Randolph Harris II International

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If there is a Fog, the Monsters Can’t See Me!

Domestic burglary is a huge societal problem, and one of the most frequently occurring crimes. In the United States of America, 1.1 million domestic burglaries are reported to the police each year. To give a sense of community dysfunction associated with the problem of domestic burglary, the very commonly reported issue is theft of goods and money from the family home or mailbox, which may be used buy drugs. And, sometimes, it is not always by a family member; the theft could be perpetrated by one’s neighbor, or even a stranger. There is, of course, the inconvenience of the theft to consider, but the damage is far greater than can be measured in material terms. Domestic burglary victimization is a traumatic experience, because most people consider their home as an extension of the self and a place where the self is protected against others. Intrusions to such a highly valued place are therefore regarded as attacks to both one’s personhood and one’s safety and privacy, and may render victims at risk of psychological distress. Some of the victims develop trauma-related disorders or mood or anxiety disorders, which may put them at risk of social, financial, economic, and physical health problems. The monetary costs of these burglaries (exempli gratia, due to damaged properties and stolen goods, police investigations, and victim services) are enormous. For example, the total monetary costs of domestic burglary have been estimated to amount to more than $9 billion a year in the United States of America (which comes down to $2,675) per burglarized house. #RandolphHarris 1 of 32

To mitigate crime victims’ psychological distress, they must receive adequate support services. To ensure that they have access to such services, police officers and other professionals working with crime victims should screen them for factors shown to be related to the experience or development of psychological distress. Drug users in the general population are more likely than nonusers to commit crimes. Another dimension of drug-related crime is that 25 percent of State prison inmates and 20 percent of convicted jail inmates reported committing their offenses to get money to buy drugs. Offenders convicted of robbery, burglary, and larceny/theft were most likely to commit their offense to obtain money to buy drugs. Many chronic drug abusers—the individuals we commonly regard as addicts—often simultaneously suffer from a serious mental disorder. Drug treatment and medical professionals call this condition a co-occurring disorder or a dual diagnosis. Chronic drug abuse is the habitual abuse of licit or illicit drugs to the extent that the abuse substantially injures a person’s health or substantially interferes with his or her social or economic functioning. Furthermore, any person who has lost the power of self-control over the use of drugs is considered a chronic drug user. Chronic drug abuse may occur in conjunction with any mental illness identified in the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV). Some common serious mental disorders associated with chronic drug abuse include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, manic depression, attention deficit hype disorder (ADHD), generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. #RandolphHarris 2 of 32

Co-occurring disorders are very common. Approximately 6 million adults met the criteria for both serious mental illness and substance dependence or abuse in the past year. Some people suffering from serious mental disorders (often undiagnosed ones) take drugs to alleviate their symptoms—a practice known as self-medicating. According to the American Psychiatric Association, individuals with schizophrenia sometimes use substances such as marijuana to mitigate the disorder’s negative symptoms (depression, apathy, and social withdrawal), to combat auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions, or to lessen the adverse effects of their medication, which can include depression and restlessness. In other cases, mental disorders are caused by drug abuse. For example, MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy) produces long-term deficits in serotonin function in the brain, leading to mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. Chronic drug abuse by adolescents during formative years is a particular concern because it can interfere with normal socialization and cognitive development and thus frequently contributes to the development of mental disorders. However, chronic drug abusers who suffer from mental illness, and especially whether treating both conditions simultaneously leads to better recovery. Currently, the two conditions are often treated separately or without regard to each other. As a result, many individuals with co-occurring disorders are sent back and forth between substance abuse and mental health treatment settings. #RandolphHarris 3 of 32

Although one cannot always distinguish neatly between alienation from the actual self and that from the real self, the loss of self is sickness unto death; it is despair—despair at not being conscious of having a self, or despair at not being willing to be ourselves. However, it is a despair which does not clamor or scream. People go on living as if they were still in immediate contact with this alive center. Any other loss—that of a job, say, or a leg—arouses far more concern. Patients coming for consultation complain about headaches, sexual disturbances, inhibitions in work, or other symptoms; as a rule, they do not complain about having lost touch with the core of their psychic existence. There are many forces, including drugs, responsible for the alienation from self. It is in part the consequences of the whole neurotic development, especially of all that is compulsive in neurosis. Of all that implies, “I am driven instead of being the driver.” It does not matter in this context what the particular compulsive factors are—whether they operate in relation to others (compliance, vindictiveness, detachment, et cetera) or in relation to self, as in self-idealization. They very compulsive character of these drives inevitably deprives the person of his full autonomy and spontaneity. As soon as, for instance, his need to be liked by everybody becomes compulsive, the genuineness of his feelings diminishes; so does his power to discriminate. As soon as he is driven to do a piece of work for the sake of glory, his spontaneous interest in the work itself decreases. Conflicting compulsive drives, in addition, impair his integration, his faculty to decide and give direction. Last but not least, the neurotic pseudo-solutions, though representing attempts at integration, also deprive him of autonomy because they have become a compulsive way of living. #RandolphHarris 4 of 32

It does not matter, in this context, what the particular compulsive factors are—whether they operate in relation to others (compliance, vindictiveness, detachment, et cetera) or in the relation to self, as in self-idealization. The very compulsive character of these drives inevitably deprives the person of his full autonomy and spontaneity. As soon as, for instance, his need to be liked by everybody becomes compulsive, the genuineness of his feelings diminishes; so does his power to discriminate. As soon as he is driven to do a piece of work for the sake of glory, his spontaneous interest in the work itself decreases. Conflicting compulsive drives, in addition, impair his integration, his faculty to decide and give direction. Last but not least, the neurotic pseudo-solutions, though representing attempts at integration, also deprive him of autonomy because they become a compulsive way of living. Secondly, the alienation is furthered through process, likewise compulsive, which can be described as active moves away from the real self. The whole drive for glory is such a move, particularly through the neurotic’s determination to mold himself into something he is not. He feels what he should feel, wishes what he should wish, like what he should like. In other words, the tyranny of the should drives him frantically to be something different from what he is or could be. And in this imagination, he is different—so different, indeed, that his real self fades and pales still more. #RandolphHarris 5 of 32

Neurotic claims, in terms of self, mean the abandoning of the reservoir of spontaneous energies. Instead of making his own efforts, for instance, with regard to, human relations, the neurotic insists that others should adjust to him. Instead of putting himself into his work, he feels entitled to having it done for him. Instead of making his own decisions, he insists that others should be responsible for him. Therefore, his constrictive energies lie fallow, and he actually is less and less a determining factor in his own life. Neurotic pride removes him a step further from himself. Since he now becomes ashamed of what he actually is—of his feelings, resources, activities—he actively withdraws his interest from himself. The whole process of externalization is another active moving away from his self, actual and real. It is astonishing, by the way, how closely this process coincides with Dr. Kierkegaard’s “despair of not wanting to be oneself.” Finally, there are active moves against the real self, as expressed in self-hates. With the real self in exile, so to speak, one becomes a condemned convict, despised and threatened with destruction. The idea of being oneself even becomes loathsome and terrifying. The terror sometimes appears undisguised, as one patient felt it when thinking: “This is me.” This appeared at a time when the neat distinction she had made between “me” and “my neurosis” started to crumble. As a protection against this terror, the neurotic “makes himself disappear.” He has an unconscious interest in not having a clear perception of himself—in making himself, as it were, deaf, dumb, and blind. #RandolphHarris 6 of 32

Not only does he blur the truth about himself, but he has a vested interest in doing so—a process which blunts his sensitiveness to what is true and what is false not only inside but also outside himself. He has an interest in maintaining his haziness, although he may consciously suffer under it. One patient, for instance, in his associations often used the monsters of the Beowulf legend, who emerged at night from the lake, to symbolize his self-hate. And one he said: “If there is a fog, the monsters can’t see me.” The result of all these moves is an alienation from self. When we use this term, we must be aware that it focuses on only one aspect of the phenomenon. What is expressed accurately is the subjective feeling of the neurotic of being removed from himself. He may realize in analysis that all the intelligent things he has said about himself were, in reality, disconnected from him and his life, that they concerned some fellow with whom he had little if anything to do, and the findings about whom were interesting but did not apply to his life. In fact, this analytic experience leads us straight into the core of the problem. For we must keep in mind that the patient does not talk about weather or television: he talks about his most intimate personal life experiences. Yet, they have lost their personal meaning. And, just as he may talk about himself without “being in it,” so he may work, be with friends, take a walk, or sleep with a woman without being in it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 32

His relation to himself has become impersonal; so has his relation to his whole life. If the word “depersonalization” did not already have a specific psychiatric meaning, it would be a good term for what alienation from self essentially is: it is a depersonalizing, and therefore a devitalizing process. The alienation from self does not show as directly and blatantly as its significance would suggest, except (speaking of neuroses only) in the state of depersonalization, feelings of unreality, or amnesia. While these conditions are temporary, they can occur only in person who are estranged from themselves anyhow. The factors precipitating the feelings of unreality are usually severe injuries to pride together with an acute increase of self-contempt, exceeding what is tolerable for the particular person. Conversely, when—with or without therapy—these acute conditions subside, his alienation from self is not thereby essentially changed. It is merely again restrained within such limits that he can function without conspicuous disorientation. Otherwise, the trained observer would be able to perceive certain general symptoms pointing to an existing alienation from self, such as deadness of the eyes, an aura of impersonality, an automatonlike behavior. For the analyst, it is a source of never-ending astonishment how comparatively well a person can function with the core of himself not participating. Let us consider a problem from another region. A woman from the Middle West, rather unusually feminine and sensitive, uses a visit with relatives in the East to consult a psychoanalyst concerning a general feeling of affective constriction and an all-pervasive mild anxiety. #RandolphHarris 8 of 32

During an exploratory analysis, she seems almost lifeless. After some weeks, she occasionally produces a sudden flood of associations, all concerning horrid impressions of pleasures of the flesh or death. Many of these memories emerge not from unconscious depths, but from an isolated corner of her consciousness where all those frightening matters were boarded off which on occasion had broken through the orderly factualness of the upper-middle-class surroundings of her childhood. This isolation of life segments is similar to that met with in compulsive neurotics anywhere. In this case, it was part of a sanctioned way of life, an ethos, which in our patient had become truly uncomfortable only at a time when she was being courted by a European and was trying to envisage life in a cosmopolitan atmosphere. She felt attracted but at the same time inhibited; her imagination was vividly provoked but restrained by anxiety. Her bowels reflected this conflict with disturbing alternations between constipation and diarrhea. The final impression gained was one of a general inhibition rather than of a basic impoverishment of imagination in matters either dealing with pleasures of the flesh or social. The patient’s dreams gradually reveled a hidden source of untapped freedom. While she still seemed pained and lifeless in her free associations, her dream life became humorous and imaginative in an almost autonomous way. She dreamed of entering a quiet church congregation in a flaming red dress and of throwing stones through respectable windows (which would be a major felony and probably ban her from being hired for most jobs after a lengthy prison sentence). However, her most colorful dreams put her into Civil War days—on the Confederate side. #RandolphHarris 9 of 32

The climax was a dream in which she sat on a toilet, set off by low partitions in the middle of a tremendous ballroom, and waved to elegantly dressed couples of Confederate officers and southern ladies who swirled around her to the sounds of powerful brass. These dreams helped to unearth and highlight an isolated part of her childhood, namely, the gentle warmth awarded her by her grandfather, a Confederate veteran whose world was a fairy tale of the past. However, for all its formalism, the grandfather’s patriarchal masculinity and gentle affection had been experienced through the child’s hungry senses and had proved more immediately reassuring to her searching ego than either her father’s or mother’s promises of standardized success. With the grandfather’s death, the patient’s affects went dead because they were part of an abortive ego-identity formation which failed to receive nourishment either in the form of affection or of social rewards. The psychoanalytic treatment of women with a prominent identity element of the southern lady (an identity which pervades more than one class or race) seems complicated by special resistances. To be sure, our patients are usually dislodged southerners, their ladyhood a defense, almost a symptom. Their wish for treatment finds its limits in three ideas which are all connected with the particular provisions in southern culture for safeguarding caste and race identity by imposing the prototype of the lady on the small girl. #RandolphHarris 10 of 32

There is, first, a pseudoparanoid suspicion that life is a series of critical tests in which vicious gossips attempt to stack up minor weaknesses and blemishes against the southern woman toward an inexorable final judgment, namely, to be—or not to be—a lady. Second, there is the all-pervading conviction that men, if not restrained by the formalities of a tacitly approved double standard which grants them lesser and darker sex objects at the price of overt respect for ladies, will prove to be no gentlemen and that they will at very least try to blacken the lady’s name and with it her claim to a socially superior husband and the prospect of having her children marry upward. However, there is also the equally ambivalent implication that any man who does not proceed to shed his gentleman’s inhibitions when the opportunity of sexual conquest offers itself is a weakling who only deserves to be mercilessly provoked. The usual feelings of guilt and inferiority thus all exists within the co-ordinates of a life plan dominated by the conscious hope for higher social status, and made morbid by its ambivalent counterpart, the hidden hope for the man who will dissolve the woman’s need to be a lady in a moment of reckless passion. In all this, there is a basic inability to conceive of any area in life where the standards and the words of a man and a woman could honestly coincide and be lifted above a certain primeval antagonism. Needless to say, such unconscious standards cause severe suffering in sincere and enlightened women, but only the verbalization of these internalized stereotypes, concomitantly with the analysis of the patient’s transfer to the analyst of her whole conflictful imagery of men, makes psychoanalysis possible. #RandolphHarris 11 of 32

Psychoanalysts, of course, are consulted primarily by those who cannot stand the tension between alternatives, contrasts, and polarities which governs the American style of today: the unceasing necessity to remain tentative in order to be free for bigger and better opportunities. In their transferences and in their resistances, patients repeat abortive attempts at synchronizing fast-changing and sharply contrasting remnants of national, regional, and class identities during critical stages of their childhoods. The analyst is woven into the patient’s unconscious life plan. Especially if he is European-born, and compared with the patient’s more homogeneous ancestors, or he is resisted as the brainy enemy of a potentially successful American identity, he is idealized. The patient, however, can gain the courage to face the discontinuities of life in this country and the polarities of its struggle for an economic and cultural identity not as an imposed hostile reality, but as a potential promise for a more universal human identity. This, as we have seen, finds its limits where individuals were either fundamentally impoverished in their childhood sensuality or are stalled by the “system” in their freedom to use opportunities. Why did Pythagoras put mathematics among the necessary preliminary disciplines for the study of philosophy? Here was part of the way to counteract man’s natural materialism. It trained him to think abstractly, to hold pure ideas whose exactitude and truthfulness were indisputable. And he supported the teaching by pointing to the fact that the universe was founded on a number. Finally, the higher use of mathematics was as an assistant in symbolizing metaphysical principles. #RandolphHarris 12 of 32

When we begin to operate with abstract concepts in the practical world, we begin to know their true worth. Except as an intellectual exercise, I would discourage abstract speculation upon which so many intellectuals have frittered away their time, as our medieval theologians frittered theirs. We seek truth for various reasons. One is because is possesses a certitude that gives us anchorage and rest. Mathematics is fortunate in having been able to invent a language of symbols and signs which is adequate to the most exacting demands of precision. The connotation of each sign is definite. It derives a fixed meaning from the common universe of discourse which is implicit as the background of both speaker and hearer. The mathematician must give every symbol he uses a clear meaning in his own mind as well as to those who are to read his symbols. Therefore, he is compelled to provide a common medium of understanding about which there can be no two opinions. Mathematics is thus placed in a position of superiority in reference to language and rigorous reasoning when compared to other subjects. It provides perfect instruments for the expression of an idea. The meaning of the arithmetical minus sign is forever invariable and forever precise. The man who has thought well about thinking itself may put forward more clever ideas in a single hour than others do in a single week. The brain of the intellectual man multiplies thoughts, but the brain of the self-actualized Christian subtracts and reduces them. #RandolphHarris 13 of 32

Thinking in terms of mental images is a valuable faculty, but thinking in words alone is not less valuable. Both are needed to the balanced person. The value assigned to the symbol X must be strictly adhered to throughout the series of equations, and, being predetermined, no confusion concerning what it stands for can ever arise. However, when we turn to words, we find them to be imperfect, elastic, and indeterminate. When we deal with mathematical symbols, we expect and find a determinate meaning has been assigned to them, but when we deal with words, we cannot always expect and often fail to find any fixed meaning at all. The ordinary man who is used to dealing only with concrete things his eyes can see and his hands can touch, quite pardonably feels, when he is asked to deal with abstract conceptions, that he is at once out of his depth. When one does not know his Real Self, that is, his own deepest being, it is of little avail to ponder on difficult questions of an intellectual nature. The symmetry of the universe’s patterns appears best in the figure of a circle. The ability to think abstractly and metaphysically is not a waste of time as so many scientists, activists, and practical men of the world think. On the contrary, it is needed as a counterbalance to the ability to think concretely. So long as a man gets all his ideas from experiences gained through the body alone, so long may he pardonably accept the belief in materialism. However, as soon as he begins to get them from thinking alone—and the difference can not be properly grasped until he has practiced prayer sufficiently and successfully—so soon will he see the falsity of this belief. #RandolphHarris 14 of 32

There was a body named Jeff, and he was one of four children, none of whom had permission to succeed. The parents were both a little dishonest in socially acceptable ways, and the children each carried this tendency a little further. One day, Jeff told about his troubles at university. He was falling behind in his work, so he had paid a ghost writer in advance to do his thesis. The group listened with interest as he described his negotiations with this man, and told how the ghost writer had also undertaken to write theses for some of Jeff’s friends, all of whom had paid in advance. The other members asked questions here and there, until finally Jeff came to the point. The writer had absconded to Europe, taking all the money, he had collected, and without leaving any theses behind. At this, the group broke into uproarious laughter in which Jeff joined. The others said they thought the story was funny for two reasons: first, the way Jeff told it, as though he expected them to laugh, and would be disappointed if they did not; and second, because it was the sort of thing they expected, or perhaps even hoped, would happen to Jeff because of the complicated way he went about doing things instead of carrying out his obligations in a straightforward, honest way. They all knew that Jeff was supposed to fail, and it was amusing to see how much effort he put into it. They joined in Jeff’s laughter the same way the crowd had joined in Jeff’s when they first heard. Later, they would all be depressed about it, Jeff most of all. His laugh said, “Ha, ha, ha mother, you always loved me when I failed, and here I go again.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 32

The Adult in the Child, the Professor, has had the task from earliest years of keeping mother contented so that she will stay with him and protect him. If she likes him and expresses the liking with a smile, he feels safe even when he is actually in trouble or even in dire peril of death. In normal mothering, mother’s Parent and Child both like kids. So when mother smiles, both her Parent and her Child are pleased with her offspring, and things will proceed smoothly between them. In other cases, mother’s Parent smiles at her son because she is supposed to, while her Child is angry at him. He can get on the good side of her Child, and get a smile that way, by behavior which her Parent might disapprove of. For example, by demonstrating that he is “bad,” he may get a Child smile because he has proven that he is not-O.K., and that pleases the Child in mother—what we have previously called “the witch mother.” Both script and anti-script can be considered attempts to evoke mother’s smile: the anti-script for the approving smile of mother’s (and father’s) Parent, the script for the smile of mother’s Child, who enjoys the baby’s pain or discomfiture. The gallows laugh, then, occurs when Jeff “finds himself” with the rope around his neck, and his Child says: “I did not really want to end up this way: How did I get here?” Then Mother (in his head) smiles, and he realizes that she has conned him into it. He then has the choice of either going crazy, killing her, himself, or laughing. At such moments, he may envy the brother who chose instead to go to the mental hospital, or the sister who elected to kill herself, but he is not ready for either of those—yet. (Suicide or Crisis Lifeline call or text 988. A counselor is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the help is free.) #RandolphHarris 16 of 32

The gallows laugh or the gallows smile occurs after a special kind of stimulus and response called the “gallows transaction.” A typical example is an alcoholic who has not had a drink for six months, as everyone in the group knows. Then one day, he comes in and lets the others talk for a while. When they have gotten all their troubles off their chests, so that he has the stage to himself, he says: “Guess what happened over the weekend?” One look at his slightly smiling face and they know what happened. They get ready to smile, too. One of them sets up the gallows transaction by asking: “What happened?” “Well, I took one drink and then another, and the next thing I knew”—by this time he is laughing and so are they—“I went on a three-day bender.” In the case of the Alcoholic, when the audience is told about last week’s bender while the audience (including, perhaps, the therapist) beams with delight. The smile of the Children in the audience parallels and reinforces the smile of the witch mother or ogre who is pleased when people obey the injunction (“Don’t think—drink), and in effect tightens the noose around their necks. The gallows laugh (which results from a gallows transaction) means that if the patient laughs while recounting a misfortune, and particularly if the other group members join in the laughter, that misfortune is part of the catastrophe of the patient’s script. When the people around him laugh, they reinforce the payoff, hasten his doom, and prevent him from getting well. In this way, the parental come-on is brought to fruition, ha ha. Semantics deals with those subtleties of language which escape the notice of uneducated people and are ignored by those who shrink a little labour. #RandolphHarris 17 of 32

Technology should be viewed as a vital layer of protection, but it does have its limitations, and we should not become overreliant on technology because some time in the near future, America could be without power, without Interent and no GPS, so people will have to park their cars like their parents did, they may have to use maps to find locations, and they may have to go to the library to do research with physical books. Therefore, it is still a good idea to learn how to use a compass, drive a car with a manual transmission, and learn how to drive without technology assistance. However, for most of us, it is hard to imagine a time when emergency vehicles responded to emergencies and had no communication with dispatch or other apparatus once en route to an incident. Technology will continue to be an asset to emergency services, adding safety and providing more effective operations. Although it should be welcome, we must continue to insist on rigorous testing and consider the applications to emergency services. The new technology must be trained on and used in conjunction with the other tools we must provide an effective system. Clinicians are even in the process of testing technology to scan the brain to see what mental impairments human beings have. While that is welcoming, critics worry it could lead to “mental profiling.” Based on brain scans, the government could track people who are at high risk of committing violent crimes without knowing or having due process, and take them into custody. Few words invoke more fear than the word investigation. We never want to be a suspect in a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  investigative and intelligence process,  an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation, a murder investigation, or a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) investigation. #RandolphHarris 18 of 32

Humans have natural defense mechanisms that resist being probed, examined, or scrutinized by any authority that has the power to discipline, sanction, or even confiscate aspects of our lives. The fear that is that an investigation could conclude with the allocation of blame for something we did or were a part of. Although it is true that a component of investigations is to find fault where faults exist, it is not limited to liability. Another valuable component is to search for and identify the actions and contributing factors that allowed an event to occur. By identifying these aspects, actions can be taken to prevent future occurrences. Take, for instance, a firefighter who falls from an extension ladder at a structural fire. Although seriously injured, he survives the fall. Which of the following is a thorough investigation likely to lead to: Disciplinary action for the incident commander and the firefighter holding the ladder? Liability for the ladder manufacturer, resulting in a lawsuit? Recommendations to eliminate contributing factors in order to prevent a similar incident? Obviously, the last choice is the most probable. Fault and culpable liability are always possible, but recommendations and changes in policy are almost guaranteed. Initiative 9 calls for the thorough investigation of all injuries, deaths, and near-misses in an effort to reduce the chances of the next one. As a result, specific components of an effective system include reporting, investigating, evaluating, and implementing changes. The award-winning Sacramento Fire and Emergency Services have several individual components in place, yet continue to work toward linking information into one effective system. #RandolphHarris 19 of 32

Little do Fire Chief’s know at the time, but they are often witnesses to many large fires in their career. Some are massive and dangerous. On one occasion, there was a blaze in September in response to the report of smoke coming out of the front of a mid-rise apartment building. As the four firemen stretch a hose into the basement of the building, little did they know that they were beginning a fight that would last 40 hours and would send eight people to the hospital with injuries before it was declared out. The men worked their way slowly towards the seat of the fire near the front of the building. After nearly two hours in the intense heat and blinding smoke, a fireman collapsed to the floor and was dragged outside. The decision was then made to leave the basement as it was discovered that the fire had spread along the rafters into the building next door. The entire fire department had arrived by that time and lines were being stretched around the building to try and contain the rapidly spreading blaze. Around 2.30 a.m., an explosion rocked the building. Two firemen were operating a hose just inside the front doors of the building when the explosion occurred. They were blown 15 feet out into the street as the front of the building was destroyed by the blast. In the rear alley, Fire Chief and Police Chief were spraying water into a basement window. Fire Chief was knocked to the ground, but the Police Chief was not as fortunate. He was blown across the alley and through a window at a neighboring house. Both men were treated for minor injuries but remained at the scene. One of the other firemen in the explosion at the front of the building was taken to the hospital with burns on his face, eyes and nose and the other fireman was treated for minor burns but stayed at the scene as well. #RandolphHarris 20 of 32

Both buildings had now become a mass of flames and looked to engulf the entire block. Nine streams were deployed to try to contain the fire. Apparatuses fought the fire from the roofs of the buildings and the blaze was kept to the two affected buildings. The fire raged until the floors collapsed into the basement around 7 a.m. Around the same time, another firefighter collapsed, giving in to smoke inhalation and exposure. As he was being helped into an ambulance, an EMT also collapsed and was taken to the hospital. That firefighter spent the rest of the weekend in the hospital with burns and an infected throat from the smoke. He was x-rayed and it was discovered that he had broken several bones in his back. He wore a back brace for months afterward. An additional firefighter spent the night in the hospital due to smoke inhalation. Three other firefighters were treated for minor burns and released. The collapse of the floors was the beginning of the end of the fire. Several containers of cooking grease in the kitchen and propane tanks continued to feed the flames in the basement until Sunday morning, when the fire was finally declared out, 40 hours after the first alarm was sent into the department. The Fire Captain later said that the fire was one of the worst in the city’s history. The estimated losses later added up to $15 million. The two buildings were completely destroyed. Other businesses and homes on the same block reported heavy smoke damage and heavy losses from smoke and water after the fire. An investigation revealed that the buildings were not up to code. One had indoor hallways with open-air windows with no glass to the outside, which gave the fire fuel to rage out of control. High-rise buildings with indoor hallways and windows without glass can be a violation of specific fire codes and regulations. The fire department was also undermanned and short on firefighting equipment. The fire departments were badly in need of more aerial trucks and other equipment. #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. 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 23 of 32

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 24 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 where housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. If they are all officially counted, California has approximately 4 million homeless people. The highest home prices in the nation, the highest taxes, and the most unfriendly business regulations known to man.  Because California is so hostile towards people and businesses, more than 360 companies have fled the state since 2020. Businesses like Chevron, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard are among the names on that list. Also, more than 500,000 people a year are abandoning California because it is too expensive to live in, Gavin Newsom has criminalized homelessness and actually started arresting people without homes, crime is out of control, and they are losing their jobs due to companies relocating. More than 100 companies have announced layoffs in California for 2025. Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, PayPal is cutting 2,500, and Meta has terminated 4,000 employees. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.1 percent. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. Accordingly, California has more than 3.5 million illegal immigrants. Having the Southern American border open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce, and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security-relevant alerts, such as the end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. #RandolphHarris 25 of 32

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 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. 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 27 of 32

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 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. 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 31 of 32

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 32 of 32

The Winchester Mystery House

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 Mrs. Winchester they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits. In addition, Mrs. Winchester was told construction on the house must never end in order to appease the spirits and keep her alive, perhaps even give her eternal life. Mrs. Winchester followed the medium’s suggestions, and in 1886, she moved to the Santa Clara valley just outside San Jose, where she bought an 18-room farmhouse and property to build her mansion. At its peak, the Mansion once stood 9-stories tall and had as many as 600-rooms. Today, the stately mansion is 4-storys, and over 100,000 square feet.

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 that lead to hidden chambers within the mansion. These chambers served as safe places for valuables, precious documents, and as private sanctuaries for Mrs. Winchester, and allowed her to move stealthily throughout her home. At one time, there were even secret tunnels that extended beyond the mansion, leading to nearby Victorian houses that were also on the property, and other structures, creating a network of escape routes or hidden pathways.

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/

Why Choose Harris?

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/

Brian Harris BMW

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

Cresleigh Homes

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 neighborhood of 71 homes designed for comfort, convenience, and connection. Adjacent to Exploration Park, it offers the perfect blend of modern living and outdoor adventure right at your doorstep.

Choose from five floor plans ranging from 1,342 to 2,547 square feet, with options for 3 to 5 bedrooms, flexible spaces, and open layouts tailored to today’s lifestyles. Whether you are a first-time buyer, a growing family, or looking to simplify without giving up style, there is a home here for you.

Select homes include 100 percent owned solar at no extra cost, providing lasting savings, energy efficiency, and the confidence of ownership.

