All creatures are rooted in the same primal Being, but all remain at different levels of awareness or distance from this Being. Because of the oneness we must practise goodwill to all, but because of the distances we must see them for what they outwardly are. Those who object—as so many young people do today—against formal social behaviour or convention courtesy such as Confucius propagated and such as well-brought-up persons were taught to accept in our own modern West until recently, do not see how much it smooths everybody’s way including their own and how much it oils the wheels of social existence for all of us. Behing time and ego, behind all the conditions in which we find others to be, there is that which is divine within them. For the sake of that we may honour them even when their outer self is unworthy of it and dishonourable. It is not a question of defective social manners or wrong accents but of two traits of good character—consideration for others and respect for oneself. The conventional and not seldom hypocritical smile, the pretense of goodwill where there is none, constitute false manners, not good manners. Courtesy is the oil which lubricates the wheel of life. At a time when goodwill and courtesy seem to be fading out, we need all the more to support them staunchly. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

What is called correct social behaviour can vary from period to period, century to century. It is not the same as, and not to be confused with, courtesy. There are those who dismiss the subject as unconnected with philosophy, unessential to spiritual self-cultivation. However, Jesus Christ constantly exhorted his disciples to cultivate courteous manners and gentlemanly behaviour. It is not better that men should learn to discipline their unpleasant traits, instead of inflicting them on other people? It is not only better for society but also for the men themselves, for it is part of their spiritual evolution. If it becomes an empty arid formality, devoid of the corresponding feeling, it is not courtesy, but hypocrisy. If we are asked to resist our innate natural selfishness and include other people’s welfare along with our own, it is only because in this way they too are being asked to include ours. This at least helps us and them. This is the practical benefit of politeness. Refinement is not so much a matter of birth as of quality, which may be born in a man or fashioned for himself. The young child should be taught how to grow up into a civilized well-behaved person, who naturally and not hypocritically behaves with consideration for the feelings of others. Culture is not only the enrichment of personal experience: it is the enrichment of the person himself. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Supposed you know that this was to be your last day on Earth. How would you behave towards others? Would you not sink all short-range attitudes and rise above the petty selfishness, the pitiful enmities, and the harsh discords which may have marred your past? Would you not try at least to feel goodwill toward all men? This is how philosophy bids you behave at all times and not merely on your deathbed. We must see men not only as they are today, but also as they shall be in an evolutionary tomorrow. If we listen to the voice of experience, we tend appraisal of humanity should combine the two, recognizing and not denying unattractive faults and dark frailties, but at the same time being graciously tolerant and forgiving. He is opened-eyed enough to see men as they are, but also generous enough to see them as they must one day become. As the full meaning of reincarnation and of the universal law sinks deeper and deeper into his mind, a generous tolerance will rise higher and higher in his feelings. He will begin to see that every wrong-doer is what he is because of his past experience and present mentality and has to act in the way he does and cannot act in any other way. The life of such a man develops inevitably and naturally out of his character, out of his mode of thought, and out of his experience on this Earth in the present and in former lives. If a man’s attitude towards spiritual truth is determined by the fact that he was born in a particular place and not by wide search and deep thought, he does not deserve and will not find the highest truth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

If the practices goodwill to others, it is more likely that the higher power will bestow grace upon him through others. There is never any justification for being unmannerly, or worse, rude. The man of such immeasurable goodwill will express it in all ways all the time. The more he refuses to let negative emotions capture him, the more will an inner harmony permeate him. He will keep a secret untroubled poise amongst those who are utterly bereft of any reverence for life’s higher meaning as amongst those who possess it. Beaware of projecting your own negative reactions, ideas, colourings, or feeling son displeasing situations and abrasive persons. If he is to keep his inward peace unruffled, he must live above the level of those who have it not. Only if he obeys the practical injunction of Jesus Christ, only if he keeps out of his emotional systems all the negatives like resentment, bitterness, quarrelsomeness, jealousy, spite, and revenge this can be done. If philosophic calm is to be the supreme fact and philosophic wisdom the guiding factor in his life, these lower emotions must definitely be outgrown. When other men show their enmity and meanness toward him, he is to retaliate by showing his indifference and generosity. When they falsely assail his character or enviously calumniate his work, he is to forbear from harsh feelings and not let them forfeit his goodwill. He is not to succumb to the human temptation to retaliate in kind. For he is engaged on a holy ascent, and to succumb would be to slip grievously back. Indeed, out of the base actions of others, he may kindle noble reactions which assist his upward climb. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

