutenant aware of what just happened? How do you address your concerns to him?” #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
California is the third most expensive state in the nation. 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. In 37 percent of counties, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom of Democratic controlled California, brags about being the world’s “fifth largest economy,” but it also facing a $12 billion deficit, looking to cut $747 million for state worker’s pay, pushing to keep medical insurance for illegal immigrants, but wants to cut medical for anyone who has assets over $2,000 and the state has the largest homeless population in the nation. 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. 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. 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. This is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. #RandolphHarris 22 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 will housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. 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 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 boarder 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 risks 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 23 of 31
Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure are the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalination plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. As we see gangs fighting with federal law enforcement, states and cities refusing to honor federal laws, and politicians showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, anarchy is becoming increasingly common. 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 is merely the product of property and authority. #RandolphHarris 24 of 31
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 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. 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 at Cresleigh Homes 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 or $88,724.00, and that typically means two to four people in the home are working and contributing to the mortgage. #RandolphHarris 26 of 31
Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area. 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. The State of California has a budget deficit of $12 billion because Governor Gavin Newsom 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. Additionally, Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics and is proposing to fast-track his plan to build a $20 billion water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which would eliminate environmental reviews and limit avenues for legal challenges. Gavin Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of poop, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century. #RandolphHarris 27 of 31
However, Mexico’s pollution of California has become a severe public health crisis as the population of Tijuana has drastically increased in recent years, and the waste treatment plants are no longer usable. Some of the beaches in San Diego have been closed for more than three years, and evidence suggests that even breathing the air may be harmful, as toxic particles in the water can become airborne. Yet, even though Gavin Newsom has been governor for six years, he has not rushed into action to stop this very preventable environmental disaster. Why? Because he is not getting kickbacks from China and Mexico, not being gifted mansions and cars, and he cannot tax the struggling California taxpayers to clean up this mess. Simply, it is not profitable for him. Gavin Newsom has been a total tyrant with no regard for taxpayers and no mind for business, and he should be impeached as soon as possible. He has criminalized poverty, increased taxes, increased taxes on gas, and insurance rates so high that people are struggling to survive. In addition to Gavin Newsom’s increased gas prices starting on 1 July 2025, the war between Iran and Israel is going to further exacerbate the prices of gas and cause more inflation and economic hardship for people in California. While everyone is making war over America and who belongs here and who she belongs to, so many people forget about the people who are Indigenous to this land. Open borders have allowed hundreds of thousands of cartel operatives to infiltrate reservations across the United States of America and use the isolated lands as havens to traffic fentanyl pills and other drugs into the country without protection from federal authorities. #RandolphHarris 28 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 29 of 31
If Gavin Newsom is not stopped, next he will euthanize the poor and sterilize the disabled. Under Governor Gavin Newsom, California has the highest car theft rate in the United States of America. Violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people have overtaken cities. Wars and fires are breaking out on the streets. This monster is unfit to be governor and must never be allowed to be President of America! Stop Gavin Newsom now! Save California and impeach this unreasonable man. Meanwhile, with President Trump, we are seeing crime rates sharply decrease. He is restoring law and order, starting in Washington D.C., and he just signed the “HALT Fentanyl Act” into law, which permanently classifies the narcotic as a “Schedule I drug” under the “Controlled Substances Act.” Also, President Trump recently secured $10 trillion in investments for the United States of America. Additionally, in May of 2025, the United States of America collected a record $100 billion in tariff revenue, and that number will increase to $300 billion by the end of 2025. Also, President Trump has just sealed a $550 billion deal with Japan. This means Japan will invest $550 billion in the United States of America. Furthermore, President Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for making Iran and Israel cease fire. As you can see, President Trump is creating solutions and remediating problems to protect America and the American people, while Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is making life hard on American citizens and causing economic hardship, and totally ignoring Mexico’s polluting beaches in San Diego. If elected president for an unprecedented third term, to make housing more affordable and to offset the cost of homeowners’ insurance and auto insurance, President Trump plans to abolish property taxes. #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. 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 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. #RandolphHarris 30 of 31
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. 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 fulness 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. 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
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. Come and see what secrets this so-called, “Winchester Mystery House” may hold.
Experience an unforgettable journey back to the time of kings and queens with this entry ticket for The Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara, California, which was the residence of Heiress Sarah L. Winchester. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After the tour, there will be time to enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.
Please 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/
Ah, yes. The BMW 3 Series. Happy 50th birthday to the most iconic BMW ever! It is really hard to decide on a BMW model. However, the 3 series is a favorite of everyone. All the upper-class suburban families had one in the 1980s and 1990s; everyone from teenagers and housewives to executives and diplomats. Now that they are larger in size, but still sporty and luxurious, the audience has grown tremendously. These are very stylish and reliable cars, which is why BMW continues to dominate the luxury car space.
With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW 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
Millhaven Homes luxury construction is our specialty. We are second to none in our ability to sacred places of hidden wishes that our clients desire. We believe that building your custom home or undertaking a major remodeling project should be an exciting and rewarding experience. Through our fully transparent process, you remain in control of every detail, from custom design selections to sustainable building materials and smart home technology integration.
When it comes to your custom luxury home and the place you live, the details matter. As the builder and developer behind some of the most distinguished homes and communities in Utah, we blend unmatched expertise in crafting luxury homes with a comprehensive, proven approach that covers every detail—down to those you may not have even considered.
Millhaven Homes wants you to be proud of your home for generations to come. That is why we make sure our homes are as handsome on the outside as they are on the inside. A home is much more than a structure – it is an enclave that captures and treasures the important moments, the unforgettable celebrations, and the unexpected joys that encompass a beautiful, successful life.
Our commitment to simplifying the luxury home building journey is reflected in our ability to understand the importance of the details that make your custom home a true reflection of your lifestyle and aspirations. Millhaven Homes offers design and build services for luxury homes in various styles and locations throughout Utah.
We utilize high-performance building techniques and the latest technology to achieve unmatched home quality, efficiency, and aesthetic value. See Millhaven’s portfolio of projects, services, development, and contact information. Be sure to ask about our legendary “Costco Door.” https://millhavenhomes.com/portfolio/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 