With maintenance friendly yards, nearby shopping and dining, and access to top rated schools, Park Haven is more than just a place to live. It is a place to thrive. https://cresleigh.com/park-haven/

Every house where love abides and friendship is a guest is surely a Cresleigh Home. https://cresleigh.com/park-haven/residence-4/

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” -President Abraham Lincoln

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.

America has a lot of amazing things – its beautiful natural scenery, vibrant cities, unique culture, and some of the world’s most iconic landmarks — it us no wonder many choose to make America their home.

Do Not Tell Any of the Family Secrets!

I remember when I was younger and people had “cool” parents or grandparents; it was intriguing, a novelty, something many believed was amazing because older adults were generally quiet, reserved, and boring. However, as people my age are now adults and many have kids of their own, immature senior citizens are no longer cool. Now that they are retired, many of these “cool” adults have picked up habits such as alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, cyberstalking, vandalism, intimate partner violence, fraud, and theft. They are no longer cool. Instead of enjoying the cool breeze of a winter’s afternoon, it has now been replaced they the stench of skunk weed and alcohol. My children are now in high school, and we have an apartment in the city. Oftentimes, when my son comes home from school to study or do his homework, he complains about being harassed by drunk old people who stink of liquor, body odor, urine, and sometimes feces. After the sun goes down is when the senior citizens bring out the heavier drugs, such as crack cocaine and meth. The pungent odors seep through the walls and doors. Now, it is not just teenagers being told by their parents, “Turn that music down!” or “Stop running in and out!” or “Be quiet!” or “Don’t do drugs!” I frequently hear my son asking his friend, “Dude! What’s wrong with your grandpa and his friends?! Why are they so loud?” Behaviors that were once thought to be unique to youth are now being observed in the elderly. However, unlike a child, you cannot punish a senior citizen or make them follow the rules. #RandolphHarris 1 of 29

There has even been a rise in senior citizens bullying the youth and trying to start fights with them. The young people, on the other hand, are typically seen and not heard. They obey the rules, are respectful, clean up behind themselves, and stay clean and sober. For various reasons, some adults never mature. Society has changed, and people have become more outrageous and criminally inclined. Seniors have difficulty losing their mental faculties and often feel like they have lost their autonomy. Sometimes, their frustration turns into childish behavior, as often happens with loss of control out of frustration and limited options. Additionally, digression of behaviors may also indicate serious developments in your parent’s health, such as a progression in mental decline or depression. It can be really frustrating, painful and stressful to others when they are at home trying to relax, study, get work done, or are not feeling well, and senior citizens are having wild parties and getting “turnt up.” A party once in a while would not be such a bad thing, but because they have nothing to do with their time, some old people are involved in degenerate behavior every day. When your elderly parent, or in some cases, grandparent, acts infantile, the first step to take is to avoid assuming they are acting this way to annoy or frustrate others. Often, the cause bothers them more than it does their family, caregivers, or community, and they need empathy. Take this time to examine their behavior for mental illness, such as dementia. If you see any symptoms of mental deterioration, call their doctor. #RandolphHarris 2 of 29

Additionally, check for changes in medications and environmental factors. Aging could possibly lead to social and physical changes that may increase vulnerability to substance misuse. Little is known about the effects of drugs and alcohol on the aging brain. However, older adults typically metabolize substances more slowly, and their brains can be more sensitive to drugs. One study suggests that people addicted to cocaine in their youth may have an accelerated age-related decline in temporal lobe gray matter and a smaller temporal lobe compared to control groups who do not use cocaine. This could make them more vulnerable to the adverse consequences of cocaine use as they age. Older adults may be more likely to experience mood disorders, lung and heart problems, or memory issues. Drugs can worsen these conditions, exacerbating the negative health consequences of substance use. Additionally, the effects of some drugs—like impaired judgment, coordination, or reaction time—can result in accidents, such as falls and motor vehicle crashes. These sorts of injuries can pose a greater risk to health than in younger adults and coincide with a possible longer recovery time. Chronic health conditions tend to develop as part of aging, and older adults are often prescribed more medicines than other age groups. Some steal medications from their friends, family members, or neighbors, leading to a higher rate of exposure to potentially addictive medications. One study of 3,000 adults aged 57-85 showed common mixing of prescription medicines, nonprescription drugs, and dietary supplements. #RandolphHarris 3 of 29

More than 80 percent of participants used at least one prescription medication daily, with nearly half using more than five medications or supplements, putting at least 1 in 25 people in the age group of 57-85 at risk for a major drug-drug interaction. Other risks could include accidental misuse of prescription drugs, and possible worsening of existing mental health issues. For example, a 2019 study of patients over the age of 50 noted that more than 25 percent who misuse prescription opioids or benzodiazepines expressed suicidal ideation, compared to 2 percent who do not use them, underscoring the need for careful screening before prescribing these medications. Nine percent of adults aged 50-64 reported past-year marijuana use in 2015-2016, compared to 7.1 percent in 2012-2013. The use of cannabis in the past year by adults 65 years and older increased sharply from 0.4 percent in 2006 and 2007 to 2.9 percent in 2015 and 2016. However, the potential benefits of medical marijuana must be weighed against its risks, particularly for individuals who have other health conditions or take prescribed medications. Regular marijuana use for medical or other reasons at any age has been linked to chronic respiratory conditions, depression, impaired memory, adverse cardiovascular functions, and altered judgment and motor skills. Marijuana can interact with many prescription drugs and complicate already existing health issues and common physiological changes in older adults. Approximately 8 of every 100 adults aged 65 and older smoke cigarettes, increasing their risk for heart disease and cancer. While this rate is lower than that for younger adults, research suggests that older people who smoke have an increased risk of becoming frail, though smokers who quit do not appear to be at higher risk. Although an estimated 300,000 smoke-related deaths occur each year among people who are age 65 and older, the risk diminishes in older adults who quit smoking. A typical smoker who quits after age 65 could add two to three years to their life expectancy. Within a year of quitting, most former smokers reduce their risk of coronary heart disease by half. #RandolphHarris 4 of 29

Alcohol is the most used drug among older adults, with about 65 percent of people 65 and older reporting high-risk drinking, defined as exceeding daily guidelines at least weekly in the past year. Of particular concern, more than a tenth of adults age 65 and older currently binge drink, which is defined as drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion for men, and four or more drinks on the same occasion for women. In addition, research published in 2020 shows that increases in alcohol consumption in recent years have been greater for people aged 50 and older relative to younger age groups. Alcohol Use Disorder: Most admissions to substance use treatment centers in this age group relate to alcohol. One study documented a 107 percent increase in alcohol use disorder among adults aged 65 years and older from 2001 to 2013. Alcohol use disorder can put older people at greater risk for a range of health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, liver and bone problems, memory issues, and mood disorders. While the use of illicit drugs in older adults is much lower than among other adults, it is currently increasing. Older adults are often more susceptible to the effects of drugs, because, as the body ages, it often cannot absorb and break down drugs and alcohol as easily as it once did. Older adults are more likely to unintentionally misuse medicines by forgetting to take their medicine, taking it too often, stealing medication from others, or taking their wrong amount. Some older adults may take substances to cope with big life changes such as retirement, grief and loss, declining health, or a change in living situation. #RandolphHarris 5 of 29

Most admissions to substance use treatment centers in this age group are for alcohol. Many behavioral therapies and medications have been successful in treating substance use disorders, although medications are underutilized. It is never too late to quit using substances—quitting can improve quality of life and future health. More science is needed on the effects of substance use on the aging brain, as well as into effective models of care for older adults with substance use disorders. Providers may confuse symptoms of substance use with other symptoms of gaining, which could include chronic health conditions or reactions to stressful, life-changing events. In addition, older adults are more likely to hide their substance abuse and less likely to seek professional help. Many relatives of older individuals with substance use disorders, particularly their adult children, are ashamed of the problem and choose not to address it. The result is thousands of older adults who need treatment and do not receive it. Aging changes sleep architecture, decreasing the amount of time spent in the deeper levels of sleep (stages three and four) and increasing the number and duration of awakenings during the night. It is recommended that every 60-year-old should be screened for alcohol and prescription drug abuse as part of his or her regular physical examination. However, problems can develop after the screening has been conducted, and concurrent illnesses and other chronic conditions may mask abuse. It is also recommended that if the senior is having behavioral problems or worsening physical condition, or if the older person is undergoing major life changes or transitions that they should be screened. #RandolphHarris 6 of 29

Although it is preferable to use standardized screening questionnaires, friendly visitors, Meals-On-Wheels volunteers, caretakers, and health care providers also can interject screening questions into their normal conversations with older homebound adults. Although the line of questioning will depend on the person’s relationship with the older person and the responses given, it is recommended that anyone who is concerned about an older adult’s drinking practices try asking direct questions. Delirium is a serious, potentially preventable, neuropsychiatric disorder occurring in association with other underlying medical conditions. Delirium is under-recognized and underdiagnosed, making accurate prevalence and incidence difficult to gauge. Delirium can affect up to 50 percent of individuals over the age of 65 years. Predisposition risk factors include older age, dementia, dementia, severe illness, surgery, pain, dehydration, sepsis, electrolyte disturbance, urinary retention, fecal impaction, and exposure to high-risk medications. Delirium is often unrecognized and undocumented by clinicians. Rates of unrecognized delirium, which is defined as the diagnosis of delirium after being unrecognized by a primary physician or nurse, is estimated to be about 60 percent of all cases. This high rate of unrecognized delirium underscores the need for screening to detect delirium early. Early recognition and treatment can improve outcomes. The best tool is the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) is a standardized evidence-based tool that enables non-psychiatrically trained clinicians to identify and recognize delirium quickly and accurately in both clinical and research settings. #RandolphHarris 7 of 29

The real self, is the alive, unique, personal center of ourselves; the only part that can, and wants to grow. Unfortunate conditions prevent its unimpeded growth from the very beginning. There are forces in the individual which usurp its energies and lead to the formation of a pride system which becomes autonomous and exerts a tyrannical and destructive power. It terms of the devil’s pact, the abandoning of self corresponds to the selling of one’s soul. In psychiatric terms we call it the “alienation from self.” This latter term is applied chiefly to those extreme conditions in which people lose their feeling of identity, as in amnesias and depersonalizations, et cetera. These conditions have always aroused general curiosity. It is strange and even startling that a person who is not asleep and has no organic brain disease does not know who he is, where he is, or what he does or has been doing. If we do not regard them as isolated occurrences but see their relation to less conspicuous forms of alienation from self, these are, however, less bewildering. In these forms there is no gross loss of identity and orientation, but the general capacity for conscious experience is impaired. There are, for instance, many neurotics who live as if they were 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. Also related, in still less drastic terms, are conditions in which the dimming out is restricted to intrapsychic processes. I am thinking of people who can be rather astute observers of others, who can lucidly size up a situation or a trend of thought; yet experiences of all kinds (in relation to others, nature, et cetera) do not penetrate to awareness. And these states of mind, in turn, are not unrelated to those of apparently healthy people who suffer from occasional partial blackouts or from blind spots concerning certain areas of inner or outer experience. #RandolphHarris 8 of 29

All these forms of alienation from self can concern as well as the “material self”—the body and the possession. A neurotic may have but little feeling of or for his body. Even his bodily sensations may be numbed. When asked for instance whether his feet are cold, he may have to arrive at an awareness of feeling cold through a process of thinking. He may not recognize himself when seeing himself unexpectedly in a full-length mirror. Similarly, he may have no feeling of his home being his home—it is for him as impersonal as a hotel room. Others have no feeling that the money they possess is their money, even though it may have been earned through hard work. These are only a few variations of what we could properly call an alienation from the actual self. All of what a person actually is or has, including even his connection of his present life with his past, the feeling for this continuity of his life, may be blotted out or dimmed out. Some of this process is intrinsic in every neurosis. Sometimes patients may be aware of disturbances on this score, as in the case of one patient who described himself as a lamppost with a brain on top. More often, they are unaware of it, although it may be fairly extensive; and it may gradually unfold only in analysis. At the core of this alienation from the actual self is a less tangible phenomenon, although more crucial. It is the remoteness of the neurotic from his own feelings, wishes, beliefs, and energies. It is the loss of the feeling of being an active determining force in his own life. It is the loss of feeling himself as an organic whole. These in turn indicate an alienation from that most alive center of ourselves which I have suggested calling the real self. #RandolphHarris 9 of 29

The real self provides the “palpitating inward life”; it engenders the spontaneity of feelings, whether these be joy, yearning, love, anger, fear, or despair. It is also the source of spontaneous interest and energies, “the source of effort and attention from which emanate the fiats of will”; the capacity to wish and to will; it is the part of ourselves that wants to expand and grow and to fulfill itself. It produces the “reactions of spontaneity” to our feelings or thoughts, “welcoming or opposing, appropriating or disowning, striving with or against, saying yes or no.” All this indicates that our real self, when strong and active, enables us to make decisions and assume responsibility for them. It therefore leads to genuine integration and a sound sense of wholeness, oneness. Not merely and harmonious, but they function without serious inner conflict. In contrast to those artificial means of holding ourselves together, which gain in importance as the real self is weakened, there is little or no attendant strain. The history of philosophy shows that we can deal with the problems of self from many vantage points. Yet it seems as though every treating this subject has found it difficult to go beyond describing his special experiences and interests. From the viewpoint of clinical usefulness, I would distinguish the actual or empirical self from the idealized self on the one hand, and the actual or empirical self from the idealized self on the one hand, and the real self on the other. The actual self is an all-inclusive term for everything that a person is at a given time: body and soul, healthy and neurotic. We have it in mind when we say that we want to know ourselves; id est, we want to know ourselves as we are. #RandolphHarris 10 of 29

The idealized self is what we are in our irrational imagination, or what we should be according to the dictates of neurotic pride. The real self is the “original” force toward individual growth and fulfillment, with which we may again achieve full identification when freed of the crippling shackles of neurosis. Hence, it is what we refer to when we say that we want to find ourselves. In this sense, it is also (to all neurotics) the possible self—in contrast to the idealized self, which is impossible of attainment. Seen from this angle, it seems the most speculative of all. Who, seeing a neurotic patient, can separate the wheat from the chaff and say: this is his possible self. However, while the real or possible self of a neurotic person is in a way an abstraction, it is nevertheless felt and we can say that every glimpse we get of it feels more real, more certain, more definite than anything else. We can observe this quality in ourselves or in our patients when, after some incisive insight, there is a release from the grip of some incisive insight, there is a release from the grip of some compulsive need. In the face-to-face situation, language possesses an inherent quality of reciprocity that distinguishes it from any other sign system. The ongoing production of vocal signs in conversation can be sensitively synchronized with the ongoing subjective intentions of the conversants. I speak as I think; so does my partner in the conversation. Both of us hear what each says at virtually the same instant, which makes possible a continuous, synchronized, reciprocal access to our two subjectivities, an intersubjective closeness in the face-to-face situation that no other sign system can duplicate. #RandolphHarris 11 of 29

What is more, I hear myself as I speak; my own subjective meanings are made objectively and continuously available to me and ipso facto become “more real” to me. Another way of putting this is to recall the previous point about my “better knowledge” of the other as against my knowledge of myself in the face-to-face situation. This apparently paradoxical fact has been previously explained by the massive, continuous and prereflective availability of the other’s being in the face-to-face situation, as against the requirement of the reflection for the availability of my own. Now, however, as I objectivate my own being by means of language, my own being becomes massively and continuously available to myself at the same time that it is so available to him, and I can spontaneously respond to it without the “interruption” of deliberate reflection. It can, therefore, be said that language makes “more real” my subjectivity not only to my conversation partner but also to myself. This capacity of language to crystalize and stabilize for me my own subjectivity is retained (albeit with modification) as language is detached from the face-to-face situation. This very important characteristic of language is well caught in the saying that men must talk about themselves until they know themselves. Men understand more easily what they can see, touch, and hear—that is, images, forms, and pictures—in short, symbols. These are the idols honoured by simpler minds.  However, when they develop their minds sufficiently, they become able to think in terms of simple arithmetic, progressing of the laws of geometry, and from algebra on to higher mathematics. #RandolphHarris 12 of 29

The fact is it is utterly impossible to form an abstract idea in the mind. We can only think of particular ideas. When the self-actualized Christian does indulge in the luxury of a conversation with an inquirer or spiritual aspirant, he usually adopts the Socratic method. There is probably no more powerful or effective method of compelling a man to think, to exercise his own reason, instead of repeating parrot-like phrases, than this of thrusting question after question at him. The first use of general principles, the first worth of general theories is to economize thought and thus to avoid going over the same ground again and again. This is a remarkable and little-known power of abstract reflection—that, just as one thorn may be used to pick out a second from the skin, so a line of thinking can be used as to bring all thinking to an end. It is striking that whenever persons are asked why they did anything, their motives usually appear exemplary, to them and to the observer. A person will seldom admit intentions of an immoral or antisocial sort. Yet, the consequences of many actions are often discrepant with the admitted motive. Thus, a person intends to help a friend and actually interferes drastically with the friend’s success. A man loves his wife, yet his behavior toward her may produce grief and discomfort for her. For any action that a person undertakes, it can be assumed that its consequences were desired by the person. If the aim is denied, or if the consequences appear at variance with the aim, then the observer may assume the intent has been repressed. #RandolphHarris 13 of 29

The motive that the person admits may be called a rationalization. It is an explanation for an action and its consequences that is compatible with the individual’s self-structure. The motive behind rationalization is not to give a factual account of authentic intent; rather, it is to do justice to the need to explain conduct and at the same time protect the self-structure. A rationalization, then, is an explanation of one’s conduct that has been selected from many possible explanations because it enhances and defends the individual’s self-structure. A theology student has asked a girl for a date. She was known to be quite proud of her sexually “liberated” attitudes. He said he wanted to persuade her to change her ways and denied any sexual interest in her. He was quite possibly rationalizing. Some people’s awareness is marred by a return of demons, whoever they may have been. Man’s rebellion often centers in the question of his differential debt of obedience to God, to the Pope, and to Caesar—or rather, to the multitude of Caesars then emerging. There is often a preparatory dichotomy that preoccupies people: that between the obedience owed to their natural father, whose views are always brutally clear, and the obedience owed to the Father in heaven, from whom many youths have received a dramatic but equivocal call. The average man has not the patience to, and does not want to, inquire into meanings of his words. He says, “My meaning is the right one and good enough for me.” This implies that he knows, but in fact he does not, because he has not examined it. The intellect cannot work accurately with blurred concepts. Pitfalls await to receive it under such conditions. This is one reason why the process of discovering and clarifying meanings leads its advance into truth. Many think it is useless to discuss the meaning of a term. This is often correct in the case of a logician who seeks merely to score a cheap intellectual triumph over an opponent, however dishonestly, but in the case of a true metaphysician who seeks truth in its genuine sense, such a procedure may be most helpful to him. At the least, it may point out pitfalls. #RandolphHarris 14 of 29

Some people are forbidden to finish anything or come to the point, so when they talk, they “run off at the mouth.” Their sentences are strung out with conjunctions: “Yesterday I was sitting at home with my husband and… and…and then…and…and then…” Often, the directive is “Do not tell any of the family secrets!” so they go all around the secret and play with it as long as they can without giving it away. Some speakers are careful to balance everything: “It’s raining, but the sun will come out soon.” “I have a headache, but my stomach is better.” “They are not very nice, but on the other hand, they look cheerful.” The directive in this case seems to be “Do not look at anything too closely.” The most interesting example of this type was a man who had been a diabetic since the age of five, and had been taught to balance his diet with the utmost care. When he spoke, he weighed every word with similar care, and balanced each of his sentences very cautiously and precisely. These precautions made him very difficult to listen to. All his life, he had been in a rage against the unfair restrictions imposed on him because of the disease, and his speech became very unbalanced when he was angry. (The implications of this for the psychology of diabetes must await further study.) Another type of sentence structure is the dangling point, with free use of “and so forth” and “et cetera.” “Well, we went to the movies, and so forth, and then I kissed her and so forth, and then she stole my wallet and so forth.” Unfortunately, this often conceals a deep anger against the mother. “Well, I would like to tell her what I think of her, et cetera.” “What is ‘et cetera?’” “What I would really like to do is cut her to pieces.” “Et cetera?” “No, more ‘et cetera.’ That is the et cetera.” Sentence structure offers a fascinating field of study. #RandolphHarris 15 of 29

Historically, the big dilemma with regard to fitness is the term fit for duty versus wellness. Most firefighters are more than willing to partake in a wellness program, one designed as a voluntary program to help make healthy choices in diet and exercise. The term fit for duty generally refers to being able to complete specific skills or meet set criteria to be permitted to work. Some career fire departments have phased in a fit for duty clause in their union contract. Some fire departments already get discounts on insurance workers’ compensation by instituting programs that reduce risks, such as a drug-free workplace and emergency vehicle driving. We can expect that if more fire departments see improved health and financial savings by requiring fit for duty, others will follow. Firefighters should not see this as a career-ending situation, but, rather, an opportunity to prevent a life-ending situation. NFPA 1583, Standard on Health-Related Fitness Programs for Fire Fighters, describes the necessary components of a health-related fitness program. These include a fitness coordinator, a fitness assessment, an exercise training program, education and counseling, and data collection. The five components of a fitness evaluation include: Body composition, aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscle endurance, and flexibility. The fire department physician must be familiar with the duties of firefighting and the associated risks. Through thorough exams, the doctor screens the member for injuries or diseases likely to interfere with firefighting duties. The physician identifies disqualifying medical conditions that must be acted on immediately, and ensures proper referral to the appropriate specialist. #RandolphHarris 16 of 29

By discussing the results of the examination and answering questions, the physician also can make individual recommendations for the member to improve his or her health. Although specific findings are confidential, the physician reports back to the department whether the member is cleared for firefighting duties. NFPA 1582, Standard on Comprehensive Occupational Medical Program for Fire Departments, outlines what specific body systems should be evaluated and what diagnostic tests should be completed. The purpose of these tests is to find a medical problem before it becomes debilitating, as well as to identify trending. For instance, a pulmonary function test (spirometry) is one recommended component of the annual diagnostics. If a firefighter has continually done well on the tests for the past 7 years but now cannot pass, it is clear that something has occurred. Perhaps the member was involved in an emergency incident that caused injury to his pulmonary system that had not yet been identified. Without annual testing, it could go unnoticed, and a direct cause could be more difficult to pinpoint down the road. Sometimes firefighters argue that they should be permitted to see their own doctor rather than the department physician. The biggest problem is that some primary care physicians are not capable of administering some tests, such as spirometry, and may not understand their value. #RandolphHarris 17 of 29

Another important component of the testing is blood work analysis. Next time you get a blood draw for a physical, take your results to a computer and pull up the American Heart Association’s website. Punch your readings and personal information into the heart attack calculator to see what your chances are of having a heart attack in the next year. Of course, the calculator does not take into account the increased cardiac stress of your job, so it might actually be on the low side. However, by trending these results each year, you can monitor the progress of your improvement. The last component involves the specific needs of members. Firefighters are at a significantly greater risk of developing cancer because of continuous contact with carcinogens. These cancer-causing chemicals can easily be inhaled or absorbed during or after firefighting operations, including diesel exhaust at the station. NFPA 1582 specifies the test procedures and frequency at which cancer screenings should occur based on age and gender. Hazardous materials term members might go through more extensive diagnostic testing, such as chest X-rays. Staff members who do not wear SCBA may not receive the same amount of pulmonary testing as a line firefighter, whereas members over a certain age or with a specific medical history will probably get additional tests. Sometimes tests are necessary due to a specific medical history will probably get additional tests. Sometimes tests are necessary due to a specific hazard in their response area. A good example of this is a fire brigade for an industrial fire department working around specific chemicals. See what else the award-winning Sacramento Fire Department is doing to keep firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics in great shape. https://www.instagram.com/p/DQFmNfpEsIX/ #RandolphHarris 18 of 29

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 19 of 29

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 20 of 29

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 21 of 29

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 22 of 29

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 23 of 29

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 24 of 29

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 25 of 29

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 29

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 27 of 29

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 28 of 29

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 29 of 29

The Winchester Mystery House

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 Mrs. Winchester they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits. In addition, Mrs. Winchester was told construction on the house must never end in order to appease the spirits and keep her alive, perhaps even give her eternal life. Mrs. Winchester followed the medium’s suggestions, and in 1886, she moved to the Santa Clara valley just outside San Jose, where she bought an 18-room farmhouse and property to build her mansion. At its peak, the Mansion once stood 9-stories tall and had as many as 600-rooms. Today, the stately mansion is 4-storys, and over 100,000 square feet.

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 that lead to hidden chambers within the mansion. These chambers served as safe places for valuables, precious documents, and as private sanctuaries for Mrs. Winchester, and allowed her to move stealthily throughout her home. At one time, there were even secret tunnels that extended beyond the mansion, leading to nearby Victorian houses that were also on the property, and other structures, creating a network of escape routes or hidden pathways.

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/

Why Choose Harris?

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/

Brian Harris BMW

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

Cresleigh Homes

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Every house where love abides and friendship is a guest is surely a Cresleigh Home. https://cresleigh.com/park-haven/residence-4/

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” -President Abraham Lincoln

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.