Whoever expands his consciousness in advance of the contemporary level must not expect more than a few to understand him. Yet it is his business to understand them as it is their misfortune to misunderstand him. Marquis de Sade, the French writer and activist, suffered and died to stimulate the imagination of the intelligentsia in literary cafes. However, that is not all. Sade’s success in our day is explained by the dream that he had in common with contemporary thought: the demand for total freedom, and dehumanization coldly planned by the intelligence. The reduction of man to an object of experiment, the rule that specifies the relation between the will to power and man as an object, the sealed laboratory that is the scene of this monstrous experiment, are lessons which the theoreticians of power will discover again when they come to organizing the age of slavery. Two centuries ahead of time and on a reduced scale, Sade extolled totalitarian societies in the name of unbridled freedom—which, in reality, rebellion does not demand. The history and the tragedy of our times really begin with him. He only believed that a society founded on freedom of crime must coincide with freedom of morals, as though servitude had its limits. Our times have limited themselves to blending, in a curious manner, his dream of a universal republic and his technique of degradation. Finally, what he hated most, legal murder, has availed itself of the discoveries that he wanted to put to the service of instinctive murder. Crime, which he wanted to be the exotic and delicious fruit of unbridled vice, is no more today than the dismal habit of a police-controlled morality. Such are the surprises of literature. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Later childhood, from six to ten, is called by psychoanalysis the latent period. It is a “locomotor” phase, when the child locomotes himself around the neighbourhood to see what he can see. So far, he has only a sketchy idea, a protocol, as to how he is going to put his script equipment together to make himself into a person with a goal in life. He is ready to turn from animals who eat people or who act like people, to people themselves. A child who starts out wanting to live forever or love forever can be made to change his mind in the course of five or six years, until he decides, quite appropriately in view of his limited experience, to die young or never to risk loving anyone again. Or he may learn from his parents that life and love with all their risks are worthwhile. Once the decision is made, he knows who he is, and begins to look at the outside World with the question: “What can happen to people like me?” He knows what the payoff is supposed to be, but does not really know what it means, how it will feel, or how to go about getting it. He has to find some sort of plot or matrix into which all his script equipment will fit, and some sort of hero to show him the path. He also looks wistfully for heroes with similar equipment who have followed different, and perhaps happier, paths, hoping to find a way out, or a way in. The matrix and the hero are offered to him in stories which he reads in books or which are read to him or told him by some reliable person: mother, grandmother, or children on the street, or perhaps a carefully indoctrinated kindergarten teacher. The telling of these tales is a story in itself—more real and fascinating than the rale that is told. What happens between Jeder and his mother, for example, between the time she says? “After you have brushed your teeth, I will read you a story,” and the moment when she smiles, “That is all!” and tucks him in? What is his final question, and how does she tuck him in? #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

Those times help form the flesh of his life plan, while the tales told or the book story give him the bones. What he ends up with, bonewise, are a hero—someone he would like to be; a villain—someone he may find an excuse to be; a type—what he knows he has to be; a plot—a matrix of events which enables him to switch from one to the other; a cast—those others who will motivate the switches; and an ethos—a set of ethical standards which will justify him in feeling angry, guilty, righteous, or triumphant. If external events permit, his life course will then be the same as the life plan he forms around this armature or matrix. For this reason, it is important to know what his favourite story or fairy tale was as a child, since this will be the plot of his script, with all its unattainable illusions and avoidable tragedies. During this period, Jeder also makes a definite decision about what kind of feelings he will work for. He was previously experimented with this, feeling by turns angry, hurt, guilty, scared, inadequate, righteous, and triumphant, and he as discovered that certain of these are treated with indifference or outright disapproval by his family, whole one of them is acceptable and gets results. That is the one that becomes his racket. The favoured feeling becomes a sort of conditioned reflex which may persist for the rest of his life. For clarity, we can use the roulette-wheel theory of feeling. Suppose there is a housing development with 36 houses built in a circle around a central plaza, and suppose that there is a baby waiting to be born wherever it is that babies wait to be born. The Great Computer in charge of such matters spins the roulette wheel, and the ball falls in slot 17. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