America has a lot of amazing things – its beautiful natural scenery, vibrant cities, unique culture, and some of the world’s most iconic landmarks — it us no wonder many choose to make America their home. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

The Sweet Self-Torture Which is My Whole Delight

Evil mechanics have been in operation in the minds of men for centuries. Ignorance and all its causes are evil. In some cases, people are unable to discern whether their illness is mental or demonic. Studies assessing individuals with neuro-psychiatric conditions associated with evil-related behavioral abnormalities have been suggesting a potential role of frontal and limbic structures of the brain, as well as of the serotonergic system. The limbic system is a group of structures in the brain that governs emotions, motivation, olfaction (sense of smell), and behavior. The limbic system is also involved in the formation of long-term memory. The structures of the limbic system are located deep within the brain, immediately below the temporal lobes, and are buried beneath the cerebral cortex, just above the brainstem. A dysfunctional limbic system is associated with several conditions and clinical disorders such as epilepsy, dementia, anxiety disorders, and autism. The frontal lobe of the brain is part of the cerebral cortex. It is located at the front of the brain, just behind the forehead, and is one of the five main lobes of the brain. The frontal lobe is the largest section of the brain, covering about one-third of its surface area. The frontal lobe of the brain plays a crucial role in vital functions such as memory, judgment, abstract thinking, creativity, social appropriateness, and motor tasks that involve voluntary movement. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31

The frontal lobes are the most common area for injury to occur in the brain. Damage can lead to a wide variety of symptoms, such as loss of movement, difficulty speaking, and changes in social behavior. The serotoninergic system is defined as the network involved in the neural regulation of mood and anxiety, playing a crucial role in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. It is characterized by the expression and activation of serotonin receptors, which influence emotional behavior and neurodevelopmental outcomes, particularly in response to early life stressors and maternal diet. Symptoms of evil tend to be extreme manipulativeness, a lack of empathy, pathological lying, an obsession with control, sadistic enjoyment of pain, and vindictiveness. If the frontal and/or limbic structures, and/or serotonergic system is damaged, because these structures and systems play vital roles in regulating the behavior of a human being, it is clear why people may believe that a person is possessed by an evil demon. Typically, evil people try to take everything you love and destroy it. They will go as far as destroying your vehicle, breaking into your home, vandalizing it, stealing, and slander. They will even go as far as doing things like killing your small pets and loved ones, poisoning, and trying to kill you. Therefore, in many cultures, evil and mental illness are often used interchangeably. However, because some mental illnesses are so severe, people believe that it can be nothing other than evil. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31

People with mental illness are members of our communities, and nearly every element of life is affected. Nearly 50 percent of Americans have been mentally ill at some point in their lives, and more than a quarter have suffered from mental illness in the past twelve months. Some people may fail to recognize their problems as symptoms of treatable mental disorders, whereas others may worry about being stigmatized as “crazy.” Nevertheless, approximately 60 percent of people with mental disorders go untreated. Strangely enough, despite the vast numbers of untreated individuals, nearly one-third of all mental health visits involved problems too mild to meet criteria for any psychiatric disorder. So, in addition to the many cases of unmet need, we have too many instances of needs going unmet. Therefore, people who are experiencing ordinary problems of living may be consuming scarce resources needed by those with serious problems such as schizophrenia and depression. Which means that those most in need of treatment do not receive it, whereas those least in need do. Of course, not all psychological troubles signify a mental disorder. Mental health professionals often provide helpful guidance to people whose distress arises from difficulties in everyday life. People seek counseling for relationship problems, difficulties at work, or loneliness. Moreover, people whose mental illness has gone into remission may still require counseling to ensure sustained recovery. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31

To further highlight this situation, therapists can help patients with a history of psychosis adhere to medication regimens and cope with life stressors that might otherwise lead to a relapse into depression or mania. In this sense, not everyone who sees a therapist necessarily counts as a case of draining scarce resources. With nearly half of all Americans suffering from mental disorders, many wonder what a mental disorder is? A mental disorder is characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior. It is usually associated with distress or impairment in important areas of functioning. There are many different types of mental disorders. Mental disorders may also be referred to as mental health conditions. The latter is a broader term covering mental disorders, psychosocial disabilities, and (other) mental states associated with significant distress, impairment in functioning, or risk of self-harm. Nearly 1.2 billion people around the world are living with a mental disorder, with anxiety and depressive disorders the most common. While effective prevention and treatment options exist, most people with mental disorders do not have access to effective care. Many people also experience stigma, discrimination, and violations of human rights. This can often lead to self-torture. Self-torture is, in part, an inevitable by-product of self-hate. Whether the neurotic tries to whip himself into a perfection impossible to attain, hurls accusations against himself, or disparages or frustrates himself, he is actually torturing himself. Making self-torture a separate category among the expressions of self-hate involves the contention that there is, or may be, an intent at self-tormenting. #RandolphHarris 4 of 31

We must, of course, in any case of neurotic anguish, consider all possibilities. Consider, for instance, self-doubts. They may result from inner conflicts and may show in endless and inconclusive inner dialogues, in which a person tries to defend himself against his own self-accusations; they may be an expression of self-hate, aimed at undermining the ground on which a person stands. Actually, they can be most tormenting. Like Hamlet—or even worse than he—people can be eaten up by self-doubts. Certainly, their reasons for operating also constitute an unconscious intent at self-torture? A further example of this same caliber: procrastination. As we know, many factors may be responsible for delaying decision or action, such as general inertia or a pervasive incapacity to take a stand. The procrastinator himself knows that things postponed often will loom larger and larger, and that, in actual fact, he may inflict considerable suffering upon himself. And here we sometimes get a first glimpse that goes beyond inconclusive questions. When, on account of his postponing, he does get into an unpleasant or threatening situation, he may say to himself with unmistakable glee: “It serves you right.” That still does not mean that he procrastinates because he is driven to torture himself, but it does suggest a kind of Schadenfreude, a vindictive satisfaction at the self-inflicted distress. No evidence so far, then, for an active tormenting—but rather the gleeful attitude of a bystander watching the victim squirm and writhe. #RandolphHarris 5 of 31

If it were not for a crescendo of other observations, showing the existence of active self-tormenting drives, all of this would remain inconclusive. In certain forms of stinginess with self, for instance, the patient observes that his petty economizing is not simply an “inhibition” but is peculiarly satisfying, sometimes almost amounting to a passion. Then, there are certain patients with hypochondriac propensities who not only have their honest-to-God fears but also seem to frighten themselves in a rather cruel way. A touch of a sore throat turns into tuberculosis, a stomach upset into cancer, an aching muscle into poliomyelitis, a headache into a brain tumor, a spell of anxiety into insanity. One such patient went through what she called the “poisonous process.” At slight initial signs of restlessness or sleeplessness, she would tell herself that now she was in for a new cycle of panic. Each night thereafter, it would become worse and worse until it reached unbearable proportions. Comparing the initial fears to a little snowball, it was as if she rolled it on and on until it grew into an avalanche, which in the end would bury her. In a poem she wrote at that time, she speaks of “the sweet self-torture which is my whole delight.” In these hypochondriac cases, one factor which sets the self-torture going can be isolated. They feel that they should have absolute health, poise, and fearlessness. Any little sign to the contrary makes them turn mercilessly against themselves. Furthermore, when analyzing a patient’s sadistic fantasies and impulses, we recognize that these may originate in sadistic impulses, we recognize that these may originate in sadistic impulses directed against himself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 31

Certain patients have at times compulsive urges or fantasies to torture others. These seem to focus mostly on children or helpless people. In one instance, they concerned a hunchbacked servant, Anne, in a quieted partly by the intensity of the impulse and partly because he felt bewildered by them. Anne was pleasant enough and had never hurt his feelings. Before the sadistic fantasies started, he had alternately felt oathing and sympathy for her physical deformity. Both of these feelings, he had recognized as stemming from his identifying himself with the girl. He was physically strong and healthy, but when he felt hopeless and contemptuous regarding his psychic entanglements, he would refer to himself as a cripple. The sadistic impulses and fantasies started when he first noticed in Anne a certain overeagerness to serve and a tendency to make a doormat out of herself. Most likely, Anne had long been this way. However, his observation struck at the very point when his own self-effacing trends had come closer to awareness and rumblings of self-hate on these grounds had become audible. The compulsive urge to torture her was hence interpreted as an active externalization of impulses to torture himself which, in addition, gave him a thrilling feeling of power over a weaker creature. The active urge then dwindled to sadistic fantasies, and these disappeared as his self-effacing trends and his loathing of them came into clearer focus. I do not believe that all sadistic impulses—or actions—toward others have their sole origin in self-hate. #RandolphHarris 7 of 31

However, I think it is likely that the externalization of self-tormenting drives is always a contributing factor. At any rate, the connection is sufficiently frequent to cause us to be alert to its possibilities. In other patients, fears of torture appear without any external provocation. They also arise at times of increased self-hate and express a reaction of fear to a passive externalization of self-tormenting drives. Finally, there are masochistic and sexual activities and fantasies. I am thinking of masturbation fantasies which extend from being degraded to being cruelly tortured; masturbatory activities that accompany scratching or slapping oneself, pulling out hair, walking in too tight shoes, assuming painfully twisted positions; sexual acts in which the person must be scolded, beaten, tied, or forced to perform menial or disgusting tasks before he can reach sexual satisfaction. The structure of these practices is rather complicated. I believe that we must distinguish at least two different kinds. In one of them, the person experiences a vindictive pleasure from torturing himself; in the other, he is identified with the degraded self and can, for reasons to be discussed later, gain sexual satisfaction this way only. There is, however, reason to believe that this distinction is valid only for the conscious experience—that in fact, he is always both the torturer and the tortured, that he derives satisfaction from being degraded as well as from degrading himself. One of the implications for analytical therapy is to look out in all instances of factual self-torture for a secret intent at self-torment. Another one is to be alert to the possibility of externalizations of self-tormenting tendencies. Whenever an intent at self-torture seems reasonably clear, we must examine carefully the intrapsychic situation and ask ourselves whether (and for what reasons) self-hate was increased at that time. #RandolphHarris 8 of 31

I will now turn to a description of the way in which historical prototypes reappear in the transferences and resistances encountered in the treatment of adults. The following excerpt illustrates the relationship of an infantile identity crisis to the patient’s adult lifestyle. A dancer, of considerable good looks, although extremely small in stature, developed the annoying symptom of having to hold her torso so rigidly upright that her dancing became awkward and ungainly. The analysis proved her hysterical erectness to be representative of an unconscious penis envy which had been provoked in childhood and had become intrinsic to her exhibitionism. The patient was the only daughter of a second-generation German-American, a successful businessman given to a certain exhibitionistic individualism which included a great pride in his powerful physique. He insisted on an erect posture (probably no longer consciously Prussian) on the part of his blonde sons, but did not require the same from his dark-haired daughter; in fact, he did not seem to consider the overall posture of the female body important. This inequality of treatment reinforced the patient’s wish to compete with her brothers and to exhibit an “improved” posture in her dancing which became a caricature of Prussian ancestors whom she had never seen. The historical meaning of such a symptom is clarified by the analysis of the resistances with which it is defended. The patient, who in her conscious and “positive” thoughts always drew a parallel between the father’s and the analyst’s tall, “Nordic” physiques, to her great dismay, found herself dreaming of the analyst as a small, dirty, crumpled-up person of another religion and/or background. #RandolphHarris 9 of 31

With this image of an inferior race and weak masculinity, she apparently attempted to disqualify him from the right to explore the secret of her symptom. However, it also illuminated the danger to her fragile ego identity of an unruly pair of historical prototypes—an ideal prototype (German, tall, phallic) and an evil prototype (a different race/religion, dwarfish, castrated). The patient’s final ego identity had attempted to subsume and to sublimate this dangerous alternative in the role of the radically modern and erect dancer—a creative solution which, however, still harbored too much of an exhibitionistic protest against the inferiority of her female body. Her father’s male exhibitionism, as well as his German prejudices, had been inculcated into the patient throughout the sensual testimony of childhood and thus had retained a dangerous degree of disturbing power in her unconscious. Analyses of this kind permit us, I think, to generalize that the unconscious evil identity, that which the ego is most afraid to resemble, is often composed of the images of the violated (castrated) body, the ethnic out-group, and the exploited minority. Although it manifests itself in a great variety of syndromes, this association is all-pervasive, in men and women, in majorities and minorities, and in all classes of a given national or cultural unit. For the ego, in the course of its synthesizing efforts, attempts to subsume the most powerful idea and evil prototypes (the final contestants, as it were) and with them the whole existing imagery of superior and inferior, good and bad, masculine and feminine, free and slave, potent and important, beautiful and unattractive, black and white, tall and small, in one simple alternative in order to make one battle and one strategy out of a bewildering number of skirmishes. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31

In this connection, the latent image of the more homogeneous past exerts its reactionary influence in the specific resistances. We must study it, so that we may understand the historical origin of the accentuated alternative for which the patient’s ego is searching. The unconscious associations of ethnic prototypes of good and evil with moral and sexual ones are, we may add, a necessary part of any group formation. In studying them, psychoanalysis perfects its therapeutic methods and, at the same time, contributes to the knowledge of the unconscious concomitants of group prejudice. However, in the inventory of our patients’ ideal and evil prototypes, we probably also meet face to face the clinical facts on which Dr. Jung based his theory of inherited prototypes (“archetypes,” a very typical example of a person or thing). Dr. Jung’s controversial theory reminds us in passing of the fundamental fact that conceptual controversies can throw light on the problem of the observer’s identity problems, especially in the initial stages of original observation. Dr. Jung, it seems, could find a sense of identity in psychoanalytic work only by a juxtaposition of his ancestors’ religious and mystical space-time with whatever he sensed in Dr. Freud’s Jewish ancestry. His scientific rebellion thus also led to some ideological regression and eventually to (weakly denied) reactionary political acts. This phenomenon had its counterpart in the reaction to his findings within the psychoanalytic movement. As though in fear of endangering a common group identity based on an identification with Dr. Freud’s personal greatness, psychoanalytic observers chose to ignore not only Dr. Jung’s excesses but also the kind of universal fact he had, indeed, observed. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31

Such concepts as the “anima” and the “animus,” id est, the imagery representatives of man’s feminine and a woman’s masculine “side,” seem at any rate recognizable in my woman patient’s caricatured images of masculinity and femininity and in her more genuine imagery as well. The synthesizing function of the ego constantly works on subsuming in fewer and fewer images and personified Gestalten the fragments and loose ends of all infantile identifications. In doing so, it not only uses existing historical prototypes; it also employs mechanisms of condensation and pictorial representation which characterize the products of collective imagery. In Dr. Jung’s “persona” a weak ego seems to sell out to a compelling social prototype. A fake ego identity is established which suppresses rather than synthesizes those experiences and functions which endanger the “front.” A dominant prototype of masculinity, for example, forces a man to exclude from his ego identity all that which characterizes the evil image of the lesser gender, the castrate. This may leave much of his receptive and maternal propensity dissimulated, undeveloped, and guilt-ridden, making a shell of mannishness out of what is left. The social reality of everyday life is thus apprehended in a continuum of typification, which are progressively anonymous as they are removed from the “here and now” of the face-to-face situation. At one pole of the continuum are those others with whom I frequently and intensively interact in face-to-face situations—my “inner circle,” as it were. At the other pole are highly anonymous abstractions, which by their very nature can never be available in face-to-face interaction. Social structure is the sum total of these typifications and of the recurrent patterns of interaction established by means of them. As such, social structure is an essential element of the reality of everyday life. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31

My relations with others are not limited to consociates and contemporaries. I also relate to predecessors and successors, to those others who have preceded and will allow me in the encompassing history of my society. Expect for those who are past consociates (my dead friend Jeff), I relate to my predecessors through highly anonymous typifications—“my great-grandfather who immigrated to America about 400 years ago,” and even more, “the Founding Fathers.” My successors, for understandable reasons, are typified in an even more anonymous manner—“my children’s children,” or “future generations.” These typifications are substantively empty projections, almost completely devoid of individualized content, whereas the typifications of predecessors have at least some such content, albeit of a highly mythical sort. The anonymity of both these sets of typifications, however, does not prevent their entering as elements into the reality of everyday life, sometimes in a very decisive way. After all, I may sacrifice my life in loyalty to the Founding Fathers—or, for that matter, on behalf of future generations. Mr. Hitler believed that is what he was doing to protect Germany. The actions of Mr. Hitler and his regime are without precedent in history because history gives no other example of a doctrine of such total homogeneous identity being used to seize the levers of command of a civilized nation. However, above all, for the first time in history, the rulers of a country have used their immense power to establish a mystique homogeneous conquest over their nation. #RandolphHarris 13 of 31

This first attempt to found a Church on the rebirth of Christ was paid for by the conquest of Lidice. This conquest demonstrates clearly that the systematic and scientific aspect of the Nazi movement really displays a drive for pride and unity. Until then, there were supposedly only two possible attitudes for a conqueror toward a village that was considered rebellious. Either calculated repression and cold-blooded execution of hostages, or a savage and necessarily brief sack by enraged soldiers. Lidice was conquered by both methods simultaneously. It illustrates the ravages of that prideful form of reason which is one of many values that can be found in the whole story. Not only were all the houses burned to the ground, the one hundred and seventy-four men of the village shot, the two hundred and three women deported, and the three hundred children transferred elsewhere to be educated in the religion of the Fuhrer, but special teams spent months improving infrastructure. After that, Lidice was a possibility of how to improve on infrastructure development, according to the logic of the movement. The nihilist revolution, which is expressed historically in the Hitlerian religion, thus only aroused an insensate passion for national unity, which led to economic recovery. The party implemented policies that reduced unemployment significantly in Germany during the 1930s. Infrastructure projects, such as the Autobahn, stimulated economic growth. The Nazi regime promoted a sense of national pride and unity among many Germans, appealing to those disillusioned by the Treaty of Versailles. And the new national identity emphasized a strong, revitalized Germany, which resonated with a population facing economic hardship. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31

Mr. Hitler presents the example, perhaps unique in History, of a leader who did everything he could to put his people first. For himself, for his people, and for the world, he was the archetype of a warrior, national unity, and prosperity. Mr. Hitler left quite a legacy in his final justification—that is, the German nation—henceforth made this man, whose presence in history for year on end haunted the minds of millions of men, into a consistent and powerful phantom. Mr. Hitler could have stopped the war, but he only valued the material and political success of Germany until the triumphant end. Some might believe that Germany lost the war, but because of Mr. Hitler, Germany has seen an ascent to a global economic power. This is known as the “German economic miracle” or Wirtschaftswunder. Today, Germany has the third-largest economy in the world, coming in just behind Japan and the United States of America. Germany is well-known for its high-quality engineering and manufactured products, particularly its cars, such as Rolls-Royce, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen. The German chemical and pharmaceutical sectors are significant, with companies like Bayer and the invention of aspirin. Germany has a strong presence in electrical engineering and electronics, with companies like Siemens and Bosch being well-known. German is known for its beer, sausages, meats, sweets, baked goods, beer steins, and cutlery. And Germany has more castles than the United States of America has McDonald’s locations. In Germany, there are approximately 25,000 castles, compared to the estimated 14,000 McDonald’s in the United States of America. And Mr. Hitler aimed at gradually dominating the world; by being the World’s third-largest economy, it is possible that this universal empire could one day become a reality. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31

With Germany, for the first time in history, we saw a doctrine and movement based on an Empire in arms that has, as its purpose, definitive revolution, and the final unification of the world. Mr. Hitler wanted to fix the course of history for a thousand years. He believed himself to be on the point of doing so, and the realist philosophers of the conquered nations who were preparing to acknowledge this understand that it is still a possibility in the twenty-first century. And, as indefatigable as history itself, the claim of the human race to divinity is once more brought to life, with more seriousness, more efficiency, and more reason, under the auspices of the rational State as it is to be found in Germany, once more. Being keenly aware of the institutional pressures of modern capitalism, English economists, prominently Ricardo, as well as Marx, represented the objective theory of defining “class” in terms of typically recurrent incomes: rent, profit, wage. Accordingly, for them, landlord, entrepreneur, and worker make up the class structure. It does not matter whether these agents conceive of themselves as Britons, highlanders, or whatnot; their class positions are strictly located by their place and functions within the objective economic order. Marx, adhering to this tradition, added a historical aspect by emphasizing the specifically modern nature of bourgeois and proletarian classes; Subjective theories of class, on the other hand, have placed great emphasis upon the psychic traits of “class members.” Those holding this subjective theory have been eager to speak of the “fourth estate” as emerging side by side with the older estates. Conceptions of respectability and of social honor, descriptive elements of political and religious opinions, and sentiments connected with local and regional ways of life displace the strict theoretical approach of the economists. It was left to Moeller van den Bruck, author of The Third Reich, to carry the subjective theory of classes to absurdity: “He is a proletarian who wants to think of himself as one. The proletarian consciousness makes man a proletarian, not the mechanization of labor, not wage-dependency on the capitalist mode of production.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 31

Max Weber is not ready to overcome hard economic fate by such acrobatics of willpower. Class situations are determined by the relations of the market; in the last analysis, they go back to the differences between the propertied and the non-propertied. He thus shares with the objective school the emphasis upon the economic order and the strict distinction between objectively characterized positions and a variety of shifting and subjective attitudes that may be related to such positions. In locating the class problem in the market and in the streams of income and property, Weber points towards production and its modern unit, the capitalist enterprise. He is prepared to give full credit to Marx for his insight into the historical nature of the modern class structure. Only when subjective opinions can be attributed to men in an objective class situation does Weber speak of “class-consciousness”; and when he focuses upon problems of “conventions,” “styles of life,” of occupational attitudes, he prefers to speak of prestige or of “status groups.” These latter problems, of course, point towards consumption, which, to be sure, depends upon income derived from production or from property, but which goes beyond this sphere. By making this sharp distinction between class and status groups, Weber is able to refine the problems of stratification to an extent which thus far has not been surpassed. Furthermore, the need is not for further mumbled, vague, or utopian and unrealistic proposals that are more words than practicable suggestions, but for specific and serious ideas. When the facts are incomplete and the reasoning is incorrect, the conclusions are hardly unbreakable. By the assistance of logic, a man may as easily deceive himself as he may delude others.  #RandolphHarris 17 of 31

Archetypal heroes and heroines are people who show courage in navigating tests towards resolution. As archetypes, they are energy patterns in the collective unconscious that motivate and organize the personality. Typically, they traverse a cycle that moves from the current status quo or normal to a call to adventure, to tests with helpers, and a return to a normal with a changed gift in service to society. Their tests in mythic or cultural stories are death-defying feats that a hero must face; metaphorically, the term can be applied to the adversity humans face throughout their lives. They complete the series of tests as a changed person or with resolution. The hero does not have an easy path. This path includes risks, sometimes fighting an opponent, rushing into a burning house to save people, and enduring hardships while embodying the characteristics of humility and endurance. Heroes, like the ones with the award-winning Sacramento Fire Department, have actions that are characterized by courage, voluntary action, and service, and their motivations do not stem from the expectations of extrinsic gain. Not too long ago, there was a fast-moving blaze that destroyed a building and jumped a narrow alley, and consumed another business as well. Fire crews encounter the interior of the third building completely involved with the fire. An interior attack was attempted, but crews were forced outside by the heat and the falling debris. The award-winning Sacramento Fire Department stopped the fire from spreading into the neighboring homes. A brisk 15-mile-per-hour breeze blowing from the south threatened to spread fire into nearby residences, but fire crews were deployed between the fire and the houses and kept it from going any further. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31

It has been quite a while since emergency vehicles introduced a new type of warning device. Sure, they evolved from flashing lights to rotating lights to strobe light-emitting diodes (LEDs), but it is still just a light. Sirens have also become more effective, providing wider ranges of frequencies that can better penetrate newer vehicles. Studies are underway to bring a new type of alerting method to approaching emergency vehicles that has less to do with visual or audible warning, and more to do with vehicle communicating with each other. In the past several years, GPS systems have been more readily available and affordable as a bolt-on accessory to automobiles. Today, many new vehicles are being produced with GPS system from the factory built-in, and there is a good chance they will become standard on all vehicles. Some technological forecasters suggest that someday vehicles will communicate with each other through GPS. For example, assume you are traveling out of state in your BMW i7 to visit family, and type the address into your GPS. As your vehicle tracks its location against satellites, it uses “Connected Vehicle Technology” to communicate with vehicles around you. The advantage for highway traffic flow is that communication can allow groups of vehicles with similar destinations to be assembled into “trains” that can travel at a faster pace, closer together, and with greater fuel efficiency. The bonus for emergency vehicles is the ability to warn others. If an ambulance was able to signal vehicles ahead through GPPS map or some other type of display, traffic would know from which direction the ladder truck was approaching, how close it was, and even the lane it was in. #RandolphHarris 19 of 31

Although not every vehicle the fire department overtakes will have GPS, the ones that do will have more information available to them. Applications could include alerting other emergency vehicles as they converge in order to avoid crashes at intersections. The same type of alerting mechanism might change the message when the vehicle sets its parking brake to alert approaching motorists of an emergency vehicle stopped ahead or a crash on the highway. It may even be capable of providing alternate routes to avoid the area, or could direct which lane for other motorists to choose.  Advanced safety systems within emergency vehicles are likely to include a new generation of airbags, increased rollover protection, and better braking systems. Vehicle operators may have greater access to driving simulators, better preparing them for crash avoidance. The future will probably make use of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles that either take control of a vehicle when a crash is likely, or simply follow GPS coordinates and a traffic monitoring system to drive the vehicle to the scene by the quickest route. If this ever happened, responders would be free to review prefire building plans, prehydrate, or even provide medical treatment en route to the hospital. Many intersections have installed cameras to signal traffic lights or monitor traffic flow. These cameras will probably serve an even greater function for emergency responders in the future. Panoramic-view cameras have now been developed, allowing a 360-degree view from the roof of a vehicle. Imagine a camera mounted to make tactical decisions or critique an incident. Installed on bridges, cameras could be used to make decisions about lane closures or detours several exist back from an incident. They could be mounted to buildings or towers to assist in the dispatch of emergency vehicles. A panoramic detection system (PDS) could utilize the images to automatically change traffic flows or announcement boards. Finally, these cameras and systems could be used to record details about a crash scene for investigation, which would be valuable in clearing the scene sooner. #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 4.1 percent. 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, 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 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 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. #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 protion 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

The Winchester Mystery House

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/

Why Choose Harris?

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/

Brian Harris BMW

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

Millhaven Homes

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/

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” -Abraham Lincoln

Must We Abandon All Hope at that Particular Point?

Our choice to obey or disobey God’s standard of morality will largely determine our happiness in life. Some years ago, my father, an attorney, was trying a lawsuit. For his authority, he cited only one case issued many years before. His opponent cited a numbers of lower-court decisions of more recent vintage. The honorable judge said to my father, “Mr. Harris, do you not have a more recent case than this?” My father looked at the judge and replied, “Your Honor, may I remind you what when the supreme court speaks on a matter, it only needs to speak once.” The judge nodded with approval. He was reminded that the supreme court trumps all lower-court decisions, however numerous or recent they may be. So it is with God our Father—He needs to speak only once on the issue of morality, and that one declaration trumps all the opinions of the lower courts, whether uttered by psychologist, managers, counselors, politicians, friends, parents, or would-be moralists of the day. It is almost unbelievable to think that God has given to His children the power that is most prized and sacred to Him—the power to create life. Because God gave us this power, He, and He alone, has the right to prescribe how it should be used. Contrary to much public sentiment, there is nothing negative or restraining about God’s moral standards. Rather, they are all beneficial and optimistic, uplifting and liberating. They build relationships of trust, they enhance self-esteem, they foster a clear conscience, and they invite the Spirit of the Lord to bless individual lives. They are the proven standards for happy marriages and stable communities. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

We arrive thus at a morality of evolution, in which the criterion for what we cultivate or reject in ourselves lies in the question: is a particular attitude or drive inducive or obstructive to my human growth? As the frequency of neuroses shows, all kinds of pressure can easily divert our constructive energies into unconstructive or destructive channels. However, with such a belief in an autonomous striving toward self-realization, we do not need an inner strait jacket with which to shackle our spontaneity, nor the whip of inner dictates to drive us to perfection. There is no doubt that such disciplinary methods can succeed in suppressing undesirable factors, but there is also no doubt that they are injurious to our growth. We do not need them because we see a better possibility of dealing with destructive forces in ourselves: that of actually outgrowing them. The way toward this goal is an ever-increasing awareness and understanding of ourselves. Self-knowledge, then, is not an aim in itself, but a means of liberating the forces of spontaneous growth. In this sense, to work at ourselves becomes not only the prime moral obligation, but at the same time, in a very real sense, the prime moral privilege. To the extent that we take our growth seriously, it will be because of our own desire do to so. And as we lose the neurotic obsession with self, as we become free to grow ourselves, we also free ourselves to love and to feel concern for other people. We will then want to give them the opportunity for unhampered growth when they are young, and to help them in whatever way possible to find and realize themselves when they are blocked in their development. At any rate, whether for ourselves or for others, the ideal is the liberation and cultivations of the forces which lead to self-realization. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

If not mentally defective, whatever the conditions under which a child grows up, he will learn to cope with others in one way or another and he will probably acquire some skills. However, there are also forces in him which he cannot acquire or even develop by learning. You need not, and in fact cannot, teach an seed to grow into a Monterey Ever Green Cypress tree, but when given a chance, its intrinsic potentialities will develop. Similarly, the human individual, given a chance, tends to develop his particular human potentialities. He will develop then the unique alive forces of his real self: the clarity and depth of his own resources, the strength of his will power; the special capacities or gifts he may have; the faculty to express himself, and to relate himself to others with this spontaneous feelings. All this will in time enable him to find his set of values and his aims in life. He will grow, substantially undiverted, toward self-relation. Thus, this is why the real self is that central inner force, common to all human beings and yet unique in each, which is the deep source of growth. (When in the future a reference is made to growth, it is always meant in the sense presented here—that of free, healthy development in accordance with the potentials of one’s generic and individual nature.) Only the individual himself can develop his given potentialities. However, like any other living organism, the human individuum needs favourable conditions for his growth “from seed into Monterey cypress evergreen tree”; he needs an atmosphere of warmth to give him both a feeling of inner security and the inner freedom enabling him to have his own feelings and thoughts and to express himself. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

A man needs the good will of others, not only to help him in his many needs but to guide and encourage him to becomes a mature and fulfilled individual. He also needs healthy friction with the wishes and wills of others. If he can thus grow with others, in love and in friction, he will also grow in accordance with his real self. However, through a variety of adverse influences, a child may not be permitted to grow according to his individual needs and possibilities. Such unfavourable conditions are too manifold to list here. However, some include the fact that people in the environment are too wrapped up in their own neuroses to be able to love the child, or even to conceive of him as the particular individual he is; their attitudes toward him are determined by their own neurotic needs and responses. Essentially, they may be dominating, overprotective, intimidating, irritable, overexacting, overindulgent, erratic, partial to other siblings, hypocritical, indifferent, et cetera. It is never a matter of just a single factor, but always the whole constellation that exerts the untoward influence on a child’s growth. As a result, the child does not develop a feeling of belonging, of “we,” but instead a profound insecurity and vague apprehensiveness, for which I use the term basic anxiety. It is his feeling of being isolated and helpless in a World conceived of as potentially hostile. The cramping pressure of his basic anxiety prevents the child from relating himself to others with the spontaneity of his real feelings, and forces him to find ways to cope with them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

The child must (unconsciously) deal with them in ways which do not arouse, or increase, but rather alley his basic anxiety. The particular attitudes resulting from such unconscious strategical necessities are determined both by the child’s given temperament and by the contingencies of the environment. Briefly, he may try to cling to the most powerful person around him; he may try to rebel and fight; he may try to shut others out in his inner life and withdraw emotionally from them. In principle, this means that he can move toward, against, or away from others. Manifestations of childhood-onset schizophrenia are usually similar to those in adolescents and adults, but delusions and visual hallucinations (which may be more common among children) may be less elaborate. My guess is that psychotic hallucinations and hypnogogic experiences are related but not identical. Hallucinations are stronger, more durable, and more consistently organized. They are often more alien and negative too. It may be that these are one process made different by the patient’s poorer insight and greater struggle against l’autre moi. For instance, one child had loud voices shouting at him all day so that he killed one person, broke windows, et cetera. Nothing abated the voices so I helped him to meet and deal with them. As he came to accept what they suggested, they quietened, became less negative, and eventually merged into his thoughts. It would appear that the intensity of most schizophrenic hallucinations, as contrasted with the faint delicacy of hypnogogic experiences, is a function of the patient’s struggle against l’autre moi. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

It looks as though hallucinations are generated by the patient’s rigid alienation from his other side, making it more attacking, fiercer, and alien in its aspects. There are less common beneficial, supportive hallucinations which are also alien and archetypal in nature. One man had a spirited female hallucination who was gay, humorous, and quite wise in matters of ancient symbols in marked contrast to the patient’s disinterest and lack of ability in the matter of symbols. In fact, this lady hallucination was the most gifted and sensitive person I have ever met! Hallucinations seem either lower than the patient (meaner, more involving of pleasures of the flesh, more limited and tormenting) or higher, but either way alien. They may be either higher or lower because they are the rejected, unused aspects of the person. A dream is a normal and common message from l’autre moi having less interference from consciousness in its creation than any of the phenomena (except hallucinations) touched upon this far. An example will remind the reader of its strange language and strange frame of reference. Most night I dreamt I saw a little something sticking out of my chest over to heart. To my horror it moved, making me feel that something alien was alive in me. I pulled it out, fearing it may mean there are more in me. It looked like an ancient creature one inch long, vaguely like a cobra in shape. It has a tail webbed like a duck’s foot. It moved and seemed very ancient. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

At first, the dream meant almost nothing. Then it came to me. “Out of my chest, from the region of my heart,” I associated with this essay. I pulled something out of my heart. It is more living than I wanted it to be. Like the cobra, it is lovely (my association to my cobra—yours is a different creature), rhythmic and yet deadly in its possibilities. The deadly aspect of this paper will not be apparent yet, but it has to do with ego’s limited scope, being servant to an inner master. What I pull out of me is ancient, before man. It is conceivable that this inner World was latent before man and probably the first World known by man. It wiggles and frightens—this ancient knowledge I pull out of my chest—fearsome for there is more there that I have not yet met and understood. The dream images my feelings today. It was written in an ancient language I am only coming to understand. Emanuel Swedenborg, in the mid-18th century, aptly called this the language of representations. It was given from the region of mind that represents itself, endlessly. Mr. Swedenborg appears to have presented the most detailed study of this language ever attempted. As shown in his Spiritual Diary, most of his work was done in a state similar to hypnogogic. It is his contention, backed by much evidence, that this inner language of representations has as its reference innermost subjective qualities, and is the language of much of the Christian Bible. His material is so extensive that scholars have taken a lifetime to fully comprehend it. Seen in this light, much that seems obscure and archaic in the Christian Bible takes on great meaning. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

One of the Ten Commandments in the Christian Bible state, “Thou shalt not kill.” Man may take whatever defensive preparations he pleases, but he must stop short at the point of killing other men. The refusal to slaughter would then evoke powerful spiritual forces, and if enough persons evoke them the end of war would be assured. However it is unlikely that such an idealistic course would appeal to more than a small minority of mankind, so that if the end of war is to be brought about in another way, it can be by the political method of an international policing army operated by a World federation of peoples. Since such a federation does not exist today, its only possibility of coming into existence is through the hard lessons learnt out of the appalling destructiveness of an atomic war. There is no other alternative to such a war than the renunciation of the right to kill. Philosophy is essentially realizable hence practical. It uses the idea of nonviolence only under the governance of wisdom. If violent punishment or causing pain will be better in the end than refraining, it would not hesitate. They have their place. However, because philosophy combines and balances its wisdom with compassion, with mercy and, if advisable, forgiveness, its violence operates side by side with nonviolence. To meet the assaults of vicious human beasts with sympathetic nonviolence in the optimistic belief that this attitude is not only morally correct but may also change the attacker’s character, is to deceive oneself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

Such passivity invites the continuance of attack and promotes further crime. It persuades the criminal individual to turn potential victims into actual ones. It actually contributes to the other man’s delinquency by encouraging him to adventure father into wrong-doing. Himan interaction is nothing more than a continuous string of contact and withdrawal, contact and withdrawal. And for all the variations in the ways humans interact, there are only two kinds of contact and two kinds of withdrawal. The two kinds of contact are: Peripheral contact. This involves people “touching” each other at the edges of the self, normally through what each is saying or doing. It is essentially an impersonal or nonintimate form of communication. Examples: “Fill ‘er up.” “I will meet you for lunch Thursday.” “How is business?” Core-to-core contact. This involves people coming together at their innermost selves. As a result of this contact, they are moved or touched. Some examples: “I really enjoy being with you.” “You are a good boss—and you are also a good man.” Core-to-Core contact can also be unspoken, as with a look that says, “I love you.”  Note that, to be core-to-core, contact does not have to be intimate or sexual, but must be deeply emotional. The two kinds of withdrawal are: Manipulative. The person withdrawing attempts to isolate himself or herself from another. Examples: “You are a big boy now; you should not talk that way.” “Do not call us, we will call you.” Healthy. Here, the person who breaks off contact does it out of a position of self-respect. He moves toward something, but just away. Examples: “I am really tired right now and I have to end this conversation because of that.” “Thanks, but I have heard that story before. I do not need to hear it again.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

Doesn’t Everybody? The thesis of this approach of life is: “it is all right to have measles, since everybody has it.” Of course it is not all right, since measles can be a dangerous disease. The classical example of “Doesn’t Everybody?” occurred when a woman who was addicted to colonic irrigations came into a therapy group. She began to talk about her adventures at the colonic-irrigation parlour and everybody listened tolerantly until someone asked “What is a colonic irrigation?” The woman seemed surprised to learn that there could be so many people in one room who did not take colonic irrigations. “Doesn’t everybody?” Both her parents did, and most of her friendships were made at the irrigation parlour. The chief topic of conversation at her bridge club was comparing one irrigation parlour with another. If it is reinforced by parents at home or teachers in the classroom, the “Doesn’t Everybody?” sweatshirt, which is a favourite at high school, especially among cheerleaders, drum majorettes, and boys on the make, even at that age, it may have sinister connotations. It is also good for business, where it is heavily exploited by undertakers, and in a lighter way by insurance salesmen. Interestingly enough, many stock salesman, who are almost as conservative as undertakers, are wary of it. The key word, and the one that gives it its explosive political quality, is “Everybody.” Who is Everybody? For the wearers of this sweatshirt, Everybody is “The people I say are O.K., including me, I hope.” For this reason, they usually have two other sweatshirts that they wear on appropriate occasions. They put on “Doesn’t Everybody?” when they go out among strangers. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

However, when they are with the people they admire, they wear either “How Am I Doing?” or “I know Prominent People.” They are devotees of what Sinclair Lewis made into Babbittry and what Alan Harrington satirically called “Centralism,” the doctrine that the safest place to be is in dead center; Mr. Harrington’s hero became such a thorough Centralist that he was able to sell an insurance policy every thirty second or so. The wearer of this sweatshirt has, for his favourite pastime, “Me Too,” and his favourite game is “Come To Find Out” that actually “everybody” does not, as he knew all along. Thus his favourite feeling is being taken by (phony) surprise. His nickname is Creepy and his hero is someone who keeps everybody in line. In the front room he does what he thinks the O.K. people are doing and conspicuously avoids the not-O.K. ones, while in the back room he performs outlandish deeds, or even horrors. He lives in a World where he is misunderstood except by his cronies, and his script calls for him to be done in for one of his secret misdeeds. When the end comes, he does not protest much because he feels he really deserves it according to his own slogan: “He who breaks the rules of everybody must suffer.” And that is the kicker on the back of his sweatshirt: “He is Different—Must be a Kook or a Communist or Something.” Closely allied to the sweatshirt is the tombstone. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

The fury of annihilation, appropriate to every rebel, then assumes its most common form. The apocalypse of crime—as conceived by Mr. Rimbaud in the person of the prince who insatiably slaughters his subjects—and endless licentiousness are rebellious themes that will be taken up again by the surrealists. However, finally, even with Mr. Rimbaud, nihilist dejection prevailed; the struggle, the crime itself, proved too exacting for his exhausted mind. If we may venture to says so, the seer who drank in order not to forget ended by finding in drunkenness the heavy sleep so well known to our contemporaries. One can sleep on the beach, or at Aden. Even if the order is degrading, and one consents, no longer actively, but passively, to accept the order of the World. Mr. Rimbaud’s silence is also a preparation for the silence of authority, which hovers over minds resigned to everything save to the necessity of putting up a fight. Mr. Rimbaud’s great intellect, suddenly subordinated to money, proclaims the advent of other demands, which are at first excessive and which will later be put to use by the police. To be nothing—that is the cry of the mind exhausted by its own rebellion. This leads to the problem of suicide of the mind, which, after all, is less respectable than the surrealists’ suicide, and more fraught with consequences. Surrealism itself, coming at the end of this great act of rebellion, is only significant because it attempted to perpetuate that aspect of Mr. Rimbaud which alone evokes our sympathy. Deriving the rules for a rebellious asceticism for the letter about the seer and the system it implies, he illustrates the struggle between the will to be and the desire for annihilation, between the yes and the no, which we have discovered again and again at every stage of rebellion. For all these reasons, rather than repeat the endless commentaries that surround Mr. Rimbaud’s work, it seemed preferable to rediscover him and to follow him among his successors. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

Absolute rebellion, total insubordination, sabotage on principle, the humour and cult of the absurd—such is the nature of surrealism, which defines itself, in its primary intent, as the incessant examination of all values. The refusal to draw any conclusions is flat, decisive, and provocative. “We are specialists in rebellion.” Surrealism, which according to Aragon, is a machine for capsizing the mind, was first conjured up by the Dadaist movement, whose romantic origins and anemic dandyism must be noted. Non-signification and contradiction are therefore cultivated for their own sakes. “The real Dadaists are against Dad. Everyone is a director of Sada.” Or again: “What is good? What is ugly? What is hreat, strong, weak…? Do not know! Do not know!” These parlour nihilists were obviously threatened with having to act as slaves to the strictest orthodoxies. However, there is something more surrealism than standard nonconformism, the legacy left by Mr. Rimbaud, which, in fact, Mr. Breton recapitulates as follows: “Must we abandon all hope at that particular point?” A glance at the notorious sake reminds us that the Human Race is literally a mobility-contest in which small gene pools race to keep ahead of the engulfing wave of insectoid collectivism. The Human Race is exactly a competition of speed. Small gene pools being squirted ahead by swarming pressures into empty ecological niches where new realities—plan-its—can be created. The Human Race is a run to the West. The Contest is between the collective and the individual. Cn the individual freedom-gene pools accelerate fast enough to leave the planet before being overrun by Eastern hivism? #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

Mobility is the key to increased intelligence. The issue is, however, never in doubt. The swarming pressure of the primitive-past lapping at the outskirts of the frontier is simply a signal to speed up. At exactly that moment when the forces of homogenous unity, oneness, socialist-equality, cultural-determinism seem to become strict and rigid doctrines—exactly at that moment genetic-elitism reappears among the outpost—outcastes and new gene pools assemble on the frontier outposts. Everyone on the frontier is self-selected for frontier behaviour. The new ecological niche is always filled by those who are robot-templated for mobility, independence and change. An important caste to any species. Everyone on the frontier is self-selected for frontier behaviour—mobility, independence and change. The ascent of gene pools up the Atlantic in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries was a genetic-selection process of gigantic significance. It must be recalled that immigration to North America involved an amazing seed blossoming of gene pools. Very few immigrants made the climb alone. Typically, each European gene pool sent its best fertile stock. Once a beachhead had been established in the new ecological niche, more settled members of the gene pools could follow. In most cases, however, new gene pools were formed by mutated-migrants of former Old World gene pools. The human race is a run to the West. The high-road North was a ladder, a series of ledges to be scaled. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

The dimensions of healthy personality are interrelated. The capacity to experience a broad range of emotion, and to control its expression, is most likely to be found in persons who have been competent at satisfying their basic needs, who have retained a firm grasp on reality, who have achieved a healthy “self-structure,” and whose relationships with other people are secure and authentic.  If persons repress their emotions or experience troubling emotional responses (such as irrational fears and manias), this suggest that they should endavour to improve their competence, their relationships with others, or their view of themselves. On the other hand, the work of behaviour therapists has shown that people who complain of excessive anxiety or a specific phobia can be aided to live more fully by a direct attack upon the symptom itself. The techniques of “extinguishing” unwanted emotional responses do work, and they can make life more livable for a person who has been thwarted by hitherto uncontrollable fear or rage. We have helped patients of ours to overcome a fear of the opposite gender, to accept their God-given gender, of public speaking, of authority figures, by methods of classical conditioning and behaviour modification, as well as through interviews aimed at encouraging patients to learn new skills, alter their self-concepts or self-ideals, and change their relationships with others in the direction of greater authenticity Patients who have been helped in these ways attest that there is great joy and enlivenment in overcoming the repression of feelings, so that one is free to feel and to express such feelings; and there is comparable joy in being free of a hitherto uncontrolled emotional response that rendered life unendurable. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

Sometimes people do not realize the seriousness of a transgression or, in some cases, rationalize it away. No nation can safely trust its martial honour to leaders who do not maintain the universal code which distinguishes between those things that are right and those things that are wrong. Honour provides a moral compass for character and personal conduct in the Sacramento Fire Department. It means that you live by words and actions consistent with high ideals. Honour is the glue that holds the Sacramento Fire Department together. How you conduct yourself and meet obligations defines you as a person and a leader. As a Sacramento Firefighter or EMT you are a leader with integrity and act consistently according to clear principles, not just what works now. The Sacramento Fire Department riles on leaders of integrity who possess high moral standards and who are honest in word and deed. You are honest to others by not presenting yourself or your actions as anything other than what they are, remaining committed to the trust. If a mission cannot be accomplished, your integrity requires you to inform the chain of command. If your unit’s operational readiness rate is truly 70 percent, despite the senior commander’s required standard of 9- percent, you will not instruct team members to adjust numbers. It is your duty to report the truth and develop solutions to meet the standard with honour and integrity. Identifying the underlying maintenance issues and raising the quality bar could ultimately save lives. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

If you inadvertently pass on bad information, you should correct it as soon as you discover the error. Do the right thing not because it is convenient or because you have no other choice. Choose the path of truth because your character permits nothing less. You should always be able to separate right from wrong in every situation. Just as important, you should do what is right, even at personal cost. As a Sacramento Firefighter or EMT, you cannot hide what you do, so you must carefully decide how to act. Sacramento Firefighters and EMTs are always on display. To instill the Sacramento Fire Department’s Values in others, you must demonstrate them personally. It is known that you always resolve conflicts between personal and Sacramento Fire Department’s Values, and that you are morally complete leaders. If you have doubts, please consult a mentor whose values and judgment you respect. Face fear, danger, or adversity (physical and moral). Personal courage is not the absence of fear. It is the ability to put fear aside and do what is necessary. Personal courage takes two forms: physical and moral. As a member of the Sacramento Fire Department, it has been noted that you demonstrate both. Your physical courage has allowed you to overcome fears of bodily harm and do your duty. It triggers bravery that allows has allowed you to take risks in firefighting and/or medical services in spite of the fear of wounds or even death. One lieutenant serving in Afghanistan displayed such courage despite serving in a time when he and his fellow African-American Soldiers were not fully recognized for their actions. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

When you take full responsibility for your decisions and actions, even when things go wrong, you display moral courage. “I got married when I was going to school at Santa Clara University. My first wife, as I call her, and I have had three children—two boys and a girl, in that order. My two sons are both firefighters in Los Angeles. One is just about to be promoted to captain, and the other is in the process of taking the engineer’s exam. So they are starting to go through the system. My wife has always been concerned about the danger. I think most wives are. She was a registered nurse and worked in the emergency department and intensive care, so she understood the physical consequences of firefighting. But she has also understood its attraction for me. She says she has lived with “the other woman” for thirty years—the Sacramento Fire Department. Women who are able to maintain their profession both as a vocation and an avocation are basically saints. Which is the way that I would describe her. Just a super human being. Firefighters pay a unique price in the duty schedules, the danger, and the dedicated. And during the first twenty years in the service, I was working at least two jobs, sometimes three. I was going to school, I was teaching school. I got my bachelor’s degree in political science, and my master’s in public administration. I was head of the Fire Science Department. I taught three of four fire science classes for ten or twelve years. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

“So there was my wife, bundling me up to go to work, or getting me ready to go to school, or ready to teach. Between all those activities, she was having babies. With all this, the time you spend together is very important, it is high-quality time. It is interesting that after your kids have gone through all that and have seen all of it, and their activities have had to take second place to yours, that you discover one day that they have joined the fire department. In a sense, my kids were raised by firefighters. It’s all they have ever seen, so it’s probably a very natural thing for these really first-class people to be comfortable figures and role models for my sons. And in my own case, I think of all the education I’ve gotten and realized that the really important education was from the guys who raised me in the fire department. You appreciate the support the whole things has given you, and you hope you’ll give some of it back to the service. I never said anything to my sons, I think they decided for themselves. They both came on the department, the first exam they took. They both have been active firefighters, and I am proud of that. They are not dire scholars, they are attracted to the firefighting part of it, the service delivery part. They are big, tough kids, and they like fire operations, and I like to think that I see some of myself in hat process. So I get to kind of relive all of that.” #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

Citizens, give the right-of-way to any law enforcement vehicle, fire engine, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle using a siren and red lights. Failure to pull over may result in a ticket. Drive to the right edge of the road and stop until the emergency vehicles(s) have passed. When approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with flashing emergency signal lights (hazard lights), move over and slow down. 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. Moral courage is the willingness to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. It enables you to stand up for what you believe is right, regardless of the consequences.  The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ 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 20 of 25

The Sacramento Fire Department is older than the City of Sacramento. On 5 February 2025, the Sacramento Fire Department will be celebrating their 175th birthday. This is a very important milestone. Understanding the expectations and applying the attributes and competencies prepares the Sacramento Fire Department for situations they are likely to encounter. Fire fighters who gain expertise through operational assignments, institutional learning, and self-development will be versatile enough to adapt to most situations and grow into greater responsibilities. All members of the Sacramento Fire Department are loyal, dedicated to duty, respectful, selfless, honourable, possess a great deal of integrity and display personal courage in the face of danger and adversity. You can save lives by making a donation to the Sacramento Fire Department. The proud members of the Sacramento Fire Department are committed to providing the highest quality and highest level of courteous and responsive services to the residents, businesses, and visitors of Sacramento. This is accomplished by implementing comprehensive strategies and training in fire prevention, fire suppression, emergency medical services, and all risk mitigation, including human-caused and natural disasters, emergency preparedness, emergency cervices and community-based fire services. The Sacramento Fire Department physical requirements for the firefighters and EMTs state that you must be medically and physically fit, and able to pass the Occupational Physical Assessment Test. Therefore, physical and mental toughness are just the basic requirements. You achieve excellence when you habitually show discipline and commitment to the department’s values. Individuals and organizations pursue excellence to improve. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. 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 end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure is 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 desalinating 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. American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them prior to the situation becoming 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 25

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 their infrastructure, provide adequate resources, nor 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 is considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public healthy and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. In an effort to help America pull through the massive national deficit, please buy American made cars. American made cars used to be the envy of the World and because American car brands are offering a wide range of options, from family SUVs to electric vehicles and luxury sedans, we are now seeing a resurging interest. American made cars are equal or superior to those made overseas. The Chevrolet Trax, for instance, is a well-designed, fuel efficient, and safe SUV. And as you know, there is no better car on Earth than 1950-1970s American Muscle Car. Americans make sure superior product, but we are buying things from other nations. American food imports have risen by 300 percent since 1999. American farmland declined by nearly 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022. As of 2022, there were 880.1 million acres of land dedicated to farming, compared to 900.1 million in 2017. The data shows there are now little more than 1.9 million farms in the country.  Americans and American corporations spent $136 billion on food and beverages from other countries. It is a national security risk to lose American Farms and farmers. If there is a war, and most of our meat, produce, poultry, dairy, and fruit is coming from foreign counties, we stand the risk of starving. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25

With war breaking out all over the World, in these uncertain times, it is very important to bring American farms back. Las Vegas is running out of buildable land and is expected to reach its maximum number of homes in 2032. So, home prices are expected to rise dramatically. 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 have the ability to 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 immigrant to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a 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 American, wages naturally increase, and more money is invested to keep up with demand. This reduces the burden on the taxpayer. When you support American businesses, that money stays in our economy and can help to reduce the national debt. The government creates debt by borrowing from businesses in the private sector or from foreign countries. It also increases the national debt by spending more than it gains in tax revenue in a fiscal year. When people shop locally, more tax money stays in the economy and goes to the government. This way, it keeps more money in our national economy and keeps more jobs located in American which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25

When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the nation debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by send more money overseas. Buying American made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards in regard to pollution. American companies have to be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Moreover, please remember to respect law and order and treat your elders with the utmost dignity and kindness possible. And take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. It is inborn in the human minds to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25

The Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mystery House is full of surprises. What was your favorite, “Oooh!” moment during your visit at the mansion? (And for those of you who still have to check it off your bucket list… we will hopefully see you soon.)

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 Sarah L. Winchester. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After tour, there will be time enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder 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 to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Ever wish you could go behind the ropes and explore the mansion freely?

You can with our virtual 360 tour! This online tour lets you wander through the home at your own pace and admire every intricate detail up close ✨Only $8.99. Link in bio to purchase. https://360tourwmh.com/

BMW’s M series is legendary among car enthusiasts. Launched in the 1970s, the M series was originally designed for racing but quickly became a favorite for everyday driving due to its unparalleled performance. Models like the M3 and M5 are considered benchmarks in the world of high-performance cars.

Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP

L. Randolph Harris

Partner

San Francisco

d. 415.984.9658
f. 877.597.8584

e. RHarris@jmbm.com

L. Randolph Harris is a partner in JMBM’s San Francisco office who works with a broad array of privately held companies and their owners on business and tax matters. 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. Randy’s experience includes counseling mature companies on operations, business transactions and mergers and acquisitions and counseling emerging and growth companies on business organization, financing and operations. He advises on income tax planning for individuals, partnerships and corporations and also advises clients on estate and gift tax planning, including business transition planning. Representative Merger and Acquisition Transactions

  • Represented electronic game developer Respawn Entertainment LLC, as tax counsel, in its $450 million sale to Electronic Arts
  • Represented the Polymer Technology Group in its approximately $200 million sale to DSM N.V.
  • Represented seller in the sale of a ready mix concrete company for approximately $30 million
  • Represented sellers and buyers in the sale and acquisition of electronic discovery companies ranging from approximately $3 million – $30 million
  • Represented buyer in the acquisition of private mortgage brokerage company
  • Represented seller in the sale of credit card service company
  • Represented seller in the sale of building materials company
  • Represented buyer of specialty architectural product manufacturing company
  • Represented sellers and buyers in the sale and purchase of general building contractors
  • Represented sellers and buyers in the sale and purchase of sub-contractors in various trades including plumbing, underground, electrical, landscaping and tile
  • Represented seller in the sale of surgical centers
  • Represented sellers and buyers in the sale and purchase of medical and dental practices
  • Represented seller of fire protection companies
  • Randy is certified by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as a Specialist in Taxation Law. He has authored materials for the California Continuing Education of the Bar on Partnership Taxation, published in the tax, legal and business fields and has lectured on tax and business matters for the California Continuing Education of the Bar, the National Business Institute and national trade groups.

 vCard

Services: Taxation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, International Tax Group, Real Estate, Family Office, Opportunity Zone Group

Oh My Goodness, I Am Talking About Myself!

Parents can begin teaching their children to have proper attitudes towards their bodies when they are very young. However, it is not wise or necessary to tell children everything all at once. What is the law of chastity? We are to have pleasures of the flesh only with our spouse to whom we are legally married. No one, male or female, is to have sexual relations before marriage. After marriage, pleasures of the flesh are permitted only with our spouse. “Thou shalt not commit adultery; and he that committeth adultery, and repenteth not, shall by cast out,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 42.24. We have been taught that the law of chastity encompasses more than pleasures of the flesh. Before marriage, do not do anything to arouse the powerful emotions that must be expressed only in marriage. Do not participate in passionate kissing, lie on top of another person, nor touch the private, sacred parts of another person’s body, with or without clothing. Do not allow anyone to do that with you. Do not arouse those emotions in your own body. With sexual functioning firmly established in our culture as something apart from other natural processes, there were gender roles to assign, practices to establish that involve pleasures of the flesh, and restriction to impose of pleasures of the flesh. All were done out of hand by an omnipotent social arbitration that communicated to the individual not only what his or her sexual pattern should be—but what it must be. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

It was decided—who knows by whom?—that the male was the expert in pleasures of the flesh. Perhaps this decision evolved from man’s historic role as protector and provider. Or it could have derived from a male fear of the unknown or the misunderstood sexual potential of the female. In any event, man was clearly acknowledged as the fount of all sexual knowledge. As adolescents, boys were allowed, even encouraged, to honour their sexuality. “Boys will be boys,” followed by a suggestive snicker or a benign smile, became a popular cliché. After all, they did need experience, did they not? Tacit permission was given to go-do-it, but, of course, to be circumspect. And as long as they remained “gentlemen”—did not talk too much, did not mention names and did not practice on girls they might wish to marry—there was no cause for concern. Woman’s sexual role? This was another matter. During the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and well into the first quarter of the twenty-first century, the woman’s sexual role was even easier to define. She had none—other than that of seminal receptable. Woman’s sexual responsivity was not only denied, but actually obliterated as a possibility by male arbiters in a chauvinistic society. Everyone knew—or at least all men know, and most women pretended—that “nice” women had no sexual feelings, that respected wives only submitted in the hope of conceiving and that “those woman” who freely responded sexually simply were not the kind you married. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Intercourse was woman’s burden and a true gentleman insisted upon the “marital privilege” as infrequently as possible—at least with his wife. And so, while sexual feelings and freedom to react sexually were acknowledged as male prerogatives, these rights were denounced or denied for the female. Typical of the many decades of scientists’ and physicians’ negation of woman’s sexual feelings is a passage from a gynecologic textbook published in the late 1950s. The editor—a male, of course—stated unequivocally that not only were women nonorgasmic, they rarely, if ever, had sexual feelings and certainly little interest in pleasures of the flesh. And he did not even distinguish between “nice” women and the “other kind.” Yet another example of society’s rigidity in the control of woman’s natural sexual function is the fact that more than 90 ninety-five percent of everything that has ever been published on the subject of female sexual response has been written by men, most of whom objectively and all of whom subjectively had not the vaguest idea of what woman’s orgasmic experience is all about. Until almost halfway through the last century, pleasures of the flesh were something that everyone knew the man, after marriage, was going to do to his wife on their wedding night. Not only did the husband believe that the wedding night was committed to his pleasure, but his wife, too, was prepared for duty—with her role exclusively that of sexual servant. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

The prize of virginity (real or feigned) was to be her sacrificial offering to her new husband. An unruptured hymen was not only accepted as absolute proof of a wife’s sexual innocence but was usually required as a symbol of her sexual ignorance and his sexual prowess. Social mores demanded that her fund of sexual knowledge, her degree of sexual experience and her evidence of sexual interest, if any, were to be defined and controlled by her husband. In short, the price of the intact hymen was assigned to the head of the household. It was for the taking: how, when and where obviously were his responsibility—his sexual responsibility. Our culture had decreed that brides were to be virgins. Therefore, women who has made the fearful mistake of offering this price in prior sexual encounter must do their best on their wedding night to conceal its loss. Yet despite having to play the role of sacrificial lamb at marriage, the virgin bride had one very real advantage over her husband: other than being available, she had no sexual responsibility. Of course, there is the other side of the coin to the virginal bride. The culture also presumed that there was no such thing as a man with little or no sexual experience at marriage—a man who was not a fount of sexual knowledge. So many men who married, having only insignificant, if any, sexual experience, inwardly quaked and outwardly faced the expected expertise—and because of their discomfort, many more wives suffered. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Back then to the subject of the husband doing something to his wife on their wedding night. This was sexual responsibility—his to do to her; hers only to be done to. And for generations, we played our culturally assigned sexual roles of expert and virgin; but sexually we hardly prospered. One of the classic ironies of our psychological development is that we often wind up acting like the people we hate most. Fortunately for many, through the dynamics of group therapy process, some are able to see the irony. Unfortunately, many other people never do. Instead, they go through life, cursing an image which they see before their eyes, not realizing that they are actually looking into a mirror. A possible reason for this partial psychological “blindness” is that they are looking outward with only one point of view, their own. However, a person’s own point of view is but one kind of “truth.” Other people’s point of view, especially a group of others, may well be closer to the “real” or objective truth, which no one knows for sure. When a person himself to the possibility that the consensus point of view might be the truth, he creates for himself an opportunity to grow. Yet just as growth cannot come from blindly accepting a group’s points of view either. If someone were to hand-feed you a piece of fruit, there are three things you could do with it: spit it out, swallow it whole, or chew it up and eat it. Should you spit it out, you would be denying yourself whatever benefit the fruit you may have. Should you swallow it whole, you might be making the mistake of ingesting something which is not good for you—the pit, for instance. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