The Great Computer then announces, “The next baby will go to house 17.” He makes five more spins, and comes up with 23, 11, 26, 35, and 31, so the next five babies go to the houses with those numbers. Ten years later, each of the children has learned how he is supposed to react. The one in house 17 has learned: “In this family, when the going gets rough, we feel angry.” The one in house 23 has learned: “In this family, when the going gets rough, we feel hurt.” The babies at 11, 26, and 35 have learned that when the going gets rough their respective families feel guilty, scared, or inadequate. The baby in 31 learns that “In this family, when the going get rough, we find out what to do about it.” It should be apparent that numbers 17, 23, 11, 26, and 35 are likely to be losers, and 31 is more likely to be a winner. However, supposing when the Great Computer made the spins, other numbers had come up, or the same numbers in a different order? Perhaps Baby A, instead of anger, and Baby B, in 23, might have traded places with Baby F in 31. Then instead of Baby B being a loser and baby F a winner, it would be the other way round. This is another way of saying that aside from a doubtful influence of the genes, favourite feelings are learned from the parents. If he had been born in a different household, a patient whose favoured feeling is guilt might go for anger. Yet each will defend his favoured feeling as the natural or even inevitable one in a given situation. This is one reason for having treatment groups. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

If those six babies were in such a group twenty years later, and Baby A related an incident, ending: “Naturally, I felt angry!” Baby B would say: “My feelings would have been hurt”; Baby C: “I would have felt guilty,” Baby D: “I would have felt scared”; Baby E: “I would have felt inadequate”; and Baby F (who would presumably be the therapist by this time): “I would have found out what to do about it.” Which of these babies is right? Each one is convinced that his is the “natural” reaction. The truth is that none of them is “natural,” really; each one has been learned, or rather decided upon, in early childhood. To put it in simpler terms, nearly all angers, hurts, guilts, fears, and inadequate feelings are rackets, and in any well-run group it is not difficult to distinguish the few such reactions which are genuinely appropriate. A racket, then, is a feeling, out of all the possible feelings, that is habitually turned on by a given person as his payoff in the games he plays. Group members soon recognize this, and can predict when a certain patient is going to collect a hurt trading stamp, and so on. The object of collecting such trading stamps is to turn them in for a script payoff. Each person in the group is scandalized at the idea that his favoured feeling is not a natural, universal, and inevitable response to the situations he meets. When their feelings are questioned, just as people in the hurt racket feel hurt, people in the anger racket, in particular, become very angry. One of the most misunderstood ideas of modern times is the thing we call “support.” Most people think of it as paying someone’s way, or at least providing for a person’s necessities. It usually implies a great sacrifice or price to be paid by the person doing the supporting. The meaning I prefer is: to promote someone’s cause or interests. To me, this implies helping another, yet without hurting oneself. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

When you are trapped on the support polarity, you become a manipulator with an overdeveloped mother complex. Even men can have this complex, characterized by a compulsion to meet the needs of others. Unfortunately, in this position, your frequently feel like a martyr because you do so much for people, who never seem to appreciate your efforts enough. You also feel resentful that your sacrifices go unnoticed. Often, you are physically and emotionally exhausted from carrying the burdens of so many. Ironically, you lose contact with your own being trying to do only for others. If, on the other hand, you experience support as a master, you have learned to balance your needs with the needs of others. Although you believe in helping others when they are in trouble, you do not make helping your main vocation—because you have confidence in their ability to care for themselves. By the same token, you are not afraid to express criticism because you know it can be a beneficial force in creating honest, caring interaction. Mastering the support polarity improves your life because it frees you of impossible burdens and growing resentments. It enables you to care for others without sacrificing your own being. It allows you to “flow” with life rather than fight for it. You are at ease in your relationships, which now are determined, not by obligation to, but by concern for others. Your friends respond to you, not for what you have done for them, but for what you are to them. When we look at the condition of schizophrenia as an absence of a certain type of felt interaction (an absence rather than an illness or a content) has important consequences. It seems that we think of ourselves not so much as working with something ill in the person, but rather as providing the necessary personal relationship in the context of which someone can again come alive as a person. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