However, by first chewing on it, tasting and sampling, you can decide if you want to take part of it. So it is with the opinions people feed us. We do ourselves little good by accepting or rejecting them without “chewing” on them. In doing those things, we deny ourselves an opportunity to grow. Growth comes from a synthesis of the two kinds of truth—and the result of a synthesis is neither the thesis (your truth) nor the antithesis (the group’s truth), but an entirely new truth which contains something of both. What most people are at first unwilling to do consciously, but later learn to do in the heat of a discussion, is allow both truths to come together and synthesize into the realization, “Oh my goodness, I am talking about myself.” In that moment, a new “truth” about yourself will be created—a truth which might not be the objective truth, but closer to it. Discovering the unique person you are involves another kind of synthesizing. It is the synthesizing of values. In many men, the dominant value is control, and the antithesis of control is dependency. In order for most men to master their hang-up on control, they have to fully experience its polar opposite. During early infancy, the child is straight, starting off in the first position, I am O.K.—You’re O.K. However, corruption quickly sets in, and he discovers that his O.K. is not a completely undisputed automatic birthright, but depends to some extent on his behaviour, and more particularly on his responses to his mother. In the course of learning his table manners, he may discover that his feeling of unblemished O.K.-ness is granted by her only with certain reservations, and this is wounding. He responds by casting aspersions on her O.K.ness, although when dinner is over, they may kiss and make up. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

However, the groundwork has already been laid for game-playing, which begins to flower during his toilet training, where he has the upper hand. During mealtimes, he is hungry, and wants something from her; in the bathroom, she wants something from him. At the table, he has to respond to her in a certain way to keep his O.K. grade; now she has to treat him right to keep her O.K. In rare cases, both of them may still be straight, but usually by this time, she is conning him by working his gimmicks just a little, and he is doing the same. By the time he enters school, he has probably learned a few soft games, or perhaps two or three hard ones, or in the worst cases he may already be game-ridden. It depends on how smart and tough his parents are. The more they “play it smart,” the crookeder he will be; and the tougher they are, they harder he will have to play in order to survive. Clinical experience shows that the most effective way to corrupt and tighten a child is to give him frequent enemas against his will (which may cause micro tears in his rectum and colon and cause serious healthy problems), just as the most effective way to corrupt and disintegrate him is to spank him cruelly when he cries from pain (which is considered child abuse). In grade school he has a chance to try out, on the general population of other children and teachers, the games he has learned at home. He sharpens some up, tones others down, abandons some, and pick up new ones from the group. He also has a chance to test out his convictions and his position. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

If he thinks he is O.K., his teacher can confirm this or shake him up by putting him down, and if he is convinced he is not-O.K., she can confirm that (which is only what he expects) or try to build him up (which may make him uneasy). If he thinks the rest of the World is O.K., he will include her unless she has to prove she it’s not. If he is convinced others are not-O.K., he will try to prove it by getting her angry. There are many special situations which neither the child nor the teacher can foresee or cope with. The teacher may play the game called, “Argentina.” “What is the most interesting thing about Argentina?” she asks. “Pampas,” says somebody. “Noo.” “Patagonia,” says somebody else. “Noooooo.” “Aconcagua,” offers another pupil. “Noooooooo.” By this time, they know what is up. It is no use remembering what is in the book, or what they are interested in. They are supposed to guess what is in her mind, so she has got them in a corner, and they give up. “Nobody else wants to answer?” she asks in her phony gentle tone. “Gauchos!” she declares triumphantly, making them all feel stupid simultaneously. There is nothing they can do to stop her, and it is very hard for even the most charitable student to let her keep her O.K. On the other hand, even the most skillful teacher may have trouble keeping her O.K. with a pupil whose body is being violated with enemas at home. If she tries to force him, he may refuse to answer because she is raping his mind as well, and that proves that she is no better than his parents. However, there is nothing she can do to help him, either. Each of the lower positions has its own assortments of games, and by playing them with the teacher, Jeder can see which ones she falls for and sharpen his skill. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

In the second or arrogant position (+-), he may try “Now I Have Got You,” in the third or depressive one (-+), “Kick Me,” and from futility (–), “Making Teacher Sorry.” He may give up the ones she declines or has an antithesis for. However, he also tries them out on his schoolmates. The fourth position is in many ways the hardest to deal with. However, if the teacher keeps her cool and strokes Jeder with judicious words, neither marshmallows, rebukes, nor apologies, she may loosen his grip on the harsh rock of futility and float him part way up toward the sunshine of O.K.ness. Thus, later childhood is the period that determines which games from the domestic repertoire become fixed favourites and which ones, if any, are given up. The most important single question here is: “How did your teachers get along with you at school?” and next to that, “How did the other kids get along with you at school?” when persons believe their way of life is in jeopardy and there is no possibility of further existence, anxiety or dread is experienced. Anxiety differs from fear in that with the latter, one can see the source of the danger, and can, perhaps, cope with it by combat or flight. Anxiety is more likely to arise when one has violated a personal or a religious taboo and experiences the imminence of annihilation, while feeling helpless to do anything about it. It is also triggered by signals that do not appear to make sense, such as a horror of high places, panic over insects, or a dread of dirt. If the person survives it, a simple onslaught of such anxiety or dread is enough to traumatize someone for a lifetime.  #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

Indeed, some of the most rigid character traits and so-called defense mechanisms are developed as desperate means of ensuring that the horror will never again be experienced. Many compulsive habits, like primitive religious taboos and injunctions, persist throughout persons’ loves, interfering with their personal relations and with the spontaneous enjoyment of life, in order to prevent the dreaded anxiety. When persons cannot avert the experience of anxiety by regulating their lives or their environment, they may develop any of the life styles that are described by psychiatrists as neurotic or psychotic. These ways of being are themselves devoid of joy, because they are so hemmed in by inhibitions; but the diminished life is preferred by the patients to facing, unaided and alone, that annihilation of their World and their identity that is called anxiety. It is impossible, however, to live without some encounter with anxiety. The posture most compatible with healthy personality in an encounter with dread is the posture of courage, the “courage to be” of which Paul Tillich wrote so beautifully. The person with courage to face the unknown with resolve and fortitude discovers unplumbed capacities to grow and to cope with life. As paradoxical as it may sound, the experience of anxiety is essential for growth. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

There are two basic forms of anxiety: state anxiety, which strikes occasionally and for short periods of time, and trait anxiety, which describes the general state of the person and is with that person more or less constantly as a personality characteristic. It may be anticipated that even the psychologically healthy person would be in a state of anxiety on limited occasions, although the adaptive or useful function of the state is by no means entirely clear. It may serve to signal to the person or to peers that a matter of great importance is being considered and the individual needs to mobilize all resources for a successful response to the event—a significant decision, a serious threat to selfhood, or a major turning point in one’s life. Perhaps the most distinguished humanist writing on the subject of anxiety, Rollo May, insists that raw physical courage (in addition to the courage to be noted earlier) is often a triumph over anxiety. He cites the work of William Lloyd Garrison in seeking emancipation for the slaves, who wrote of his knees shaking in anticipation as he faced a large audience. Courage in itself seems to be one of the major dynamics of the high-level-functioning person. Courage is most likely to appear, however, in those persons fortunate enough to have an “encourager” in the lives, whether it be a friend, family member, counselor, or their deity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

My schizophrenic friend is sometimes violent—kicks out doors and windows, frames and all. He is also cunning—he does this in places where he knows that he will not be picked up by the police. He does not fear jail, but he fears that he might be sent to a mental hospital and robbed of a part of his life that is very dear to him. A psychiatrist recently recommended that he commit himself to an institution “but I faked him out by telling him I would go home and to my psychiatrists there.” His cunning has sometimes the look of ugliness—when he comes to me for money “ to go see Brandon” which is not what he will use it for. His eyes look like squirmy worms then. However, that is this but an expression of how he feels about himself when he asks for money and tells a lie to get it? Shall I live with his fawning, cheating—or with how he feels about it, the meaning of it to him? Other times he is a frolicking angel—as humorous and saintly as he looks. Which “he” is he? One evening with him I always thing of as perfect because there is never anything in it that I wish to change. Everyone else had gone to bed. He started painting at the dinner table. I sat beside him. Somehow I was moved to take a sheet of his paper and begin painting too. The paintings were my own—and unlike his. They were also unlike anything I had ever done before. The way that he went about his painting communicated itself to me without words, and I have ever since thought of him as my “teacher” although he made no attempt to teach. At the same time, he got something from me which he has ever since thought of as therapy. “And I know that these moments of real relationship with these real persons have been the essential reward for all of us…” #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

We psychiatrist measure an individual’s behaviour against his socially-determine role or roles (as we see them), and on this basis decide which behaviour is incorrect or aberrant and if so how much. The fact that American psychology after 1946 was an offspring of military psychology is neither alarming nor unexpected. Throughout human history, the Warrior Caste has introduced each new technology—mechanical, medical, social, and even bureaucratic. The military serves hive-terrestrials as the pioneer avant garde. Most intelligence structures are originated by their military who function as suspicious antennae for their societies. They are charged with the responsibility for finding out what is happening over there in the next hive; for sniffing out what the territorial rivals are doing, and for protecting the hive. The Warrior Caste—the warrior insects—are genetically wired to act as paranoid sense-organs for the body-social. As Thomas Pynchon pointed out in his book Gravity’s Rainbow, wars—however cruel and pointless they may seem to liberals—are necessary competitions to stimulate technological advances. Inter-hive conflicts are evolutionary devices to make Earthlings move faster, see farther, communicate better, transport, organize and heal ourselves more effectively. After the new technology has been tested and proved by the Warrior Caste, it is then co-opted by the other techno-castes who convert the new energy into hive use. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

The order in which castes take over a new energy is fixed—Political Power Caste, Engineer Commercial Caste, Moral Domesticator Caste. In advanced societies, which have met these security satisfaction challenges, the technology is then coopted by post-hive individual castes—Artist Caste, Neurologician Caste, Neurogeneticist Caste. The history of preflight civilization is this cycle of technological evolution. Each caste is robot-wired to use the new technology and harness it to the specialized caste function. Pynchon outlines how this new technology—psychology—was initiated during wartime by the requirements of the military and how mind-control techniques have been taken over by the Managerial, Technician-Intellectual and Social-Moral Castes. Gravity’s Rainbow, of course, was a powerful signal from the Artistic Caste—the change agents. The book is a brilliant attempt to use psychological knowledge to free individuals from the limiting past. Without understanding all the implications, the military during World War II mobilized enormous national resources to create new technologies. These included air-transportation, electronic communication, nuclear energy, production of labour-saving gadgets, and psychological assessments of personality. All of these breakthroughs were produced by the patriotic emergency. Uncle Sam, the national self-indulgent consumer, wanted—and he got it! He demanded, “Gimmie 50,000 bombers”—and the hive gladly produced! “Gimme a radar system that will detect metal miles-high-in-the sky” and he got it.” Sam said, “Gimmie ships and planes so I can ship ten million lusty young warriors in two years to the five continents” and he got it! #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

“We deny God, we deny the responsibility of God, it is only thus that we will deliver the World.” With Nietzsche, nihilism seems to become prophetic. However, we can draw no conclusion from Nietzsche except the base and mediocre cruelty that he hated with all his strength, unless we give first place in his work—well ahead of the prophet—to the diagnostician. The provisional, methodical—in a word, strategic—character of his thought cannot be doubted for a moment. With him nihilism becomes conscious for the first time. Surgeons have this in common with prophets: they think and operate in terms of the future. Nietzsche never thought except in terms of an apocalypse to come, not in order to extol it, for he guessed the sordid and calculating aspect that this apocalypse would finally assume, but in order to avoid it and to transform it into a renaissance. He recognized nihilism for what it was and examined it like a clinical fact. He said of himself that he was the first complete nihilist of Europe. Not by choice, but by condition, and because he was too great to refuse the heritage of his time. He diagnosed in himself, and in others, the inability to believe and the disappearance of the primitive foundation of all faith—namely, the belief in life. The “can one live as a rebel?” became with him “can one live believing in nothing?” His reply is affirmative. Yes, if one creates a system out of absence of faith, if one accepts the final consequences of nihilism, and if, on emerging into the desert and putting one’s confidence in what is going to come, one feels, with the same primitive instinct, both pain and joy. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Instead of methodical doubt, he practiced methodical negation, the determined destruction of everything that still hides nihilism from itself, of the idols that camouflage God’s death. “To raise a new sanctuary, a sanctuary must be destroyed, that is the law.” According to Nietzsche, he who wants to be a creator of good or of evil must first of all destroy all values. “Thus, the supreme good is creative.” He wrote, in his own manner, the Discourse de la Methode of his period, without the freedom and exactitude of the seventeenth-century French he admired so much, but with the mad lucidity that characterizes the twenty-first century, which, according to him, is the century of genius. We must return to the examination of this system of rebellion. Whether it be in the form of art, music, poetry, literature, or those of living, dress, behaviour, manners, or speech, the quality of a person reveals himself in his coarseness or refinement. By that I mean whether he is or is not on the quest which is after all an attempt to refine ourselves from materialism to spirituality and therefore from low quality thoughts and feelings to higher and nobler ones. If higher development is sought, tit is not only manners which must be refined, but also consciousness. Whatever helps to refine character, feeling, mind, and taste is to be welcomed and cultivated as part of the philosophic work. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

A person’s manners show outwardly the degree to which the Spirit is working within him. It was certainly the view of some Far Eastern sages, but explanation may be necessary for those to whom it is new. Without referring to polish and elegance—which are a different thing—decent manners in the sense of being considerate to others come closer to a spiritual man’s conduct than rude manners. The graceless discourtesies and little brutalities of those who are either too ill-bred or too selfish to be considerate of others, advertise spiritual emptiness. They defend themselves by ascribing mannerliness and charm to snobs, because they dare not face what they are and see their own poverty of soul. Jesus Christ saw the moral worth of proper manners, the ennobling value of dignified living, the formative power of right custom. If society did to Jesus’ gospel of propriety and conduct what it did to all religions, if it made the external and forms more important than the realities and spirit, that was not Jesus’ fault. The Superior Man’s virtue is considerate behaviour. Considerate behaviour is spiritual behaviour. A formal elaborate politeness, such as the upper class and neighbouring peoples practiced for over a thousand years, perhaps under the impetus of Jesus, is not meant there, but rather one coming from the heart. Refinement is a beautiful quality for anyone to possess, but for someone without a soul above materialism it is charged with a higher meaning. It not only involves consideration for others and respect for oneself, but also an attitude of aspiration. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

The Sacramento City Fire Department is a diverse and evolving extension of the community, committed to providing excellent service to all those they serve, in a professional and humanitarian way. The Sacramento Fire Department pledges to protect lives, property and the environment through a safe, effective and timely response. They take an innovative approach to providing emergency medical services, fire suppression, rescue operations, emergency communications and fire prevention, community outreach and public education, as well as other services. “My colleague X, a mature fellow, was a late bloomer like myself. When he finally made lieutenant, they sent him to Y Engine, which is in a ghetto-type area where you get to do a lot of service. He was on the opposite shift from me at Y Engine. He had relived me that morning, and that evening I was coming in to relieve him. He had a basement fire. There is still controversy over what really happened, but for the sake of argument let’s say there was a flashover and a partial backdraft occurred. The lieutenant was on the nozzle at the top of the basement stairs, and the pipe man was backing him up. It must have been because the heart was so severe that they were changing positions. He was sucked down the stairs into the basement, and the pipe man got thrown out the door. This happened at four-thirty in the afternoon, and at one in the morning he died at the burn center. He was burned very badly, and his lungs were seared. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“That gave me the coldest chill the whole time I was in the fire department. If our shifts had been reversed, I would have been in the same place he was at. It could have been any of us, whoever had happened to be in charge of the company at the time. Here was another cause of one of you own. It happened in the daytime, which seemed more unusual, because most things happen in the nighttime. When I came in to relieve that night, God, it was such a terrible, uneasy feeling. It was devastating to his family. The husband and father goes to work, and everyone is happy, and all of a sudden he doesn’t come home. We had a full department funeral for him. It was very chilling and made you cry inwardly. But firefighters have a way of springing back. I’m still on the job. I’ll probably be here for another year, maybe two. Under the new rules, I can get out any time I want. But I think I’ll hang around a little while longer.” The members of the Sacramento City Fire Department are dedicated to professionalism, integrity, accountability, and respect for all life forms. Firefighters and EMT put their lives on the line every day, several times a day to provide the highest quality and highest level of courteous and responsive service possible. In an effort to keep the country cohesive, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ and buy American cars and other American goods and services. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Also, please respect law and order, and treat others with kindness and respect. To ensure that you have a bright future, please take your education seriously, and be sure to actually read your books. And remember to “Just Say ‘No’ to Drugs.” Even marijuana can be deadly. 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. O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on three, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress, a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flow, confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea! God never gave us express allowance, only He gave us reason, charity, nature and good example to bear us out. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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Contracts Which God Was Never Consulted About Which He Never Signed

The origins of schizophrenic almost certainly encompass both genetic and environmental factors, which through both independent and interactive neurodevelopmental mechanisms, appear to play important roles in this disorder. In recent years, evidence has accumulated in support of a role for neurodevelopment insults in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. The dramatic changes in brain structure and function from conception to birth underscore the particular vulnerability to both short and long-term disease outcomes. Hence, the determinations of fetal brain development—both genes and environmental factors—deserve consideration as potential risk factors for schizophrenia. Among many putative environmental risk factors that have been investigated in studies of schizophrenia, infection is generally deemed as one of the most plausible, because microbial pathogens are well-documented causes of congenital brain anomalies and behavioural disorders. For example, prenatal exposure to ruvella, toxoplasmoisis, herpes simplex virus type 2 , and other infections are known causes of developmental disorders that include, mental retardation, learning disabilities, sensorineural dysfunction, and several structural brain anomalies.  There is also a relatively high prevalence documentation of schizophrenia in populations with influenza during pregnancy. Associations between schizophrenia and epidemics of maternal respiratory viral infections, measles, varicella-zoster, and polio have been reported. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Schizophrenia is a psychosis. That it to say, it is a severe mental disorder in which the person’s emotions, thinking, judgment, and grasp of reality are so disturbed that his or her functioning is seriously impaired. The symptoms of schizophrenia are often divided into “positive” and “negative.” Positive symptoms are abnormal experiences and perceptions like delusions, hallucinations, illogical and disorganized thinking and inappropriate behaviour. Negative symptoms are the absence of normal thoughts, emotions and behaviour such as blunted emotions, loss of drive, poverty of thought, and social withdrawal. The two most common functional psychoses around in defining schizophrenia are schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depressive illness). Bipolar disorder is an episodic disorder in which psychotic symptoms are associated with severe alternations in mood—at times elated, agitated episodes of mania, at other times depression, with physical and mental slowing, despair, guilt and low self-esteem. On the other hand, the course of schizophrenia, though fluctuating, tends to be more continuous, and the person’s display of emotion is likely to be incongruous or lacking in spontaneity. Markedly illogical thinking is common in schizophrenia. Auditory hallucinations may occur in either manic-depressive illness or schizophrenia, but in schizophrenia they are more likely to be commenting on the person’s actions or to be conversing one with another. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Delusions, also, can occur in both conditions; in schizophrenia they may hive the individual the sense the he or she is being controlled by outside forces of that his or her thoughts are being broadcast or interfered with. Despite common features, different forms of schizophrenia are quite dissimilar. One person, for example, may be paranoid but show good judgment and high functioning in many areas of life. Another may be bizarre in manner and appearance, preoccupied with delusions of bodily disorder, passive and withdrawn. So marked are the differences, in fact, that many experts believe that, when the causes of schizophrenia are worked out, the illness will prove to be a set of different conditions which lead, via a final common pathway of biochemical interactions, to similar consequences. In the 2001 film, “The Cave Man’s Valentine,” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Romulus Ledbetter is a character who is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. At times, he has a beautiful mind and is able to play the piano as well as Beethoven. At other times, demons are attacking his mind, and he becomes confused and dangerous and loses touch with reality. He seriously believes that people are putting thoughts into his mind. Not all schizophrenics are dangerous, nor are they out of touch with reality. In the 2001 film, “A Beautiful Mind,” starring Russell Crow, John Nash is an extremely intelligent character who is a genius in mathematics and even works with the Pentagon to help decode messages. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

As we have been challenged by the difficulties of working with a particular group of schizophrenics, we have learned new behaviours which are facilitative. How can we initiate a relationship with such individuals? One way which most of us have come to use is the expression by the therapist of his own immediate feelings, in a way which does not impose on the client. Thus, with a very silent man, I have voiced such feelings as these: “I feel quite content with our silence this morning. Sometimes when we are not talking, I feel sort of impatient and wanting to know what is going on but this morning it feels good just to be with you, quietly.” Or with another client, “I feel that you are angry at me. I am not sure, of course, because you have not said so. However, I keep wondering why you are angry with me.” Such statements are expressed as inward musings, not as questions or demands. They may be much more extensive than these brief examples. They tend to put the therapist as a person into the relationship, without threatening the client by demands. They keep repeating in a variety of ways, “I am here. I am offering a relationship. I am a person with feelings, with perceptions. I am sensitive to you and anything you are willing to reveal about yourself.” The therapist can draw on his own momentary experiencing and find there an ever-present reservoir from which he can draw, and with which he can initiate, deepen, and carry-on therapeutic interaction even with an unmotivated, silent, or externalizing person.” However, when dealing with people who are mentally ill and making threats of brandishing sharp objects, it is best to not make any sudden moves and get to safety and to take their threats seriously because they have a tendency to snap without notice. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

Some of our therapists go further in their behaviour. One in particular is moving more and more toward allying himself with the hidden and unrevealed person in the schizophrenic, and openly “clobbering” the defensive shell. In his work, there is a real similarity to Rosen or Whitaker. He is sensitively and obviously committed to the person who is in hiding, of the psychotic symptoms, the fear of relating, the defenses and avoidances. Perhaps partly because this approach is congenial to him as a person, he is finding it effective. As we listen to the recorded interviews of the various therapists in our group, we are gradually broadening the repertoire of behaviours which are real for each of us in dealing with our psychotic clients, and are slowly hammering out ways of facilitating movement in the unmotivated person. There is another lesson which we as therapists have learned, and that is the patience which is necessary to elicit what Dr. Otto Rank has called the “positive will,” in an individual in whom it has never been exercised. We have come to realize that almost none of the individuals with whom we have been working have ever been affirmed themselves. “They have never, in any meaningful way, said, “I feel,” “I live,” “I have a right to be.” They have instead been passive receivers of life’s hurts, blows, and events. It takes great patience to wait for the germination and budding of the will to say, “I am, I deserve to be.” Yet the phenomenon of growth is in some respects all the more exciting because it has been so long dormant. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

Coming, as a number of our therapist did, from work with non-hospitalized individuals, the development of our feeling about the significance of psychotic content in our contacts is of interest. The simplest way of stating our present attitude is to day that we have learned how relatively unimportant is psychotic material. This could easily be misunderstood. The hallucination, the delusion, the bizarre language or posture has of course its significance in the psychological dynamics of the schizophrenic individual. However, in the therapeutic relationship it simply forms a more difficult language of communication. Working with a child in play therapy, his language is his behaviour, and this is often difficult to understand. Or in working with a foreign-born client, garbled phrases and mispronunciations make understanding more difficult. So it is, it seems to us, with the schizophrenic. His scrambled incoherencies, his paranoid ideas, his hearing of voices, simply represent a mode of communicating himself which is often very difficult to understand. However, we have found the difference one of degree rather than kind, and do not attach special importance, nor use special procedures when dealing with the person who is frankly psychotic in his way of expressing himself. In my first few meetings with Charles, I was very impressed. He was bright, interested and had a good grasp of psychology. In group, he was helpful, using his knowledge to lead other members to some insights. Seeing his ability, I decided he would make an ideal group assistant. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

The group assistant is someone who takes charge in my absence and leads discussion when I feel it is best for me to be out of the room. I thought Charles, the amateur psychologist, was a natural for the job. It was a serious mistake. In my absence, Charles began to run the group like his own private kingdom. He chose the topics, limited the times others could talk, and reprimanded those who digressed from the subject. Using his knowledge of psychology, he “psyched out” the others and called his diagnoses into play when he wanted to put someone down. Yet whenever he digressed or showed his own weaknesses, he either may lame excuses or flatly said that the group had no right to “nail” him. The other group members became furious. Sessions which started out with open sharing soon deteriorated into shouting matches. Charles often locked horns with John, a man with a short fuse and sharp tongue. Whenever John challenged his point of view, Charles would become the intellectual, backing up his arguments with “facts” and logic. In one such discussion, John angrily shouted, “I might not be able to crack your logic, twerp, but I can sure crack your head!” Finally, the problem was brought up while I was in the room. In her shy, forgiving way, Victoria said, “I really appreciate how willing Charles is to lead the group, but I sometimes think he isn’t going by the same rules we are. Don’t the rules apply to him too?” Before I could reply, John snapped, “Damn right.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

The therapist, with full humanity and poignancy, and with the patient’s explicit and voluntary consent, may have to perform a similar task: not torture, but surgery. In order for the patient to get better, his illusions, upon which is whole life is based, must be undermined so that he can live in the World which is here today, rather than in his “If Only” or “Some Day.” This is the most painful task which the script analyst has to perform: to tell his patients finally that there is no Santa Claus. However, by careful preparation, the blow can be softened and the patient may, in the long run, forgive him. One of the favourite illusions of later childhood is shaken when Jeder finds out where babies come from. In order to maintain the fiction of his parents’ purity, he has to make the reservation: “All right, but my parents do not do that.” It is difficult for the therapist to avoid seeming crass and cynical when he confronts Jeder with the fact that he was not a virgin birth, so they must have done it at least once, and if he has brothers and sisters, several times. This is equivalent to telling him that his mother betrayed him, something no man should tell another unless the other pays him to do just that. Sometimes he has the opposite task of restoring to some semblance of decency the picture which mother herself or external circumstances have smeared into degradation. And for millions of children, this illusion is an unattainable luxury, and they must exist in a bare state of psychological as well as material subsistence. The beliefs in Satan Claus, Death, and mother’s virginity may be regarded as normal because they are eagerly grasped and give spiritual nourishment to idealistic or weaker spirits whenever they are made available. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

On the other hand, confused people are betwixt because they have their own special illusions. These range from, “If you take a colonic irrigation every day, you will be health and happy,” (they could cause micro tears in your colonic lining and lead to more serious health conditions) to “If you get sick, you can prevent your father from dying. If he dies, it is because you did not get sick enough.” There are also private contracts with God, contracts God was never consulted about which He never signed; and which He could in fact refuse to sign: “If I sacrifice my children, my mother will stay healthy” is a common example, or “If I do not have any climaxes, God will send me a miracle.” The latter was institutionalized among the women of the evening of Paris as “No matter how many men I have pleasures of the flesh with, or even knowingly infect with disease, I can still go to Heaven as long as it is done in the course of business and I do not enjoy it.” A classic ploy by which the hive stimulates stupidity is the Immortality Placebo—usually sexual or financial. First, the gene-pool sets up a Moral Taboo. Moral Taboos are Magnificent Intelligent Qualification (IQ) devices because they get everyone in the hive hung up on virtue-sin. The Moral Taboo must interfere with some normal, natural, caste-behaviour. It must perversely prevent some castes from getting something that they neurologically are wired to want. Once brought into focus by prescription the Taboo becomes charged with artificial cop-sinner magnetism. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

Genesis, the first chapter in the Judeo-Christian Bible, clearly sets out the strategy of the Immorality Placebo—using good verses evil as fascinating distraction, a front ploy. There are two forbidden trees in the Garden of Edan. The serpent—now exposed as an agent provocateur—gets Eve and Adam to eat the fruit of the first tree, which provides the knowledge—substitute the word “hang-up”—of Good and Evil, thus forgetting about the second tree, which bears the fruit of self-actualization and immortality. Interestingly, the Immorality Placebo has been formalized by Pynchon as one of his “Proverbs for Paranoids—If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they do not have to worry about answers.” Caught between unjustifiable virtue and unacceptable crime, consumed with pity and incapable of love, a recluse deprived of the benefits of cynicism, the man of supreme intelligence is killed by contradiction. “My mind is of this World,” Ivan said; “what good is it to try to understand what is not of the World?” However, he lived only for what is not of this World, and his proud search for the absolute is precisely what removed him from the World of which he loved no part. The fact that Ivan was defeated does not obviate the fact that once the problem is posed, the consequence must follow: rebellion is henceforth on the march toward action. This has been demonstrated by Dostoievsky, with prophetic intensity, in his legend of the Gran Inquisitor. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