As for “schizophrenia,” how we love to think that we know what is wrong with those others. What about ourselves? How many of us can accept people as we can accept the sea? There are of course people who are foolish enough to want to change the sea, who want to change the weather, too, instead of living accord with it. However, why are so many of us so hell-bent on the madness of changing other people to suit ourselves, and forcing them to do what we want them to? Perhaps all the sensitive human people get scrapped and sent off to mental hospitals? Perhaps “mental illness” is a sign of health—of a person who refuses to knuckle under to a distorting and inhuman society? Who is healthier, the German youth who had no conflicts about shoveling people into hospitals, or the one who has a “nervous breakdown” because of his conflict about being pushed into doing something he did not approve of? Offered a choice, I say No to both. When I say no to both, I have to find my own alternative. When I am going someone else’s way, I require that others go along with me. When I am going someone else’s way, I have to let myself be sold on this—it does not come from me. Coming from outside as it does, I have an image of “what is good,” and then it seems to me that all others should follow this image too, and do “what is good,” “is right,” “like me.” At a deep level I am afraid, but it is not the fear which has made me follow the image, but having images that has separated me from myself and so I am afraid. In my fear, then I need others around me to do the same things that I do, to reassure me. When I am going my own way in freedom, I wish most for everyone else to go their way in freedom. When all of us are moving in freedom, there are no collisions. Only if I have a picture in my head of “how things should be,” this freedom looks chaotic to me because it does not match with what is happening. With established society actively discouraging recruitment into the pleasure professions, how do we account for the fact that in every gene pool and in every age a certain percentage of young adults pop up as pleasure-dispensers? We have to look into the genetic caste to understand this phenomenon. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

Good looks and chemistry are the giveaways. Observe any group of children at play and you can forecast those who are robot-templated by DNA to play hedonic roles, who give off the radiation of magnetism and the flamboyant self-confidence of the budding performer. An interesting dilemma appears at this point. We do not have a formal, precise language to classify and describe the various pleasure-roles and hedonic processes. Indeed, before The Principles and Practice of Hedonic Psychology was written there has been a little scholarly attention to pleasure in Western literature. Whereas there exists an enormous nosology or disease classification of pain, an endless clinical listing of negative pathological states. There is no psychiatric or psychological classification of the states of excellence, elite accomplishment, or pleasure. It is true that a crude literature of beauty-pleasure exists in the East—pillow books, Tantric Hindu text, and Islamic-Sufi works. Neurocensorship is why there is no terminology for beauty-pleasure in the West. If words are invented for these myriad hedonic delights, then people will talk about them and enjoy them—a turn of events which Christian-Marxist hive establishments can not tolerate. Before the 1960s, in Western culture, hedonic bliss was taboo—reserved only for the aristocracy. Sexual pleasure was limited to martial intercourse—and then only for hive reproductive purposes. The taboo against the recognition of pleasure began to crumble in the 1960s and for the first time in the history of humanity a mass middle-class awakened to self-actualized hedonism. We can justly use the term “awaken” to describe the sudden insight that the body is a pleasure instrument, designed to receive a wide range of sensory stimuli that can be self-directed and self-controlled. Aesthetic artist sensory castes: Hedonic Consumer—those who receive pleasure. Hedonic Director—those who create pleasure realities for themselves and others. Hedonic Producer—those who exchange pleasure. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