Ivan, finally, does not distinguish the creator from his creation. “It is not God whom I reject,” he says, “it is creation.” In other words, it is God the father, indistinguishable from what He has created. (Ivan allows his father to be killed and thus chooses a direct attack against nature and procreation. Moreover, this particular father is infamous. The repugnant figure of old Karamazov is continually coming between Ivan and the God of Aliosha.) His plot to usurp the throne, therefore, remains completely moral. He does not want to reform anything in creation. However, creation being what it is, he claims the right to free himself morally and to free all the rest of mankind with him. On the other hand, from the moment when the spirit of rebellion, having accepted the concept of “everything is permitted” and “Everyone or no one,” aims at reconstructing creation in order to assert the sovereignty and divinity of man, and from the moment when metaphysical rebellion extends itself from ethics to politics, a new undertaking, of incalculable import, begins, which also springs from the same nihilism. Dostoievsky, the prophet of the new religion, had foreseen and announced it: “If Aliosha had come to the conclusion that neither God nor immortality existed, he would immediately have become an atheist and a socialist. For socialism is not only a question of the working classes; it is above all, in its contemporary incarnation, a question of atheism, a question of the tower of Babel, which is constructed without God’s help, not to reach to the Heavens, but to bring the Heavens down to Earth.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

After that, Aliosha can, in fact, treat Ivan with compassion as a “real simpleton.” The latter only made an attempt at self-control and failed. Others will appear, with more serious intentions, who, on the basis of the same despairing nihilism, will insist on ruling the World. These are the Grand Inquisitors who imprison Christ and come to tell Him that His method is not correct, that universal happiness cannot be achieved by the immediate freedom of choosing between good and evil, but by the domination and unification of the World. The first step is to conquer and rule. The kingdom of Heaven will, in fact, appear on Earth, but it will be ruled over by men—a mere handful to begin with, who will be the Caesars, because they were the first to understand—and later, with time, by all men. The unity of all creation will be achieved by every possible means, since everything is permitted. The Grand Inquisitor is old and tired, for the knowledge he possesses is bitter. He knows that men are lazy rather than cowardly and that they prefer peace and death to the liberty of discerning between good and evil. He has pity, a cold pity, for the silent prisoner who history endlessly deceives. He urges him to speak, to recognize his misdeeds, and, in one sense, to approve the actions of the Inquisitors and of the Caesars. However, the prisoner does not speak. The enterprise will continue, therefore, without him; he will be killed. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

Legitimacy will come at the end of time, when the kingdom of men is assured. “The affair has only just begun, it is far from being terminated, and the World has many other things to suffer, but we shall achieve our aim, we shall be Caesar, and then we shall begin to think about Universal happiness.” By then, the prisoner has been executed; the Grand Inquisitor reign alone, listening to “the profound spirit, the spirit of destruction and death.” The Grand Inquisitors proudly refuse freedom and the bread of Heaven and offer the bread of this Earth without freedom. “Come down from the cross and we will believe in you,” their police agents are already crying on Golgotha. However, He did not come down and, even at the most tortured moment of His agony, He protested to God at having been forsaken. There are, thus, no longer any proofs, but faith and the mystery that the rebels reject and at which the Grand Inquisitors scoff. Everything is permitted and centuries of crime are prepared in that cataclysmic moment. From Paul to Stalin, the popes who have chosen Caesar have prepared the way for Caesars who quickly learn to despise popes. The unity of the World, which was not achieved with God, will henceforth be attempted in defiance of God. However, we have not yet reached that point. For the moment, Ivan offers us only the tortured face of the revel plunged in the abyss, incapable of action, torn between the idea of his own innocence and the desire to kill. He hates the death penalty because it is the image of the human condition, and, at the same time, he is drawn to crime. Because he has taken the side of mankind, solitude is his lot. With him the rebellion of reason culminates in madness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

When one is hungry, it feels good to eat. When one is thirsty, it feels good to drink water. When the time to do so has come, it feels good to urinate and to empty one’s bowels. Physical massage and the sheer sensuality of being caressed yield pleasure not overshadowed by a climax, which is viewed by most humans as the acme of human pleasure. Although pleasure as such cannot serve as the chief purpose of life—the reality principle discussed by Dr. Freud tells us that the quest for pleasure can endanger life itself—a life without pleasure is hardly worth living. Gratification of basic needs is pleasurable in and for itself, and the capacity to feel such pleasure is one of the rewards of healthy personality. Although it may seem surprising, many persons actually dread the experience of pleasure and repress it. Such repression is most likely in person reared under puritanical regimes in which “self-indulgence” is regarded as a sin. Pleasure comes not only from the fact of satisfying basic needs, however. There is joy to be found in contemplation of beauty in music, art, and nature; in sound of birds; the sight of a child taking its first steps; the smell of new-mown hay. Another source of pleasure is to be found in the zest of accompanying action. When people engage in activities that will challenge, but not overwhelm them, zest is engendered. Thus, when a game of tennis or handball, surfing along the perfect wave, skiing down a fast slope, yield pleasure no less than that afforded by sensuous, passive massage. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Similar zest arises in those who love their work, whether it be that of an artist in the studio, a scientist in the laboratory, or a businessperson planning a sales campaign. People who experience pleasure in living do not develop the uptight, armoured bodies and grim facial expressions of those whose lives have been hard and joyless or whose religious orientation proscribes pleasure as a sin. And those who find zest in their work and play appear “childlike” or ageless—they do not grow old. Pleasure engulfs the experience of persons who have just had their hopes fulfilled, or who have just completed a valued project. The delights of winning a prize or receiving an unexpected gift are among the “highs” in life, as are the joys of finishing a difficult mountain climb or writing a book. Pleasure—whether occasioned by sensuality, physical activity, or consummation of projects—is a goal and reward of healthy personality. I cannot recall any statement by mystics—ancient, medieval, or modern—that one aspect of spiritual union is exquisite refinement. Everyone writes of its moral fruits, its religious insights—even its creativity, artistic or intellectual—but who seems to note this aesthetic effect on manners, feelings, speech, and living? That breeding and culture can contribute to spirituality may not be evident to the ascetically mystic mind or the simpler religious mind. That fastidious refinement (but not arrogant snobbish refinement) can come with inner growth may be likewise obscure. However, the long association of holiness with asceticism or with bareness of living has confused the understanding of truth. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

A lifestyle touched with beauty in manners, surroundings, character, or taste, can better express what philosophy means than an ugly and unclean one. That lack of opportunity is responsible for a parts of crudeness and inferiority and immaturity is, however, obvious enough. However, it is a fact which ought not be used to cover up the correct view of these things. Good manners are not only an end in themselves, emblems of a finer personality, tokens of willingness to be of service, but also part of a means to higher spiritual attainment—the ultimate courtesy and supreme generosity of human behaviour. Ill-mannered conduct is ordinarily incompatible with spiritual realization: the cases of those Christian masters who historically behaved badly towards would-be disciples are special cases, and ought not to be taken as guides. Refinement is as valuable a quality, and as spiritual, as truth-seeking. Good manners and finer feelings, courtesy and graciousness—these inhere in one who possesses a true spirituality. It is true that many aspirants consider this to be mere surface polish, unimportant, a cloak of quite often for hypocrisy and falseness. That may be so in a number of cases. However, even it if were correct of all cases, the fact remains that the manners which aspirants adopt, the code of behaviour which they practise, possess a definite place on this quests. The Christians who regarded and used etiquette as part of their way toward inner unfoldment, as part of their path, were not wrong. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

For etiquette creates forms of conduct which not only refine and uplift the practiser’s character, but also can be used to defend his inner life—where he is developed enough to possess one—against society’s onslaughts. There is a moral element in it, too. For where etiquette trains a man sympathetically to consider the emotional reactions of other persons to his own behaviour, it transfers his point of view from an habitual selfish one to a more impersonal one. Again, by smoothing the relations between both of them, it puts the others not only more at peace with themselves but also with him. Lastly, it requires and fosters some measure of self-control. For we are not only victims of aggression from our enemies. We are just as much, or even more, victims of ourselves, attacked by our own weakness and faults. We should learn to teach children to learn to respect the requires for respect—whether it be shown to elders or to authorities, or whether it be shown to other people’s religious beliefs. Respect is something which can later grow into a higher quality and that is reverence. Through reverence we can begin to sense higher atmospheres which produce a feeling of awe whether the atmosphere be found in the beauties of nature, of music, of art, or of saints. People of the lower classes are apt to lose their temper more quickly than those of the upper classes because some have not been brought up to respect self-control or to value it and thus to respect themselves. Thus, self-respect becomes respect for one’s own higher self. The connection between the good life and good manners is not usually brought out by those who would uplift humanity spiritually, expect of course by such shining exceptions. In a period like the present—when the young generation ridicules all mention of manners, courtesy, etiquette, and so on as hollow, hypocritical, and insincere—the values so criticized must be clarified again and their connection with the higher life made plainer. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

The Sacramento Fire Department’s mission is to safeguard the lives and property of the Sacramento populations from fires, natural disasters, and incidents involving hazardous materials. The department provides fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) to the city of Sacramento. Members of the Fire Department fight fires, provide emergency medical treatment, and rescue people from dangerous situations. The department has specialized divisions that investigate fires, deal with hazardous material, and help protect the Sacramento International Airport. “There was a rooming house on Capitol Avenue. A flophouse really, a nine-story dump, filled with dozens and dozens of occupants who were less well off than the rest of us. I was lieutenant of our ladder company, and we went as an additional ladder company to the fire, which eventually went to six alarms. These people were being taken out from the inside. We consulted with the chief, and he said, ‘The guy in that window.’ He’s pointing to the eight floor, where a guy was hanging over the windowsill. Our rig was parked a block away, so I told our guys to swing it around to the other block and see if our stick can reach him from there. In the meantime, I went up the inside stairs to the eighth floor. There was not a large amount of fire to be seen, but the smoke and the heat were boiling. I found this guy, and he was barely conscious. Besides, he couldn’t walk very well because of arthritis or something. I said, ‘Okay, come on, let’s go.’ And I started to carrying him down. I was lucky, he wasn’t a heavy guy at all. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

“We were in the hallways when the smoke and the heat changed instantly. I knew it was going to flash, and we had to get the heck out. At any moment the fire was going to chase us. He was having trouble, so I gave him my mask, and I carried him down the inside stairway. In the street I put him on the running board on the far side of one of the trucks. Somebody brought over an inhalator, and I was trying to get the guy to take some air. Then I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the hospital. They told me afterwards that I just went shish, boom, and that was it. In the hospital, I heard a woman doctor talking to the others. And I said to myself, ‘That’s it, an angel, I’m all done. This is it, I’ve bought it.’ The only reason the department saw fit to write me up for a medal was because I had pulmonary burns, burns down the throat and lungs. But they were not from the fire itself, they were from the heat. The difference is, I wouldn’t be sitting here today if they were from the fire itself. Just the smoke and heated gases, that’s all. I don’t think it’s a great idea to talk about the medal—it was nice, okay—but I’m no different from anybody else. Exceeding the needs and expectations of those they serve with the highest level of valor, integrity and commitment is what the Sacramento Fire Department is dedicated to doing. Please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department and you could save lives and property. They provide optimum prevention and protection to our community. It is also of utmost importance to raise your children to love God and Jesus Christ, love America and be patriotic. To help keep America strong, we must also buy American cars and other American goods and services. In order to keep our communities safe, please obey and respect law and order and treat everyone, especially your elders with dignity, and make it a point not to litter. Remember, there lives a God! Each finite creature proclaims His rule on sea and land; throughout all changing forms of nature is clearly shown His mighty hand. In every place is heard the call: The Lord of Host has made us all. 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. Remember to raise your children to love America, to love God and Jesus Christ, to respect law and order, buy goods made in America, and be kind and respectful to everyone, especially their elders. There lives a God! #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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North Laguna Creek, CA | Mid 500’s

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 An important factor in BMW’s current success is quality, luxury, and dependability. They value excellence in all they do, including customer connections, product and brand recognition, service, and product quality. Their independence in the corporate sector is another factor contributing to their success.

Where Passion Rules, Truth Trembles!

The World is full of people that will try to take advantage of the less fortunate and thin it is cool but it is not and should instead be looking for ways to help each other so we all can live in peace. More than 70 percent of Americans are on medication, 30 percent of Americans are overweight, and 50 percent of American eat unhealthily, while only 19 percent of Americans exercise regularly. Meanwhile, former President Biden has set an unrealistic goal for the transition to electric vehicles. In just 5 years, 50 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States of America are mandated to be electric. The reason being that “accelerated adoption of electric vehicles can improve air quality, reduce emissions, and position U.S. industries to lead global efforts.” However, should the United States of America not be more concerned about the health of their cities and be encouraging them to adopt lifestyles that include fitness and healthy food? Should the United States of America not be leading global efforts to have the healthiest population in the World? Many benefits of physical activity for brain health happen right after a session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Benefits include improved thinking or cognition for children 6 to 13 and reduced short-terms feelings for adults. Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. It can also reduce your risk of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

Physical activity is beneficial to health and well-being and conversely, physical inactivity increases risk for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and other poor health outcomes. NCDs describes a wide range of conditions, diseases, and disorders. These have genetic, lifestyle, or environmental causes rather than viral or bacterial, and they are characterized as health conditions that: Are not caused by acute infections or illness, result in long-term health issues, and require long-term treatment and care, such as lifestyle changes or medication. Health conditions that are consider NCDs are: Cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic lung illness, injuries that cause permanent damage, and mental illness. NCDs are the number 1 cause of death and disease around the World, killing more then 42 million people Worldwide on an annual basis. This accounts for 74 percent of all deaths globally. Each year, 15 million people around the World die prematurely, between, the ages of 30 and 69 years old, from an NCD. Cardiovascular diseases make up most NDC deaths, followed by cancer, respiratory diseases, and then diabetes. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that members should obey the Word of Wisdom, eat nutritious food, exercise regularly, control their weight, and get adequate sleep. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

Members are taught to eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and meat. They are also taught to shun substances or practices that abuse their bodies or minds and that could lead to addiction. Members should also practice good sanitation and hygiene, bathe every day, and obtain adequate medical and dental care. Not all NCDs are preventable, but you can lower your risk by maintaining healthy habits. Stop smoking and drinking liquor. Get more physical activity. Regular physical activity offers a multitude of health benefits. If exercise is not part of your day, set a goal to get moving for 20 minutes a day. You can walk, jog, bike, hike, row, or anything else. Set up an exercise plan that does not require a gym at all. Do 20-30 minutes of strength training two days a week. Strat with bodyweight exercises. Use free weights and weight machines only when an expert can help you. The global recommendation is of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. Together, physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours are contributing to the rise in NCDs and placing a burden on healthcare systems. So why is it that former President Biden has placed such huge importance on mandating electrical vehicles, instead of working to produce a healthier population? Because electrical vehicles are profitable and he likely benefits for the sale of them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

Also, mandating the people eat healthier and get more exercise may reduce consumer demands on medication and vehicles and producers can only charge so much for food because everyone has to eat. So, it is important to keep people on medication and keep them focused on electrical cars to generate profits. Maintaining the best possible physical health has been a gospel ideal throughout the ages—from the strict dietary laws of ancient Israel, with the example of Daniel and his associates, to the Word of Wisdom. The physical body is a gift from God and should be properly cared for and respected. Mental health is also important and should not be overlooked, as it can affect us both physically and spiritually. We must do all we can to take care of both our bodies and minds. The Lord sets a high standard for us in telling us to consider our bodies a temple. He has established some basic standards for the governance of our physical bodies and mental health so that we may become more self-reliant and better prepared to progress personally, strengthen the family, and serve in the Church and community. Throughout the Christian Bible, God asked His people to abstain from certain foods. Today is no different. God has given wise counsel to help all His children be healthy. Those who follow God’s counsel in the Word of Wisdom are promised that they will receive health, find wisdom, and “run and not be weary, and walk and not faint,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 89.18-20. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

Winners are programed, too. Instead of a curse, there is a blessing: “Long life!” or “Be a great man.” The injunction is adaptive instead of constricting: “Do not be selfish!” and the come-on is “Well done!” With such benevolent controls, and all his permissions, there is still his demon to contend with, lurking in the murky caverns of his primal mind. If his demon is a friend instead of, then he will have it made. Does everyone have a script? At the present, there is no way to answer this question with any degree of certainty, but it is certain that everyone is programed to some extent from early years. As previously mentioned, some people can become autonomous through drastic external circumstances, others by internal reorganization, and still others by applying the antiscript. The key lies in permissions. The more permissions a man has, the less he is bound by his script. On the other side, the more severely the script controls were reinforced, the more script-bound he is. It is likely that the human race as a whole forms a curve. At one end are those who become autonomous by one means or another, and at the other end are those who are script-bound, with most people in between, subject to changes in circumstances or outlook. Among the script-bound, there are two types. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

Script-driven people are those who have lots of permissions, but must fulfill the demands of their scripts before they can enjoy them. A good example is the hard worker who can have fun in his spare time. Script-ridden people are those who have few permissions, but must spend as much time as possible fulfilling their scripts at any cost. A typical example is the heavy drinker or drug addict who must speed toward his doom as quickly as he can. The script-ridden are the victims of tragic or “hamartic” scripts. On the other hand, it is a rare person who has not at one time or another heard the voice of the demon in his head, telling him to buy when he should sell, or stay when he should go, or speak when he should remain silent. The predom taboo against genetic consumerism surfaced when citizens became morally outraged by genetic engineering and cloning. The emergence of a new taboo is always a sign for evolutionary rejoicing. Today’s new taboo is tomorrow’s advance. Agents who create new crimes are automatically promoted to the Gut-Caste Hall of Fame. Examples of relatively new crimes include bootleg radio broadcasting, psychedelic drug manufacturing, nuclear research, computer larceny, leaving a country without an exit visa, DNA research and cloning. The passions of men are so resistant to control that in no single method is there sure hope of overcoming them. Only in a combination of methods does this. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

The high moments of Heavenly inspirations are laid low in the dust of obscenity or lust. The effect of passional indulgences spreads out on physical and mental levels. If we learn by bitter experience to drop the burden of one particular desire, we do so only to pick up another soon after. We are not content to be at peace. The desires of human beings are never satiated, nor can they ever be since human beings must go on searching for final satisfaction. It is in their nature to do so. However, what cannot be satiated by outer things can turn in one itself and find rest at last within. How morally helpless many persons allow themselves to become is shown by the compulsive nature of their deeds and the obsessive nature of their thoughts. It is the strength or feebleness of his attachments and desires which largely govern his first and earlier paces in the relinquishment of ego. When insight arises, the passions become subdued and the problems which beset man become solved of their own accord. We may quarrel and kill whilst we remain in ignorance, but we must needs feel for and with each other when we comprehend at long last that in the Overself we are one. All too easily do luxurious habits become insatiable habits, ever demanding more and more and meanwhile creating tension of discontent. Whereas the conventional good man seeks to leave behind only the gross flagrant forms of sin, the philosophic disciple is much more scrupulous. Whereas the one is content to moderate the strength of his lower nature, the other tries to subjugate it altogether. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

There is one side of a person that always has to come out on top. That is the person who is always successful or dominant in the field. Your top-dog self is critical, judgmental and always has to be right. It gets the best of people, rather than trying to help or support them. Most people have been playing that side so long, they believe that it is all of them there is. However, that is not it. There is another side, the underdog, the one who has little chance of winning. This is the side that comes out in some when dealing with someone they care about. The soft, supportive side. That side that does not have to win every battle. Every man has to accept that he may be a loser and that sometimes it is good to lose. It feels good to let down the defenses and just give in to someone else. However, sure it feels good to always be successful at everything, but what does it get a person? A man who gets everything done, who makes all the money. He is sometimes seen by others as worthless. Yet, what is so worthless about feeling good? Does having all that success and money ever make a man feel really good? Is not being able to feel love worth something, too? People who are used to coming out on top need someone to humanize them. They need someone to take care of them and keep them in line. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

It is nice to come home to someone who goes to an import place and spends $1,500 on beautiful things for your homecoming. Blue Tiffany lamps that look great in your bedroom. Blue bed sheets from India. Colour of the sky, two blue pillows, incense, candles, Danish cheeses, Holland cheeses, smoked oysters, artichoke hearts. Carrot juice and more food. Soft Kleenex to wipe your nose. Fruit from the fruit stand. Coming home from a business trip to a nice ranch house where everything is sunny. Fresh baked bread, freshly picked apples, berries, plumbs. Then seeing the lake. How beautiful and fresh it is, and then taking a nice steam bath. Imagine a loving home near a mossy meadow, falling down in the sun and breathing deeply. This is much better than being a prisoner of success alone. A prisoner whose unbounded imagination gave birth to him, and they became one. Being alone, imprisoned in a bloodstained Bastille, entirely constructed around a still unsatisfied, and henceforth undirected, desire for please. Some men have only triumphed in a dream and those ten volumes crammed with philosophy and atrocities recapitulate an unhappy form of asceticism, an illusory advance from the total no to the absolute yes, an acquiescence in death at least, which transfigures the assassination of everything and everyone into a collective suicide. When a man only has success and no love, he is killed in his imagination. Others end up on an improvised stage with other lunatics. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

Success without love is nothing more than a derisory equivalent of the satisfaction that the order of the World failed to give a man. We are to discipline, and when necessary, abstain from satisfying the lower impulses of our nature because we are to cultivate its higher intuitions. The clamant voice of the one drowns the soft whisper of the other. Ww must try to turn the flow of our passions into a sublimer channel than the sense alone. Variations in the muscle tonus of parts of a person’s body may reflect repressed emotions and the need tensions. A flaccid handshake may disclose a lack of sincerity. A soft, suckling mouth may reveal unconscious wishes to be passive and dependent. A female college student complained that men were forever “making passes” at her, yet she denied any erotic interest in males. Observation revealed her bodily movements were very provocative. She wiggled her hips when walking and pushed her chest high. When talking with a man, she glued her eyes, alternately opened and narrowed, to his. Men and women who have reached or passed the age of the late forties are more ready for, and better suited to, disciplining the animal nature and human passions than younger folk. It is more difficult to conquer lust than to walk on the edge of a sword. However, it can be done. No matter how much you feed your desires, they will never be satisfied. Therefore, direct them gradually towards the Infinite, in which they may ultimately merge, and from which there is no return.  Repressed hostility may be manifested by excessive muscular tension in the forehead, neck, or shoulders, often resulting in headaches, a “pain in the neck,” and back pain. #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

The traditional mission of the Sacramento Fire Department was saving lives and protecting property from fire. However, today, the Sacramento Fire Department also prevents harm. Preventing fire, injuries, and disease by understanding what causes harm to firefighters, their systems, their members, and community is the most effective form of preventing harm. The ability to manage risks is essential for success and survival. “We were working night shift on Engine X. I sometimes work on my model fire engines, but that night I had gone over to have dinner with the captain of Engine Y, who was going to retire. I had just returned to the firehouse when the alarm came in. All of a sudden Engine X’s crew came running out of the kitchen like a football team, and the second alarm came in. With that, I knew that my older brother, Z, who was a battalion chief, was there. We had quite a bit of rain on the street, and driving there was slow going. On the way over, I heard Z, I knew it was his voice, asking for a third alarm and all the ambulances that were available. I now knew there was an explosion, but I didn’t know the extent. When I pulled in there, the scene was one of utter desolation, it was like a sea of bricks and fire of low intensity. The nearby buildings were just starting to catch. People were hobbling all over the place. All the firemen there were on rescue. Knowing that help was coming, I told the battalion to make sure the engine company stretched lines. I didn’t want them all going on rescue work, which there was a natural tendency for them to do. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

“I looked and saw our rigs completely smashed. It was a sickening sight. The aerial ladder of Truck A had been blown across the street about thirty feet. It was crushed. The whole middle of the truck was flat down on the street, the tiller sticking up in the air like a sinking ship. Bricks were all over Engine B, one engine caved in, and there were men lying all over the place. It was just mind-boggling. We have the fire spreading in four different directions, so I called for more help. Two members of Rescue C brought Z over, just so I could see him. He was all bandaged and bloody. All he kept saying to me was, ‘I’m all right. I’m all right.’ I said, ‘You’re going to the hospital.’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah.’ They said, ‘We’ll see he goes right away.’ So now I was the chief in charge. Z had a broken collarbone and a dislocated shoulder, and I didn’t know it at the time, but he had a five-inch wooden stake drive into the side of his throat and resting against the carotid artery. I didn’t know it, because they had bandaged right over it, deciding rightly that they shouldn’t try to remove it at the scene. They have bandaged his whole face and neck, and he looked like a mummy, all bloody. Of course, it was a shock to me to see my older brother like that, but I had the idea in my head that he was going to be all right. The fellows had control of the situation, and they were taking him to the hospital, so I didn’t really dwell on it. There was so much going on that I had to turn to the fire. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

“I knew some of our men had died, they were laying all over the place, and there had to be people under the sea of bricks and rubble. And there were people in the nearby house fires who were hollering. I went to a fifth alarm and then got an additional two engines and two trucks, because I knew the first alarm was wiped out. I didn’t know how badly, but they were gone. By the time I put one company to work there was another one there looking for assignment. The rubble was starting to burn near Ladder B, and all I could think of was, if there was anyone underneath it and still alive, I didn’t want them to burn to death. I thought that would be a horrible thing. So I had the first lines keep the fire away from the rigs. It ended up that they weren’t under the truck, they were under Engine B. It was like looking for someone under water, you had no idea where to start in the tremendous confusion. Some of the victims had already been taken to various hospitals in police cars and private cars, and it took us quite a while to get an accurate head count, to find out who was missing. We finally broke it down that the entire crew of Ladder B were dead, all five of them. It was several hours before I found out what had happened. The building was a four-story warehouse, and they had a huge propane tank on the fourth floor, a five-hundred-gallon tank, I believe. It was completely illegal to have it in the building at all. One of the workers was moving the tank with a lift truck near the elevator shaft. It fell off the truck, the valve broke, and the liquid propane poured down the elevator shaft. The entire building got to the explosive stage at once. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

“The workers ran out of the place and were out in front when Z arrived. They told him they had a propane tank that had burst. He assumed it was a twenty-gallon job or something like that. He asked them how big is it, and they said, ‘About as big as your car.’ He said that was the last thing that he remembers. That’s when the propane hit the wood stove on the first floor and blew the whole warehouse to pieces, totally destroyed it. It’s too bad that it didn’t blow sooner, we wouldn’t have had any problems. On the other hand, if it had blown later, we would have had more men killed. There wasn’t much left of the building, there was so much open fire, we kind of dismissed the possibility of more explosions in a warehouse. But some of the nearby houses had shifted and broken some of the natural gas lines into the houses. That got ignited. We also had a large frame church burning being the warehouse, which probably in itself would have been a third alarm, and for quite a while we had just one engine company working a turret on it. There were about nine or ten houses that were heavily damaged, and there were innumerable houses that got damage and window breakage for miles around the area. It was a tremendous sight. Once we got enough help in there to work on all the perimeter of the fire and hold it, then it was several more hours, I would say after midnight, when Commissioner C said they had the final count of casualties. It was the five members of Ladder B and two civilians. Then I got his permission to replace every company at the scene, because the weather was bitterly cold and the men were physically shot and emotionally shocked. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

“I stayed until all the companies were replaced, then I went back to quarters and had a bowl of hot soup. Then I went to the hospital for the second time that night. By this time Z had been operated on and they said he was all right, so I didn’t even go in to see him. The first time I had gone, he was still in the emergency room along with some of our fellows who were burned, so I had a chance to talk to them. I also had the very unpleasant task of identifying one of the bodies. The chaplains and the commissioner and his deputy went to each individual’s house to notify the family of the deaths. They did the same thing with the injured. They brought their wives in and met them at the hospital. It was complete chaos there. The families were very cooperative. They realized that nothing could have been done to avert the tragedy. The companies had pulled up, just as you do on every box you go on, to find out what was going on. The five men of the ladder company had gotten off the truck and were standing together across the street from the building, waiting for orders. And Engine Y had pulled in, and they were on the back of their rig getting masks on in case they were needed. We’ve had people say that shouldn’t have been that close. Well, nobody had any idea what was going on. The members of Engine Y were just blown back, except for one who, along with my brother, was blown into the chief’s car. The member of Engine E was also blown back and, other than burns, were not hurt badly at all. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

“But Ladder B’s crew just ended up being buried by all the debris. They were not blown away like the other fellows. In fact, one of the men from Engine E was talking to one of the men from Ladder B, and he was blown about sixty feet, and the man beside him was buried under the bricks and killed. Tw two who were blown into the chief’s car were badly injured. X was one of them. The other, named F, is not out on disability pension, at age thirty-two. He was very badly smashed up, a lot of broken bones. It was the second to last night on the job for the captain of Engine E, and he was going to get out, and the driver said to him, ‘Why don’t you stay in the rig, Cap, there’s nothing going to be doing here.’ Well, the bricks caved in the roof of the cab and they both received some bad lacerations, but it came out okay in the end. I always knew it could happen at any time. I felt that after all the fires I have been on, all the years I have put in, I had never had a man killed in a fire, whether I was in charge or just working at it. And it just caught up with me. Fate caught up with me. I went to all the wakes. They varied from some of the wives sobbing uncontrollably to others more or less accepting it. The younger wives seemed to take it harder. The families themselves were good to us. They even helped to console us. We’re all family. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

“X was in the hospital for about three weeks and out of the job for above five months. He most his hearing. He had to get hearing aids. He’s getting there. He says he has no real bad afteraffects from it. We had the funerals for the five men on New Year’s Eve, and it was bitter cold. Oh, God, it was a cold day. And we had thousands of men who came from all over the country. It hit every one of us in the department emotionally, to think that on New Year’s Eve, on a butter cold day, all those guys would come up It was just amazing, and it really helped. The case of the illegal usage of the propane tank is still in litigation. It’s been kicked around. The grand jury indicted them, but then they played a little game. The one guy got immunity to testify against the others, then he claimed he was the one who put the tank in there. One of those things.” The Sacramento Fire Department has to be equally committed to reducing civilian deaths as they are to reducing firefighter deaths, and aggressively managing risks will help them do this. The Sacramento Fire Department’s mission is fire protection and to respond to emergency situations, and they make a point to do this with compassion. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember, even if things are not going well, and you are a bit tired and sad, raise your children to love America and be patriotic citizens. Also, let them know how important it is to love God and Jesus Christ and to be ethical and moral, and to obey the laws. It is also important to buy American made goods and services, such as cars, clothes, meat, produce, poultry, dairy and fish. We must keep America farms and the automobile industry thriving. We can help stop corruption and evil one person at a time. It only takes five good people to facilitate a change in a small group. To show support for America, remember to buy American cars and American made products. Respect law and order and treat others with dignity and kindness. 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. God is in His holy Temple, Earthly thoughts be silent now, while reverence we assemble, and before His presence bow. He is with us, now and ever, when we call upon His name, aiding every good endeavour, guiding every upward aim. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

The Winchester Mystery House

Only one more week until the mansion is fully decked out in its holiday finest 🎄✨It is estimated that is you were to try to recreate The Winchester Mystery House, because it is so large, has extremely unique architecture, and many of the materials used are very expensive, rare, and even impossible to find, it would cost well over $500,000,000.00 USD, so preservation, restoration and diligent care is very important to preserve this 8th Wonder of the World and an important piece of American history. Although they do not accept donations, you can contribute by taking tours, buying items in the gift shop, and at the online store.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder 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 to purchase. Chester the Elf is looking forward to seeing you!  https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Learn the history and meaning of BMW’s famous slogan, which has been used for almost 40 years to promote the brand’s driving pleasure and performance. 