If a person is successfully satisfying basic needs, his or her energy and thoughts are freed for other interests. The exact nature of these interests will differ from person to person, but the diversity and intensity of involvement in matters outside the self is a good indicator of healthy personality. Dr. Maslow has suggested that having successfully dealt with these basic needs, the person can move on to B-motivation (being motivation), which involves giving joyous vent to the highest aspirations and needs; fullest self-actualization and attending to aesthetic needs; and appreciation of beauty, art, and the higher realms of thought or cognition. When we cease to be a problem to ourselves, because we have fulfilled our needs for security, love, and status, we will begin to see the World in a manner that differs from the way “deficiency-motivated” persons see it. We can forget ourselves and become involved in play, or in another person’s problems, and perhaps with the wellbeing of humanity as a whole. When one is in the midst of such privation oneself, it is difficult to become concerned about the hunger or enslavement of another person. When we have experienced and transcended these conditions, we can empathize with (id est, imagine vividness) the experience of others and devote ourselves to serving them. Many interests and values grow out of a person’s earlier quest for the means of gratifying basic needs. Thus, someone may become a physician as a means of assuring economic security. However, once the person is earning the money he or she was seeking, that person may (indeed should) find intrinsic fascination in the challenges posed by illness. The motivation for the practice of medicine changes then from a quest for money to a quest for knowledge of new ways to relieve suffering. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Whenever an interest in some activity comes into being as a means of satisfying basic needs, and then changes into a spontaneous fascination, the motive is said to be functionally autonomous of its more basic origins. We do not fully understand the mechanisms by which functional autonomy of motives occurs; it appears to be a matter of commitment. Human beings need meaningful activity to give direction and value to their existence. We have little difficulty understanding much human action, because it clearly serves the most basic needs. However, when a person has assured access to the basic requirements, the question arises what shall I do now with the time and energy that have become available? What is worth doing? One can consume only so much food, one can only be loved a certain amount, one can only be safe to some degree. What will I do next with my time and resources? We are dealing fundamentally with the question of persuasion. Some challenges, tasks, hobbies, and vocations that have little to do with one’s basic needs are “invested” with value and worth by our observation of someone else. We see someone doing something with his or her time that seems to give that person much satisfaction. Either by invitation or by self-initiative, persons explore ways to spend their time, and commit themselves to such activity. The billions of interests that absorb persons attest to the fact that we can give value to anything from collecting speedpods to scaling mountains at great risk to life and limb, because they are there. The capacity to commit oneself to activities and projects beyond basic need fulfillment is a further defining characteristic of healthier personality. While almost all writers in the field see attention to the self as the primary, basic preoccupation of the normally healthy person, all also see commitment outside of self as being characteristic of the healthy personality. This includes commitment to activities such as political change, social welfare, problems of the aged, commitment to an abstract ideal such as freedom or beauty, preservation of the environment, or commitment to another person—a beloved friend, wife, lover, or trustworthy leader. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

It is important also to note that in the search for a direction of commitment, once can choose an unworthy and even dangerous commitment, especially when it is presented under the cloak of religion, politics, or even of psychology or some other abstract ideal. Thus, the many people who accompanied the Reverend Jim Jones to Guyana and to their deaths in 1978 were committing themselves to a leader, charismatic and hypnotic, who destroy them. There are many effective, meaningful religious and political commitments that a person can make that will better self and society. Some of the false commitments will offer false, cheap surcease for one’s personal pain. A wise young person will select commitments with care and with attention both to the maintenance of the freedom of the mind and to the assurance that one can change one’s mind and one’s commitment without fear of coercion, whether psychological or physical. No commitment or choice should ever be made to renounce your freedom to think for yourself. The man who is no longer disturbed by the presence or working or characteristic of his own ego will not be disturbed by that of others. No negative feeling will enter his attitude toward them. Although the repulsions to uncongenial persons may be acknowledge frankly, he can and should rise high above them. On the practical level, it is necessary to rectify the outer and visible causes of the disharmony between him and the other person, as far as that is possible. On the mental level, it is necessary to deal with the inner and invisible causes. The easiest way to begin such work is to begin it in creative meditation. There he should take up the picture of that person and mentally rectify the relation with him, adjust the thought of it to what it should be from the highest standpoint. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