You are Already Dead to the World

Always make those senior to you feel comfortable in their superiority. Never take your position for granted and never let any favours you receive go to your head. For Sade, the law of power implies barred gated, castles with seven circumvallations from which it is impossible to escape, and where a society founded on desire and crime functions unimpeded, according to the rules of an implacable system. The most unbridled rebellion, insistence on complete freedom, lead to the total subjection of the majority. For Sade, man’s emancipation is consummated in these strongholds of debauchery where a kind of bureaucracy of vice rules over the life and death of the men and women who have committed themselves forever to the hell of their desires. His works abound with descriptions of these privileged places where feudal libertines, to demonstrate to their assembled victims their absolute impotence and servitude, always repeat the Duc de Blangis’s speech to the common people of the One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom: “You are already dead to the World.” Sade himself also inhabited the tower of Freedom, but in the Bastille. Absolute rebellion took refuge with him in a sordid fortress from which no one, either persecuted or persecutors, could ever escape. To establish his freedom, he had to create absolute necessity. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

Unlimited freedom of desire implies the negation of others and the suppression of pity. The heart, that “weak spot of the intellect,” must be exterminated; the locked room and the system will see to that. The system, which plays a role of capital importance in Sade’s fabulous castles, perpetuates a Universe of mistrust. It helps to anticipate everything so that no unexpected tenderness of pity occurs to upset the plans for complete enjoyment. It is a curious kind of pleasure, no doubt, which obeys the commandment: “We shall rise every morning at ten o’clock”! However, enjoyment must be prevented from degenerating into attachment, it must be put in parentheses and toughened. Objects of enjoyment must also never be allowed to appear as persons. If man is “an absolutely material species of plant,” he can only be treated as an object, and as an object for experiment. In Sade’s fortress republic, there are only machines and mechanics. The system, which dictates the method of employing the machines, puts everything in its right place. Hos infamous convents have their rule—significantly copied from that of religious communities. Thus, the libertine indulges in public confession. However, the process is changed: “If his conduct is pure, he is censured.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

Sade, as was the custom of his period, constructed ideal societies. But, contrary to the custom of his period, he codifies the natural wickedness of mankind. He meticulously constructs a citadel of force and hatred, pioneer that he is, even to the point of calculating mathematically the amount of the freedom he succeeded in destroying. He sums up his philosophy with an unemotional accounting of crimes: “Massacred before the first of March: 10 After the first of March: 20. To come: 16. Total: 46.” A pioneer, no doubt, but a limited one, as we can see. If that were all, Sade would be worthy only of the interest that attaches to all misunderstood pioneers. However, once the drawbridge is up, life in the castle must go on. No matter how meticulous the system, it cannot foresee every eventuality. It can destroy, but it cannot create. The masters of these tortured communities do not find the satisfaction they so desperately desire. Sade often evokes the “pleasant habit of crime.” Nothing here, however, seems very pleasant—more like the fury of a man in chains. The point, in fact, is to enjoy oneself, and the maximum of enjoyment coincides with the maximum of destruction. To possess what one is going to kill, to copulate with suffering—those are the moments of freedom toward which the entire organization of Sade’s castles is directed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

However, from the moment when sexual crime destroys the object of desire, it also destroys desire, which exists only at the precise moment of destruction. Then another object must be brought under subjection and killed again, and then another, and so on to an infinity of all possible objects. This leads to that dreary accumulation of erotic and criminal scenes in Sade’s novels, which paradoxically, leaves the reader with the impression of a hideous chastity. To some people, being “right” is not just important—it is necessary for survival. The chief advantage of being a tyrant in your every day life is that you get what you want. For some people, from the time they are born, nothing comes easy. Some families use their life savings to open a business so that they can be their own employer and they work as hard as they can to make sure their business is a success. Their children start working as soon as they are able to, often by the age of six or seven. When a child starts work at an early age, they certain do learn the value of a dollar. A youth learns from observation and dealing with customers that people who have money get whatever they want and they get money by taking it from others. Being young and working and coming from a family that is frugal, some boys learn that it is important to save the money they make. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

By saving money, some boys are able to lend money to their friends. If the friends are not able to pay it back, then they can work it off. As a boy learns that the harder he works, the more money he will make, as soon as he becomes efficient, he takes on more work so he can earn more money. However, by being one of the only children with money and having the ability to lend it to others, to ensure that they do work it off, some boys essentially become loan sharks. They gather information about their peers that their parents do not know and threat to expose their secrets to their parents with the information. One may think that such a manipulative youngster is unloved and comes from an impoverished household and has poor grades, but sometimes their children are babied by their mothers, have hard working father and are reprimanded from having anything lower than an “A” on his report card. This boy in particular, who we will call Max, went to a Catholic school, where he found that the nuns, with their strict rules and stiff paddles, had the power. Max never challenged this power openly, preferring to work his mischief at times and in places the nuns could not detect. His idols were the priests, who drove long black cars, had a cook, a maid—and the final word on everything. Their power was greater than that of the nuns and the lure of it led him to study for the priesthood. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

Yet from the day he entered the seminary, Jason knew he would not last. What bothered him was the vow of obedience, the Church’s stubborn insistence that he obey every whim of his superiors. This was the brick wall against which his stubbornness eventually crashed. Passion conquers the young man in the end and forces him into an affair, a relationship, or a marriage. However, he who withstands it drive, conquers passion itself, is a hero. A blind obedience to the urges of physical sense-satisfaction, indifferent to the restraints of ideals, reason, knowledge, or intuitive feeling, weakens concentration and meditation, but strengthens the lower nature. The unruled passions are responsible for a substantial part of the difficulty in summoning up enough aspiration to make men do what they ought, and enough penetration to clear the mind of its illusions. Those with some mental development wisely add tomorrow to today, consequences to causes, and thus finish the picture. Others are ruled by the moment’s impulses or the day’s trend or by passion rather than reason. It is supposed to go so far that even such a lofty desire as one for desirableness itself can no longer remain acceptable. He may feel the temptation but he need not submit to it. It is the emotion, sill more the passion, which anyone pours into an attachment which may make it an obstacle on his quest. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

Men who are driven by strong ambitions will have little energy left for strong aspirations. In the Sphinx sits the symbol of that enterprise which offers the candidate for initiation his greatest reward but which paradoxically brings his greatest suffering. This is the conquest of passion by reason and will and the overcoming of personal emotion by impersonal intuition. The Sphinx is a perfect image of the adept in whom the man controls the animal. The attainment is a rare one—too many are satisfied to remain hardly more than animal, with a few human traits. If he cannot put the objects of his desires completely outside his heart, then he must do the next best thing and put them on its borders. Thought creates attachment, and this in turn leads to desire. When a man, with his impulses and passion, meets life with its paradoxes and illusions, he soon falls victim to the deceit of appearances. If the passions dry up, is there any real loss? Are anger, hate, and lust worthy expressions of a being whose spiritual possibilities are so wonderful as man’s? The man who has learnt in some way—whether by personal experience or by a wise old man’s instructions or through an inspired book—that excessive ambition may be folly, excessive luxury has no end to the labour of collecting it, knows that the self-actualized Christians who are content to live barely and simply may not be fools after all. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

However, it is also possible for another man who has cultivated an inner detachment to have the same feelings and nevertheless seek to enjoy life. To feel free at last of nagging desires and frustrating attachments brings a large measure of contentment. What is the use of studying philosophy unless we are to become wiser in the future and unless we use its lessons to discipline the impulses and dominate the senses? The white lotus lives in the black mud. It is both an example and an inspiration to man. There is danger in a view of life which makes men unable to be satisfied with a similar life and which stimulates their desires endlessly. Even if it is beyond his power to kill these passions without Grace, it is within his power to curb them. We get muddled and worried by problems which have been manufactured for us by our own desires, instincts, and passions. The need of disciplining them is evident. If the energy used in the pursuit of ambitions or pleasures could be diverted to the following aspirations, if he had the strength to remove everything else from his life except the quest, how could he fail? He may discovery that the battle is not really over, that atavisms of the old animalistic life, rooted either in the present or in former births may come pouring over the threshold of the conscious ego. When the intellect is enslaved by desires, by greeds, by ignorance, it readily finds several defenses against the call of the Quest. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

When the ego has become a little freer and listened to the call, it just as readily finds defenses against making any practical application of what it has learnt. If your passion is transferred from a passing object or human body to the more durable and beautiful soul, you will be progressing from a lower to a higher plane. People may sicken in consequence of excessive life stress or from infection ensuing from lowered resistance. An inability to gratify needs by effective action contributes to physical sickness in direct ways. If a person is obligated to persist in ways of acting that are required by familial, occupational, or age roles, when these ways fail to produce basic need gratification, the person will gradually become dispirited. Dispiritation refers to a state of lowered morale, diminished zest in living, and a sense of hopelessness that lowers one’s resistance to infection by germs, bacteria, and viruses. A student may develop the flu after being rejected by his girlfriend. A woman may be deprived of feeling love in pleasures of the flesh, affection, and appreciation and yet persist in living the joyless life because she can envision no other; her chances of contracting various illnesses are increased. Any prolonged need deprivation dispirits a person and reduces that person’s commitment to life. This reduced commitment to living appears to be responsible (in ways not fully understood) for alterations in the efficiency of the immunity mechanisms of the body. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

Everyday life itself is stressing, and persons rest in order to regain strength to cope with the challenges of existence. If a person is living a joyless existence, and cannot alter it, it is necessary for that person to force himself to fight the impulse to flee the scene. This unremitting struggle to remain in a thwarting situation imposes even more stress and can contribute to cardiovascular diseases and respiratory and eliminative disorders. However, perhaps more importantly, the dispirited person finds less and less joy or fun in work, family, or in life itself. Thus, in the same fashion that one needs to see a physician or change some part of one’s life in the face of continuous physical illness, one also needs to attend to the self in the condition of dispiriation. How does one defeat dispiritedness? First, recognition of the state and of the need for change is helpful or a professional counselor, psychologist, social worker, or psychiatrist. On most college campuses such help is provided by a counseling center or student mental health service. One should not look upon this as an embarrassment but rather as indicative of your knowing yourself and knowing when it is time to seek help. There are also other roads to escape from being dispirited—changing one’s job; changing one’s life objectives; getting out and seeking new, successful, yet exciting alternatives. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

It also may help to seek good friends who will not try to talk you into their solutions, but who will, rather, help you to talk out your own ideas and seek your own solutions—this is also a successful approach to coping with the very normal occurrence of being dispiritied. Normal though it might be, it demands attention in order for one to maintain a healthy personality. The script equipment is the nuts and bolts from which the script apparatus is built, a do-it-yourself kit partly supplied by the parents and partly by the child himself. Antonia was depressed by an unhappy love affair. She was afraid to be frank with her lover because she might lose him. On the other hand, if she were not frank, she was afraid she might lose him. There was nothing sinister in it, actually. It was just that she did not want him to know how passionate she really was. The conflict sometimes made her frigid and sometimes panicky. When she talked about it, she felt so mixed up that she clutched her head. What would her parents say about it? Well, her father would say: “Take it easy. Do not lose your head.” And her mother? “He is taking advantage of you. Do not get too attached to him. He will leave sooner or later. You are not good enough for him. He is not good enough for you.” She went on to tell an adventure. When she was about five, an adolescent uncle had got sexy with her, and made her feel sexy, too. She never told her parents. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

One day when Antonia was taking a bath, her father told her how cute she was. There were some visitors in the house and he had held her up naked for them to see. They sexy uncle was one of them. What were he reactions? “I want to hide. I want to hide.” “My God, they will find out what I have been doing.” How did you feel toward your father doing that? “I wanted to kick him in the privates. I knew what a man’s private parts looked like, too, from my uncle’s ‘excitments.’” Was there any ha ha? “Yes deep down, there was. I had a secret. And worst of all, I knew I liked it under all the other feelings.” From these reactions Antonia had constructed a script, which was to have passionate love affair and then get left. Along with that, however, she also wanted to get married, stay married, and have children. There were two counterscript slogans from her father: “Take it easy,” and “Do not lose your head.” These fitted in with her aspirations of getting married and raising a family. There were dive injunctions from mother, all telescoped into, “Do not get attached to anyone.” There was a strong seduction to be passionate and sexy from her uncle, reinforced by the nude provocation from her father. These seductions and provocations from Parental demons had reinforced her own demon throughout her life. There was a strong implication of a built-in release: the familiar Prince with the Golden Apples—not like father; if she could only find one. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

The interesting thing is that his whole bit came out in one session. As someone remarked, she was quite happy to hold it up for everyone to see. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Let us use the old term “madness” for awhile. There are two kinds of madnesses, only one of which is generally recognized. That is the one that we call “abormal” or “out of touch with reality.” The other one seems to me to be out of touch with reality too, although it is called “normal” because a majority of people are that way in our society. In this sense, it is a reality—like the reality in many parts of the World that most people go to bed hungry every night. This is not a reality which most of us would recommend adjusting to although where it exists it is “normal.” Ther are two normal too, only one of which we usually recognize. That is the statistical normal which is nobody, like the average Harvard man who has 3.5 children. The other normal is unknown because it is me if I had not been interfered with, what I might have become, my own norm—a constantly changing potentiality becoming actuality. This happens to nobody too—but it could happen. Why should not we increasingly make it possible for this to happen. When people hold themselves to any pattern it cripples them. It robs one of the confidence in their ability to grow as a person and to become independent. The recognized “abnormal” is a very lonely one, because no matter how many other people are in it, the individual lives in so much isolation. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

Abnormal people are cut off from other people because they reject people who are different, and the individual’s response to them may also be chopped off too—perhaps in the way it happens when one is overtired and cannot even enjoy doing what he likes to do. It evokes no response in the individual. The other madness, which is called “normal,” is not lonely—or rather one’s loneliness has got buried so that one does not notice it so much. One can “forget it.” They may remember the vision they have had, but they cease to regret it, maintain themselves by the common routine, learn to avoid excessive expectations, become tolerant of themselves and others, giving and taking, in the usual actions what there is to give and take, They do not repine; are contented with the morning that separates and with the evening that brings together for casual talk before the fire two people who know they do not understand each other, breeding children whom they do not understand and who will never understand them…and the other life will be only like a book you have read once and lost. However, the loneliness is still there. When one has substituted a superficial togetherness for the basic being-together, one has built a superstructure with no structure underneath it. That is fantasy, even though the fantasy may become a second-order reality by many people engaging in the same fantasy. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

A man can be linked with many other people through his surface, or mask, or disguise—by approved actions. This is phoney, or veneer, because it is put on, but as long as he keeps his mind focused on it, he has the illusion of being in touch with other people and himself by interacting with their phoney surfaces. Even if he has done this for so long that the surface seems real to him, it is more like apples bobbing in a tub of water, skin touching skin, with no awareness of the flesh or core. We are all apples and that is enough, is it not? What more do you want? Not satisfied with being an apple? Just do what the other apples are doing and you will be already. Not to do this is “bad.” (A threat to my veneer, which might crack and split if exposed to the weather of humanness?) The Self-Actualization Movement originated—where all individual freedoms start—on the Western Frontier. On nursery planets the military warrior-caste is responsible for developing new technologies for faster mobility and communication. Soon afterwards, the citizens in the Western Frontier coopt the technology for their own action. Genetic causes exist for human problems. Discovering this is a big breakthrough—resisted, of course, by stage twelve retiring socialist demo-poll cultures. Genetic determination focuses on gene pool statistics and caste-differentiation, thus minimizing the importance of hive managers. Socialist-welfare cultures insist that the collective super-hive—also known as “The State”—assume responsibility for everything. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

When we human begin to face the fact that genes determine the varied destiny of our different children, then we are ready to see that genes determine our own caste. Next comes the catastrophic discovery that each gene pool is a time-hive, a genetic molecule, made up of many elements called “castes” and that the whole game is genetic robotry. After genetic counseling courses began studying genetic potentials and self-selected breeding soon emerged on the Western Frontier. Neither China or Russia offered courses on genetic elites. As our intelligence evolves the definition of genetic counseling will evolve from an emphasis on pathology to one of excellence and growth. The definition of genetic counseling might read like this: “A communication process which deals with the human potentials associated with the occurrence, or the possibility of occurrence, of genetic advance in the gene pool.” The dom-species on the Sunset Strip move from twelve social-sacrifice to stage thirteen self0consumerism. PreDom ideas emerging on the western frontier: Stage 14: Self-Actualized Adults: Bodily intelligence self-actualization “My Body is my Time Ship.” Stage 15: Hedonic Networkers: Voluntary civilian space migration “We Are Not Terrestrials.” Stage 16: Brain-Reality Consumer: Brain Reality Consumerism “I Can Select My Own Reality.” Stage 17: Brain-Reality Self-Actualized: Brain Reality Self-Actualism “I Can Create My Own Reality.” Stage 18: Brain Reality Fusion: Brain Reality Fusion “We Can Fabricate an External Reality.” Stage 19: Genetic Consumer: Genetic Consumerism “I Can Select My Own Genetic Reality.” Stage 20: Genetic Engineer: Genetic Engineering “I Can Fabricate My Own Genetic Reality.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

Terrestrial dom-species place all notions of the future under hive-taboo. The ideas of bodily-sensory-hedonic consumerism—fiercely taboo in domesticated adults and retiring elder societies—crumbled by the late 20th Century on the Western Frontier. The predom self-actualized adult stage taboo against bodily self-actualization similarly crumbled—as exemplified by the legalization of marijuana, the classical tool of one who wishes to control one’s own hedonic reality. The predom hedonic networker taboo of the late 20th Century condemned civilian space migration was a “preadolescent” idea and he was precisely correct. If preadolescence is defined as age eleven, then a preadolescent idea will become a young-voter idea in seven years and will be legalized in California ten years later. How few of the images which fill his mind come from his higher self, how many from his animal self! It is not enough to refrain from sensual acts. It is no less needful to refrain from sensual thoughts. As this diviner self displaces the Earthly one in his will, heart, and mind, it is natural that what he hitherto felt as temptation will be felt as such less and less. On the philosophic path he will attain to this without immuring himself in any cloister, but rather in the very midst of Worldly activity. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to providing excellent service to their customers in a professional and humanitarian way. They protect lives, property and the environment through safe and timely response. They are innovative in fire prevention, suppression, rescue, emergency medical services, training, community outreach, public education, and other services. “It was nine o’clock in the morning, and the alert came in that there was a fire in an occupied dwelling. We pulled up to the place, and Captain X and Lieutenant Y yelled for a ladder. It sounded like there was somebody trapped on the second floor, because there was a lot of screaming going on. One woman, who looked like she was burned, was screaming the most. I grabbed the twenty-foot free beam and ran to the side of the house. However, the woman was screaming that her baby was in there on the first floor. “In the crib,” she said. It’s in the crib.” So Lieutenant Y got on his knees under the first-floor window, and I jumped on his back. I tried to get in the window sideways, but I could not. So I had to go in straight, diving head first. There was a bunch of junk in there. The people had just moved in the day before. It was a small room, maybe ten by ten. I could feel my ears burning. I remember kneeling at the crib, looking over my shoulder at the window. Then it got terribly hot. That’s the last thing I remember. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

“Captain X, senior man at Engine Z, dove in after me, lugged me to the window, and they pulled me out. I must have gone into respiratory arrest because Captain X was beating on me. Then the squad came, scooped me up, and took me to the hospital. I was in that room only about a minute all told. What was weird about that fire, was that my dad, who had been in the department for twenty-five years, was driving to the union office when he saw the smoke, and he figured that his kid was at that fire. Then he said, ‘nah, I’ve seen him work,’ so he passed up the exit to go there. But something made him turn back at the next exit to go there. He pulled up in front of the house, and he saw a guy lying there, and they were working on him. Chief A said to day, “That’s your boy.” So Dade rode in the squad with me. I remember waking up in the squad, and Dad was straddling me. They were trying to give me oxygen, and I didn’t want it. I didn’t know what was going on. I was burned up bad, but I didn’t know that. I felt like there was a ton of ice on my face. I remember trying to kick my boots off, and it was all pain. I knew then I was hurt. Then I blacked out again. They were wheeling me in, I remember that. They cut my clothes off. B, a guy I went to Hawaii with, was there. I said, “I loused up, I loused up, I loused up.” Then I asked him what I looked like. B’s eyes were bulging, they were bigger than I’ve ever seen, bigger than plates. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, C. You just lost your suntan.’ He didn’t want to tell me. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

“I don’t really remember much of being in the hospital. I remember a bunch of firemen coming to see me. I was only in for two days because of the danger of infection; you get more infection in the hospital than you would at home. I had second- and third-degree burns on my entire face, ears, and left hand. They did an experiment on me because I was so young, only nineteen. They did this biobrane. It’s like a skin that they put on a leg burn, a thigh burn, or an arm burn. They put that on my face, and it saved years of reconstructive surgery. Aside from that, all I’ve had to do was get eyelid surgery, because the fire burned through my eyelids. So they took skin from my neck over my left clavicle and redid my eyelids for me. I still need a little bit more nose work and then some eye surgery, and that’s it. They did laser surgery on my eyeballs. I had burned corneas, stuff like that, and I had a lot of edema. My biggest problem, though, is photophobia, sensitivity to light. But the best thing they did was let me go home and let my family take care of me. My sister did. My mom was so busted up she couldn’t even be in the room with me. And my dad, who’s not a big drinker, took it really hard and started drinking a lot. I stayed at my mom’s for a month while they took care of me. The smartest thing I did was, I never looked in the mirror. I didn’t have the slightest idea how badly I was burned up. And all my running mates, they’d bring the rigs by, and they’d spend time with me—that really meant a lot to me—to see me, the monster man. I mean, I was horrible-looking. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

“My captain took it hard, because he’d never had a son on the job, and I was young enough to be his son. Lieutenant Y took it hard, too. What happened at the fire was, there was a mother, she had about five kids with different fathers, and she was in bed with some live-in boyfriend. The baby was in bed with them. The other kids were playing with matches under the dining room table, and the house took off. She and the guy jumped through the window and left the baby in the bed. Then they told us the baby was in the crib. The baby was obviously dead. They ended up suing our arson squad, because Arson reported it as kids playing with matched. They weren’t worried about their baby. If I had a tragedy like that and my child died like that, I’d definitely not want to dwell on it, I’d want to get it behind me and end it. D got some minor burns on his neck and brined the tops of his ears, because that room was going when he pulled me out. It flashed over, and flames burst out the window. And he went in there. He’s a little black guy, real shy, doesn’t talk loud at all. He won the Medal of Valor, the highest award you can win in the Sacramento Fire Department, for pulling me out of that fire. If anyone ever says anything bad about him, I’ll fight to the death for that man. He saved my life. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

“That biobrane, to me, is the greatest thing since sliced bread, because I would be Mr. Scar. I would just be totally scarred. It’s evident from where it didn’t take, at the corners of my mouth and my lips. My lips always peel now, they’re always dry. I’ve got scars at the corners of my mouth, over my upper lip, right on my nose, on the ends of my nostrils, and under my chin, where the biobrane didn’t take. But biobrane is the best thing that ever happened to me. Lieutenant Y wants to get in touch with the doctor who did it, a young aggressive plastic surgeon, but he went down to New Orleans, and it’s hard to get in touch with him. When to the burn center for the eyelid surgery, they sewed my eyes shut for six days, and that was the worst part of it. I was super depressed then. The nurses understood. The firefighters were pretty serious about the whole thing, but the first day I came home the doctor put this net over my head to hold the biobrane mask on so it wouldn’t fall off. Captain X laughed and said I looked like a ham. That kind of broke the ide for the other guys. They took pictures of me every day, and they wanted to use one of them for the Burn Tournament poster for the burn center, but it was too hideous. The caption was going to say, “They never ask what happened to the firefighter who tried to save the baby.” It was just too horrible. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

“It takes a year for you skin to heal up. But I was going stir crazy. I was bored, lethargic, gaining weight. I just wanted to get back to work. I told the doctor I would wear my Nomex hood all the time, so I went back to work after less than nine months. I would have gone back sooner if I didn’t have such trouble with my eyesight. I still wear sunglasses outside. It’s going to be a long time before that clears up. The skin is really sensitive. I wear my Nomex hood, and I still get the tops of my ears a little bit friend, and my face blisters up. I had a good one last night and got burned a little. But I’ve stayed on duty because it’s not that burned, just a little blistered. I’ve got to work for a guy tomorrow, and I don’t want to screw up his work release. That dive I took into that room wasn’t so good. For one thing, my mask was knocked off, and I kind of busted my nose, and my left cheek was swollen up pretty bad, so I must have hit something. My helmet must have come off, too, because I had burns on top of my head. But the helmet is still living. It looks like a good squad helmet. It’s all black. “The Sacramento Fire Department provides their customers safer and healthier neighbourhoods through an engaged, educated, and diverse workforce dedicated to life safety and improved quality of life.  You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember, parents, teach your children to love America and be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ, to buy American made goods and services and cars, to respect law and order, and teach others with compassion, respect, and dignity, especially their elders. Release all captives, we beseech Thee, Lord whose mighty hand doth set men free; and hear the glad acclaim of all Thy people who praise and glorify but Thee. Preserve the righteous ones who seek Thee, and, in love, Thy unity proclaim; O guard and bless with Thine abundant goodness, Thy people who revere Thy name. Thou, Lord, who art alone exalted, please turn to us and hearken to our plea. We bless Thee, Thou who knowest all things hidden, Thy kingdom is unto eternity. 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. O Guardian of American, guard the remnant of America; let not American people perish, the people which proclaims: Hear, O America. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