He should finish by prayerfully sending good thoughts for his inner improvement, and by forgiving any sins against himself. Thus, instead of criticizing or attacking the person against whom he has a grievance, with results that may provoke still more trouble, he should remain emotionally undisturbed whilst using constructive endeavours in right meditation and unselfish prayer for that person. This may bring about a remarkable change in him, or lese in the relationship with him, or at least in the aspirant’s own attitude towards that person. For whatever is given out to others, in the end comes back to oneself. When a superior patrician ancestry, or higher education, or greater wealth, or influential social position, lead in speech or behaviour to arrogant hauteur and scornful contempt for the less fortunate, it leads to the snob. In him, outward and formal good manners do not come from the heart; in him, the spirit contradicts the letter. Consequently, they are not really good manners at all. The question has been asked: what is one to do in the face of another person’s rudeness pushed to a point which is almost insulting? If on the belief in reincarnation it is viewed as a sign of the other person’s ill-formed character and low caste, this could be ignored in many instances. However, when it is not of such a kind and where one is constantly thrown into contact through work or relationship or residence so that one is exposed constantly to the same kind of contact, how should a spiritual aspirant deal with it? Regard it as a test and a challenge. It is a test of certain qualities which must be sought within oneself and drawn upon, such as patience, calmness, and learning. It is a challenge, and if one lacks those qualities, it is necessary to seek deeper and try to draw from the inner resources of the Higher Self. This means working previously both in meditation and in thought to picture the needed emotional and mental response, plus the resulting physical conduct, as a daily exercise, until this reaction has become somewhat regular. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Or we can supplement this with moving to the metaphysical field and remembering at the end that it is all part of the dream-like experience which, in appropriate conditions, or on sufficient degree of mental perception being attained, one sees life to be. When one has had a large experience of the World with widely different groups of people, races, tribes, nations, classes, and castes, one is unwilling to offer admiration without some sort of qualification to any human institution or any human being. And when one has studied the human entity metaphysically and psychologically, discovering the place and power of the ego, one finds philosophical support of this mental reservation. However, this need not imply cynicism: the presence of goodwill and the faith in ultimate salvation of all would preclude it. Since he needs to rule emotions and not let them rule him, to overcome passions and not become their victim, he must cultivate a diamond-like hardness. However, this is not directed toward others, only to himself, unless evil or foolish influences are seeking to sway him. No person who is really refined, that is to say by character and taste and not by birth or wealth, can bear the crudity, the unattractiveness, and the decadence of those literary, artistic, psychoanalytic, or “progressive” circles which take a delight in uttering filthy four-letter words. Spirituality shrinks into silence in such garrulous company, takes curtained-off refuge in its own natural fastidiousness and refinement; but again, I say these develop from within and are not imposed by the family of the “finishing school.” Whatever superficial interest these circles may take in so-called mystic experience, materialism and egotism are their real religious creeds, just as courtesy is not a genuine characteristic of their behaviour, whatever outward show of it they may hypocritically have to make at times. The noisy cheap mannerless and brassy cafes of Montmarte and Montparnasse are their familiar spiritual homes. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to life safety and protection of property for all residents and visitors of Sacramento, in addition to the safety and continuing education for all Sacramento Fire Department members. The Sacramento Fire Department is acutely aware of the importance of training and preparedness and works with many external groups and organizations to ensure that Sacramento is as prepared as any metropolitian city can be. The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to having a membership that mirrors the communities it serves, and for the Department to be an inclusive work environment for all members. “The fire happened about two in the afternoon, a quiet Saturday. It was an old hotel, which had two wings, one about five or six stories high and other six or seven stories, with a penthouse with a bay window on the top floor. Originally, it was a grand hotel, but it was under renovation for several months at that time. It was going to be restored. The only thing that was open was a restaurant on the ground floor. There were four alarms. There was very little fire to be seen, but a tremendous amount of smoke. We did an aggressive interior attack. There were all kinds of plywood partitions the workmen had put up to make temporary hallways. So the windows weren’t much help, and ventilation was poor. We went at it, and we thought it was a touch fight but a good fight, and we managed to knock this thing down. Some of the fire was in the coping and parts of the cockloft, and not too accessible. At about give o’clock we were relieved by the night tour. We had our lines up to the top floor, and the relief guys came in and they found us. Oh, yeah, here you are. Okay, we’re around the corner with the pumper. Okay, everybody’s here, we’re going to take off, see you later. The fire was pretty much knocked down, so we left. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

“The station was only six blocks away, so we walked back. There were a million sirens going, and the firehouse was empty. One guy, who was late coming in for the night tour, was there. I said, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘The hotel collapsed!’ And we went, ‘Holy God, it can’t! The fire is out! It can’t!’ Being young and on the job just short of two years, I was in a total state of shock. I couldn’t believe this. How could it happen? So we ran back. We were only gone about fifteen minutes. The whole back end of the building had collapsed from the top floor down to the basement. The pile of rubble was in a pyramid shape, about three stories high. Our ladder company, Ladder X, was in the back alley, and they had their stick up, their aerial ladder, and the entire rig was just crushed to a pulp. The whole scene looked like pictures of a bad earthquake. Just mountains of bricks. And nobody knew, especially with the change of tours and all the running and milling around, who had been inside the building and who hadn’t. There were innumerable roll calls, trying to figure it out. And then we started on it, brick by brick. Some of the guys were right there on top of the mountain, because they had been on the top floor. The top of the heap was apparently the way it had been on the top floor. The top of the heap was apparently they way it worked out: the higher up you were, the easier it was, so to speak, even though they had to ride down seven floors. So our lieutenant from the night tour was found almost immediately, badly injured, also another of our firefighters from the night tour, Y. After that, with the plies of cement and brick, you just knew it was hopeless. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

“We went from the top piece by piece, brick by brick, piece of cement by piece of cement, still watching to make sure the other two sides of the interior walls didn’t collapse on us. They got the last guy out about one in the morning. Somewhere around eleven o’clock, I just took my helmet and fire coat off, and I just walked away. I walked away like I was a zombie. I guess that’s exactly what I was. It was a way of saying, without actually saying it, ‘I can’t handle this anymore, I’m leaving.’ I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like I was hypnotized. Unfortunately, I can never forget seeing the guy from our company. His helmet was all crushed up. And all you can say to yourself is, there but for a couple of minutes…or if somebody had called and said, ‘I’m going to be late, will you hang in there for me?’ I literally fell apart, because I was saying to myself, this isn’t what the job is supposed to be like. It was not a good time at all because I didn’t really know how to deal with it. I later found out that the fire was not the major cause of the collapse. The contractors had removed a good portion of the fire wall down in the basement, and with a duct had penetrated the remining wall right next to a lone bearing column. And it turned out that this one column was the only thing that was holding up the entire section of the building. So I walked away, and I walked back to the firehouse, and there was a relocated company there from some other part of the city. They said, ‘We got people calling here.’ Then I realized I hadn’t called anybody at home. I’d never thought of it. I called my wife, Z. I didn’t have much to say. She said everybody had been calling and all that stuff. The day of the funeral was a cold, rainy day, driving rain. At Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. I had never seen so many firefighters in one place before. Because of one the guys was from our company, we got seats inside, up front. Seeing everybody lined up outside, it was starting to sink it—okay, this job isn’t fun. You’ve heard stories of other guys getting killed on the job, but nothing has the impact of the guy being in your own company and you being there. And it never stopped raining once, the whole time, and nobody said a heck of a lot afterwards. But you could tell everybody was thinking the same thing.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

One quality of his everyday conduct which will be noticeable to others will be his self-effacement. He is immediately ready to enter into their standpoint, sympathetically and helpfully, to listen patiently whilst they talk only about themselves. To be in public service, one must free himself from all narrow racialist views, national prejudices, class feelings, and personal selfishness. The Sacramento Fire Department understands that all people are linked together and strives to sustain and improve the health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of Sacramento and to plan for the future development of the community. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember parents, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus, respect law and others, treat others with dignity and respect, and remind them of the importance of education. To help America survive the global recession and bring manufacturing jobs back to America and to get American wages at pace with inflation, it is important to buy America cars, American meat, American produce and other American made goods and services. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and answer us, for we are wanting in good deeds; deal with us in charity and lovingkindness, and please save us. One who regard impartially friends and foes, foreigners and relatives, the righteous and unrighteous, he excelleth. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Ventris Place

North Laguna Creek, CA | Mid 500’s

Now Selling!

Located in Laguna Park adjacent to the South Sacramento 22-acre North Laguna Creek Park and a quick walk from the 119-acre designated Wildlife Area and Interpretive Trail, this intimate enclave of 37 homesites with available one- and two-story floorplans is the place to be in Sacramento.

Imagine waking up every day to the comfort of a life-made-easy home plan, private side yards, and inspired living spaces carefully designed to make life at home a pleasure.

Just a few steps from your door, enjoy all the amazing features of North Laguna Creek Park including paved paths, tennis courts, a basketball court, playgrounds, picnic areas, ball fields and a wildlife area.

Walk or ride to an abundance of Sacramento area parks, attractions, shopping, dining, and destinations just minutes from your home.

Or enjoy an impromptu outing to Old Sacramento, downtown, or the historic riverfront district. Ventris Place is located in the Elk Grove school district.

Homes at Ventris Place offer 3-4 bedroom and 2-3 bath plans ranging from 1196 to 1846 square feet and include rear-entry 2-car garages. Choose from a single-story plan or several two-story plans. https://nextgenerationcapital.us/new-homes-elk-grove-ventris-place/

Your Home for Generations

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