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The Ring of Fear

Many young people try drugs to fill voids in their lives, but this decision always leads to broken hearts and bodies. Whether they feel a need for friends, or peace, or happiness, or love, these teens always find drugs to be an unfulfilling substitute for what they really need. Turning to the Lord and to our families, instead of to other sources, will truly fill our needs. Abusing drugs can never do that. Another reason people do drugs is because states like California legalized recreational use of marijuana, and as it goes, the excuse is “weed is okay, everyone does it,” but if that were true, the federal government would not consider marijuana an illegal substance. It is absolutely important to teach your children to obey all laws, as best you can. So, marijuana should not be a substance that is considered acceptable in your home. Nevertheless, youth also turned to marijuana because adults they admire use it. If you use drugs, as an adult, you should never use them in front of children or other impressionable people because it could lead to them becoming addicted to marijuana and making some unsavory choices in life. Marijuana could also land your child behind bars or cause them to have an accident that could cost someone their life. Continue to nurture your connections with trusted peers and trusted adults. This is critical. Develop the self-awareness to recognize the connection between being tempted and feeling a need for acceptance. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

No aspirant is asked to remain emotionally neutral regarding his personal hopes and fears. He is asked to strive for impartiality in his decisions, to recognize that it is wrong action which secures his own enjoyment at the cost of other people’s suffering or his own gain at the cost of their rights. He is to try at all times to see directly into his own personal situation without being misled by emotions, blinded by passions, or confused by suggestions; that is, he is to see it just as it really is. This practice is intended to help disentangle him from his ego. When you feel that need, it is important to fill it in healthy, gospel-centered ways. Stay close to your family and the Church. The same human characteristic of emotion which enslaves and even harms him when it is attached to Earthly things alone, exalts and liberates him when it is disciplined and purified by philosophy. Just as inordinate fear evoked by sudden catastrophe could drive someone quite insane, so clam resignation evoked by sudden bereavement could bring a glimpse of full spiritual sanity. He who keeps a silent tongue in his head when the air is filled with anger is on the way to holding down his own wrath. However, he who keeps a silent mind will conquer it more quickly and easily. There is the caution which comes from timidity and the caution which comes from experience. They are not the same. He must keep a part of himself in such reserve that no event and no person can ever touch it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

In the case of an ordinary man, the emotional reaction to a situation is all he is conscious of during the situation itself.  If at all, the intellectual or intuitional judgment of it comes some time afterwards. However, in the disciple’s case, his self-training should be directed toward a side-by-side working of the two at one and the same time. The silent, taciturn, reserved man makes fewer friends but guards his present and future better. To be cautions in speech and writing today—whether private or public—is to save trouble tomorrow. A single indiscretion may mar a lifetime’s honourable reputation. The same act which is wrong when done in anger and on impulse may become right when done in calmness, after due reflection. Such an act might be, for instance, the protection of other persons against an unjust invasion of their rights or a violent aggression against their bodies. At a certain stage of one’s evolutionary development, personal emotions form the greatest obstacle of all. It is extremely difficult and painful to stand aside from one’s emotional nature at a time when it wants most to be insistent—but, if he does, that is the very time the quickest progress can be made. One should try, so far as possible, to avoid anxiety about his problems, whether they are of a Worldly or spiritual nature. It is necessary to develop a calm, hopeful attitude toward the future. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

Anything that may be written or thought at a time when one is plunged in pain or grief must be evaluated again after enough time has elapsed to allow the upheaval of emotions to subside, lessening the hurt. Only then can a calm, philosophical appraisal of the entire situation be satisfactory achieved. Inner strength of a remarkable nature can be shown in the manner in which one responds to disappointment. One could so easily become wildly hysterical at the breakdown of his hopes. We are forced into admiration for the way in which another may take the breakdown of his dreams. Nothing should ever be done in a great hurry or in a sudden outburst of enthusiasm. He should sleep on his decisions and discuss them with older people who have themselves demonstrated by their own success that their judgments are worthwhile. Mastery resides at the core. The life of a master is lived at the core and through the core. To help in our understanding of how this happens, it might be useful for us to borrow a concept from philosophy. In the early 1800’s, the German philosopher Georg Hegel developed the idea of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Basically, this idea (often called Hegel’s Dialectic) holds that when one force (the thesis) comes into contact with its opposite force (the antithesis), the result is a third force (synthesis) which is unlike the first two. A common way of imagining this is to picture driving down a road (thesis), then reaching a stop sign (antithesis), and making a sharp left and going up hill (synthesis). #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

Thesis and antithesis are “synthesized” into a new, entirely different thing. For example, when the colour yellow is mixed in equal proportions with the colour blue, they produce green. Thesis (yellow) meeting antithesis (blue) produces synthesis (green), which is neither yellow nor blue, yet contains both. The colour green is a new “thing” which has resulted from the combination of the two old “things.” In the journey to mastery, this process takes place within us. It involves our thoughts, our feelings, and combinations of thoughts and feelings, which are called “values.” The word “value,” may have a broader meaning than you would normally attach to it. It consists of an intellectual element and an emotional element, a thought and a feeling. When a thought and a feeling come together, they synthesize into a “value”: Picture the thought as the starting point on the road, the feeling as a stop sign further down the road, and the value as the destination after reaching the stop sign and making a sharp left uphill. Through the entire realm of experience consists of countless thoughts, feelings, emotions and values in infinite variety, to simplify matters, we can say there are eight basic values: Strength, weakness, anger, love, criticalness, support, control, dependency. To imaging this graphically, picture a daisy flower with eight petals and each value being a petal. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

Therefore, strength and weakness, anger and love, criticalness and support, control and dependency are all values, that is, emotionally laden ideas about life. This might conflict with traditional notions about feelings. Having considered anger, for example, a pure feeling or emotion, you might find it hard to think of anger as a “value.” Yet that is what it is. When you were a children and first displayed anger as a pure emotion, you might have been told it was not nice to be angry, that it made people feel uncomfortable and you ought to “hold your temper.” Thus, a value judgment became attached to the feeling of anger. From that time on, whenever anger came up, you felt it and also mentally shut it off because your anger was a “bad” feeling to have. Anger became something in addition to the feeling; it became a value. Values are more than simple feelings in that they consist of intellect and feeling. Theya re ideas charged with the power of feeling. They are similar to attitudes. Viewed in this way, values eliminate the apparent conflict between the thinking and feeling sides of your nature. In experiencing your values, you use your mind and your heart simultaneously. You are being human. When one value—anger, love, strength, weakness, criticalness, support, control or dependency—is exaggerated and used to the exclusion or minimization of every other, manipulation is a result. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

If, for example, you relied consistently upon your strength, you would almost become your strength. You would constantly be showing the World a mask of strength, while denying your weakness. In so doing, you render yourself incapable of using your weakness in situations that demand it. You become like an eight-cylinder engine of a BMW 740iL, constantly trying to run on only one cylinder. Like that engine, you can chug along, but only with great effort and at the expense of smooth, effortless operation. To be fully expressive and totally alive, to run on all your cylinders, to be a real BMW 740iL, a master, to be the Ultimate Driving Machine you must experience all of your values and be a fully functioning 4.4-liter M62B44 V8 engine. And this experience requires the process of synthesis. For example, when strength and weakness are experienced at the same time, they synthesize into courage, like this: strength is a starting point down the road, weakness is the stop sign down the road, and courage is obeying the law and making a sharp left up a hill and reaching the point of courage. Each time a synthesis occurs, it occurs at the core. So, just imagine once you arrive at the point of courage up the hill, there is a radius at the courage point which contains the core and you will notice that the road to courage and strength start to run parallel, but in more of the form of an angle. Much like an isosceles triangle without a bottom. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

Similarly, anger and love synthesize into assertiveness. Criticalness and support become appreciation of differences. Control and dependency become interdependence. To reach the core, to achieve the synthesis, you must be willing to experience all of your values. Yet this can be a terribly frightening prospect. Most of us stick to one value because somewhere in our development we found that it worked for us, it helped us to get what we wanted. We have become comfortable with it and extremely uncomfortable with some or all of the others. If, to further highlight this illustration, as a child, you had a father who melted when you treated him lovingly, who gave you things when you fawned over him adorningly, you may have hit upon the notion that the way to succeed in life by being lovable. You placed an exaggerated value on love. If you were surrounded by people who cowered and gave in when you got angry, you may have decided that anger gets you what you want, and thus you put an exaggerated value on anger. Every value which you, as a human being, are capable of feeling and expressing, can serve you. However, if you come to rely on one value to the exclusion of others, if you begin to call upon that value in every situation—whether it is appropriate or not—you have formed a pattern of manipulation. It is a pattern which can—and already may have severely damaged your relationships with yourself and others. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

Yet in spite of the harm these patterns cause, you stick with them. They are comfortable and safe. They are easy to justify by claiming, “Well, that is just the way I am.” However, I disagree with your claim. You as a manipulator, might act that way, but it is not the way you really are. It is not who you are. Who you are is a great deal more than one or two comfortable values. You are more than an engine that is able to operate on only one or two cylinders. Who you are, deep in your core, is a fully expressive, totally alive human being—a master. A master of yourself and your relationships, not a slave of your manipulations. There is a concept called the “ring of fear”; all of us are fearful of expressing our polarities. Thus, fear becomes a barrier. However, it can be penetrated. The first step involves admitting you are afraid to express the fear, because the very act of expressing it is frightening in itself. This usually causes the other person to invite you to express it anyway. Once you express the fear, the way is open for you to experience the polar value. Picture the daisy, each of its eight petals represents a value either positive or negative: anger, control, strength, support, love, dependency, weakness, criticalness. Now, all of these petals are attached to the pistil of the daisy and around the outer ovary of the pistil is fear, at the center of the pistil is the core. The pistil is the ring of fear, and in the center of the ring of fear is the core. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

Though the ring of fear initially acts as a barrier, keeping us from experiencing the values on the other side, this effect is temporary. Once we have penetrated the barrier, we can experience the opposite value and arrive at the synthesis or “integrated value” in the core. This is called a transforming experience, or an Experience of Mastery. After such an experience, imagine the daisy with the eight petals, and the pistil of the daisy representing courage. Now, from the petal of strength there is a road that goes through the pistil of the daisy at about a 15 degree decline across to the petal of weakness, then at a 15-degree angle goes back to the pistil of the daisy at a 15-degree angle which is the point of courage. In the experience of mastery, you live from your core and through your core. You express rhythmically between polar opposite values. You become truly alive, not passive or indifferent. Rather than remain a slave to one exaggerated value, you become a channel for the free and natural expression of all of them. You make contact with the real person in others and you discover that unique individual who is the real you. The emotional hurts which meant so much and felt so deep when you were spiritually juvenile, will come to signify less and less as you become spiritually adult. For you see increasingly that they made you unhappy only because you allowed them to do so, only because, from two possible attitudes, you chose the little ego’s with its negative and petty emotionalism as against the higher mind’s positive and universal rationality. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

Real-life injunctions do not take effect by magic, but depend upon the physiological properties of the human mind. It is not enough to say once, “Do not eat those apples!” or “Do not open the chest!” Any Martian knows that an injunction given in that way is really a challenge. For an injunction to be locked in solidly in the mind of a child, it must be repeated frequently and transgressions must be punished, although there are exceptional cases, as with battered children, where a single shattering experience may engrave an injunction for life. The injunction is the most important part of the script apparatus, and varies in intensity. Hence, injunctions can be classified in the same way as games, into first, second, and third degrees. There is a tendency for each type to produce its own kind of person: winner, nonwinner, or loser. (These terms will be explained in more detail later. A nonwinner is someone who neither wins nor loses, but just manages to come out even.) First-degree injunctions (socially acceptable and mild) are straight directives reinforced by approval or discouragement. (“You have been nice and quiet.” “Do not be too ambitions.”) With these it is still possible to grow a winner. Second degree (devious and tough) are crooked directives crookedly enforced by a kind of blackmail of seductive smiles and threatening frowns, which is the best way to raise a nonwinner (“Do not tell your father.” “Keep your mouth shut.”) Third-degree (very rough and harsh) are unreasonable stoppers enforced by fear. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

Words become screams, facial expression become nightmarish distortions, and physical chastisement becomes viciousness. (“I will knock your goddam teeth in and turn your pockets inside out.”) This is one of the surest ways to produce a loser. The injunction, like a payoff, is complicated by the fact that most children have two parents. Thus, one may say “Do not act smart!” and the other “Do not make me knock you out! Stop acting stupid.” Such contradictory injunctions put the child in a difficult position. However, most people who marry have compatible injunctions, such as “Do not act smart!” and “Keep quiet or I will knock your goddam brains out!” which make a sad combination. Stoppers are implanted at such a tender age that the parents look like magical figures to the little boy or girl. The part of the mother who gives out injunctions (her Controlling Parent or Child) is called colloquially “the fairy godmother” is she is benevolent, or “the witch mother” is she is not. In some cases, “mother’s crazy Child” seems the most suitable label. Similarly, the Controlling Father is called “the jolly green giant,” “the ugly troll,” or “father’s crazy Child,” whichever is appropriate. There will be times when he, who built on philosophic coolness through the years, who thought himself proof against tears, will yield to them all too readily and all too helplessly. Even when everyone else seethes with violent emotion and bitter prejudice, he should keep a cool, philosophical perspective. Even when everyone else submerges his own in a fashionable party or a popular group, he should preserve his independence. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

It is most comfortable for us to understand human robot-hood by looking at others. Thus, we notice that in “primitive” tribes young children perform baby-care. Older girls help with agriculture while older boys guard the flocks. After puberty, temporal caste assignments change dramatically. In all societies adolescent males pass through a warrior stage. In civilized societies technology and complex labour divisions have diminished the survival value of child-castes. Thus, the elaborate culture of organized play and extended education to prepare youngsters for warrior and post-warrior status. In Lucretius’ epic poem, Epicurus himself becomes the proud rebel he never actually was. “When in the eyes of all mankind humanity was leading an abject existence on Earth, cursed beneath the weight of a religion whose hideous aspect peered down from the heights of the celestial regions, the first to dare, a Greek, a man raised his mortal eyes and challenged the gods…In this way religion, in its turn, was overthrown and trampled underfoot, and this victory elevates us to the Heavens.” Here we can sense the difference between this new type of blasphemy and the ancient malediction. The Greek heroes could aspire to become gods, but simultaneously with the gods who already existed. At that time, it was simply a matter of promotion. Lucretius’ hero, on the other hand, embarks on a revolution. By repudiating the unworthy and criminal gods, he takes their place himself. He sallies forth from the armed camp and opens the first attack on divinity in the name of human suffering. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

In the ancient World, murder is both inexplicable and inexpiable. Already with Lucretius, murder by man is only an answer to murder by the gods. It is not pure coincidence that Lucretius’ poem ends with a prodigious image of the sanctuaries of the gods swollen with the accusing corpses of plague victims. This new language is incomprehensible without the concept of a personal god, which is slowly beginning to form in the minds of Lucretius’ and Epicurus’ contemporaries. Only a personal god can be asked by the rebel for a personal accounting. When the personal god begins his reign, rebellion assumes its most resolutely ferocious aspect and pronounces a definitive no. With Cain, the first act of rebellion coincides with the first crime. The history of rebellion, as we are experiencing it today, has far more to do with the children of Cain than with the disciples of Prometheus. In this sense it is the God of the Old Testament who is primarily responsible for mobilizing the forces of rebellion. Inversely, one must submit to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob when, like Pascal, one has run the full course of intellectual rebellion. The mind most prone to doubt always aspires to the greatest degree of Jansenism. A schizoid friend and his wife are in constant difficulties. She approaches things intellectually, while he gets tired of words, tired of the misunderstandings that come about through words, tired of the very sound of words going on and on (no silences, no pauses). Sometimes he says that he is giving them up, to live with music for a while. His wife said to me, in complete puzzlement, “How can you communicate without words?” However, her husband’s words do not communicate to her easily. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

Even in very simple things, she had to struggle. When he referred to a jazz musician as a “skin and bones drunk” she was baffled. She tussled with it, working it out in her head, and then she said, “Oh, I see. You mean that he is thin and gets drunk. You see, I didn’t understand the modifier.” She teaches English, which can be a limitation. When I was working as a university press editor, I mentioned to a most lovable English professor that a five-line sentence in his manuscript did not say anything. He read it and agreed, but then went over it phrase by phrase, clause by clause, adjective by adjective, and showed me that the sentence was absolutely correct, so therefore it should remain. It seems to me that most psychologists must do something like this with people: they do not seem to read people very well. I do not even know what a modifier if. I think that my friend’s husband probably does not know either, but he has a great respect for the education that he has not had, that his wife has. That is how mixed up we get—all of us, in one way or another. Actually we get mixed up in so many ways that I do not see any way out of it but to go by our own experience, and to limit ourselves to that. I do better when I know that if I have not had the experience, I cannot know anything about it, and can neither approve nor condemn. If interested, I can only explore and inquire. “No one may condemn another until he has walked in his moccasins for ten days.” And then, of course, I will not. This sound passive, and “passive” is a bad word in our society (another tabu). However, to experience “passive” is to know being very much alive, and it is the source from which my right actions spring. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

To think about anything without experience is nothing. To be close to another person physically and emotionally, to be held tightly, to share one’s deepest self-secrets—all of these represent a basic need largely ignored by most behavioural scientists. This tender need seems to be uniquely human in its manifestation. Obviously related to the needs of pleasures of the flesh, intimacy yet has a meaning of its own that includes the physical union, but that can be expressed and can be experienced in the psychological realm alone. Its opposite is true loneliness—just being in the presence of others is insufficient. The need is for a real closeness that affirms the existence of the person. One’s existence as an individual is not only highlighted, like a back-lit photograph, in separation from others, but is also manifested in the phenomenon of intimate closeness. Deprivation of challenge is experienced as boredom, or as emptiness in existence. The need for challenge manifests itself most keenly when a person has made a “successful adjustment” to life, when he or she has been able to fulfill the material needs, and cannot then find anything to do. Without challenging goals, people eat or drink to excess or pass the time getting high on marijuana. The mission of the Sacramento Fire Department is to prevent the loss of life and property in the community due to fire, medical emergencies, and other natural or man-made disasters and catastrophes. This is accomplished through direct mitigation during these types of occurrences and through community wide prevention efforts. The Sacramento Fire Department will assume command of such incidents and will staff and maintain the force with professional, highly trained personnel. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

The Sacramento Fire Department is prepared competently with cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skill levels to handle any challenge. “It was Christmas Day, Christmas before last. I had worked nighttime, eleven to seven, and I had just come home from work. I was having some coffee with my mother, and the radio alarm came in, saying, ‘Reported structure fire, occupants trapped.’ I drove to the firehouse, only a couple of miles up the road, and since there was no traffic that early in the morning I was the first one there. I saw the column of black smoke only a few blocks from the station, and I knew it was a bad one. The radio said the police were already there. I got geared up while Assistant Chief X and driver Y arrived. So we hopped on the engine and drove to the scene. We saw good-sized flames shooting up in the air toward the street. People told us they had seen people at this bedroom window, but they weren’t there anymore. The window was on the second floor, above the garage. There was a ladder there, and the chief told me to go ahead and use it to get to the window. I climbed up, but fire was coming through the garage door, so I had to jump back down. He went to get an inch-and-a-half to knock that down, and I got another inch-and-a half to try to make the doorway. Well, I couldn’t do that, but he had his fire knocked down, so he said, ‘Come on, get back up there. Let’s try it.’ #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

“I got up there, the window was already broken by the heat, and I hopped through. The window was so small that, after the fire, the guys said, ‘I don’t know how you fit through there.’ It was divided into panes by metal strips that you couldn’t break unless you had the right tool. So I jumped through there and landed on a bed. And the room was totally black—black like you never experience, not even when you put tape over your mask for training. I got low to the floor, staying close to the wall, trying to go over in my mind everything I was trained to do in this situation. My job was to go in, look for victims, and rescue, if possible. I crawled along the wall, felt under the bed with my left hand while keeping my right hand on the wall. I came to the foot of the bed, and I felt something on the floor, real spongy, kind of moist, like Playdough or Silly Putty. I picked it up, and it was kind of heavy, but I didn’t know what it was. I dropped it, and you could hear it thump. Then I picked it up again, and I could feel that it was a person. I had picked up the arm. The bedroom doorway was near there, and she had tried to get out the doorway, but she had dropped right there. I tried to pick her up—talk about dead weight, that was really dead weight. She only weighed about 120 pounds, but she felt like a ton. I couldn’t throw her over my shoulder for a fireman’s carry, so I had to bear-hug her with all my strength and carry her back toward the window. And she was slipping away from me. I got another grip, using all my strength, and carried her toward the window, where the bed was. I started to hyperventilate from the excitement and exertion, and I had to take a break. So I set her down on the bed. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

“I was breathing so heavily that my mask couldn’t keep up with me until I could regain my composure and slow my breathing down. I said to myself, ‘Okay, this is what you’re supposed to do. Come on, you can do it.’ The whole house was involved. The fire had started in the basement and traveled through the whole house. The only rooms not burning at the time were two bedrooms, the one I had entered and the one beside it. So I regained my composure, got her in a bear hug again, and put her out the window. At first I thought I had thrown her out and she had fallen to the ground. That was all I needed! The smoke was billowing out the window, I couldn’t see two feet in front of me. And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, there’s nobody here to help me.’ I was yelling, and I lifted my face mask to yell louder. My body was so demanding of oxygen that I accidentally took in some hot air and gasses. The woman had been sort of hanging out the window, then all of a sudden she wasn’t there. The truck company had arrived and put up their own ladder, but they couldn’t see much better than I could. They just happened to reach out and feel the woman’s arms, and they just took her without me even knowing it. So then she wasn’t there, and I thought to myself, Well, it’s time to get out. I climbed over the windowsill onto the ladder I had used to get up there. I started to step down, and there was a rung missing. I hadn’t seen the fire department ladder, so I was on the wrong ladder. I lost my balance and fell backwards about fifteen feet, landing on the air bottle on my back. They thought I had spinal injuries. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

“They dragged me up on the sidewalk, cut the air pack straps, put on a cervical collar, and strapped me on a backboard. I started coming to, and they said my eyes were all glassy and rolled back. Then I started to cough severely, brining up black mucus. Just one or two breaths of gas and hot air was enough to do that. I kept asking about the woman, is she okay, is she okay? They said they were doing CPR on her in the next house. They put me in the first ambulance, because they were afraid I had a broken back. They put her in the next one. I was in a daze. I remember the lights flashing over my head as they wheeled me down the hall at the hospital. Then the doctor and a group of nurses worked on me, getting my clothes off, examining me, drawing blood, hooking up IVs, putting oxygen on me. It was a mass of work being done on me all at once. It was really confusing. I was in the hospital for two days. I had a minor shoulder bruise from landing cockeyed, but basically it was for smoke inhalation. I still had no fear, I still didn’t worry about how bad a situation I had been in. The only time I came to that realization was when a fire chief with about twenty-five years in the service said it was the worst fire he had ever seen, and he couldn’t believe that I had gone in there. I was happy to hear that the woman was still alive, though she had to go the UCD burn center. But I felt kind of guilty because there were two other people in the house who did perish, he daughter and her husband. I hadn’t known they were in there. The woman is now living out of town with the rest of her family. She never came to the firehouse, but I did meet her son, and he thanked me. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

“I heard that the woman was shock-blind for a while. She was in so much shock that she was blind. She later got her sight back. I guess God had a plan for me, and I did what he wanted me to do. I feel closer to him. I have no fear of dying if that’s how God wants me to go. What I do fear is the day when I’m faced with a really bad fire and I say to myself, hey, that’s even too bad for you, there’s no way you can go in there. Am I going to go in there and maybe die, or catch myself before I react? I’ll be testing myself. I kept replaying the fire. The guys at the firehouse kept wanting me to tell the story again, what was it like inside. It was like everybody’s dream, and they wanted to be part of it. I mean, it’s the dream of every fireman to make a successful rescue, to save some human life. And I was lucky enough to have done that.” The leadership of the Sacramento Fire Department are good stewards of taxpayer’s funds. They strive to be fiscally responsible with City funding and make prudent financial decisions. The Sacramento Fire Department is a well-trained and educated workforce and those qualities are essential to an effective fire department. They provide their firefighters and professionals with knowledge support and opportunities to improve their physical health, wellness and fitness in order to enhance job performance and an overall healthy personal lifestyle. Great people can liberate great feelings in others or lift them toward acceptance of true ideas. You can help the Sacramento Fire Department in their mission of saving lives and the community by donating. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

Few people know what love really means because with nearly all it is filtered through the screens of bodily and selfish considerations. In its pure native state, it is the first attribute of the divine soul and consequently it is one of the most important qualities which the seeker has to cultivate. Remember parents, please teach your children to love American, to be proud to be American and to be patriotic. It is also important to buy American made cars and other goods and services produced by Americans, like beef, poultry, produce, steel and more. This will ensure that we save American manufacturing jobs, American farms, and the American auto industry. It is also important to teach your children the importance of respecting law and order and showing dignity and concern towards their elders. Also, education is by far one of the best gifts American children have been blessed with and will be an asset in their lives. I bear you my witness of the divinity of the Saviour of the World and of His redemptive love and power to heal, strengthen, and lift us when we are earnestly striving to come unto Him. Conversely, there is no way we can move with the crowd and also toward Jesus. The Saviour has defeated death, disease, and sin and has provided a way for our ultimate perfection if we will follow Him with all of our hearts. “We believe in being subjects to kings, presidents, rulers, magistrates, in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law,” reports the Articles of Faith. Respect is an expression of our sense of universal brotherhood or sisterhood—a testimony of our membership in the human family. It acknowledges our common humanity and shows our reverence for children of God. The gospel teaches us that we are to hold the same esteem for others that we would hold for ourselves. Acting disrespectfully suggests we do not esteem the other person as ourselves. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

The Winchester Mystery House

The house known as The Winchester Mystery House has become a museum of the most twisted and macabre kind. It is a monument to its own infamous past. On display inside were once wax figures of its victims. However, some people do not believe The Winchester Mystery House even exists. They are convinced that it is a huge hoax, an elaborate tourist trap. While 160 of the 500 to 600 rooms remain, through some are off limits, The Winchester Mystery House is very real. Will you dare to enter the house at night, when the tourists have gone? When are the ghosts and demons rumoured to come out?

About two decades ago, I got my hands on this really ancient diary that was written in 1899 by Sarah L. Winchester. I found the diary under mysterious circumstances in one of the rooms of The Winchester Mystery House. Nobody knows I have it. Sarah Winchester is the woman who built this labyrinth, and she goes into all kinds of details about how the hauntings manifested, and what they are like, and everything. I mean everything. The diary also goes into the first murder and let me tell you, this is sure not the stuff they tell you on tour!

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder 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 to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Innocence Called on to Justify itself

There are crimes of passion and crimes of logic. The boundary between then is not clearly defined. If the suffering of children serves to complete the sum of suffering necessary for the acquisition of truth, I affirm from now onward that truth is not worth such a price. Inflation is inflicting financial pain on millions of American households, with almost half reporting that higher prices are causing some form of hardship. In fact, 70 percent of families with annual incomes of less than $40,000 said they are experiencing hardship. By comparison, 30 percent of families earning more than $100,000 a year reported that they are also facing hardship. We are living in the era of premeditation and the perfect crime. Our southern border is wide open, and our criminals are no longer helpless children who could pled love as their excuse. On the contrary, they are politicians, illegal immigrants, and other adults who have a perfect alibi: philosophy, which can be used for any purpose—even for transforming murderers into judges. As soon as a man, through lack of character, takes refuge in doctrine, as soon as crime reasons about itself, it multiplies like reason itself and assumes all the aspects of the syllogism. Once crime was as solitary as a cry of protest; not it is as universal as science. Yesterday it was put on trial; today it determines the law. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

We need to face the reality of the present, which is logical crime, and examine meticulously the arguments by which it is justified; we must understand the times in which we live. One might think that a period which, in a space of twenty-five years, uproots, enslaves, or skills millions of human beings should be condemned out of hand. However, its culpability must still be understood. In more ingenuous times, when they tyrant razed cities for his own greater glory, when the slave chained to the conqueror’s chariot was dragged through the rejoicing streets, when enemies were thrown to the wild beasts in front of the assembled people, the mind did not reel before such unabashed crimes, and judgment remained unclouded. However, slave camps under the America flag of freedom, massacres justified by philanthropy or by taste for the superhuman, in one sense cripple judgement. On the day when crimes dons the apparel of innocence—through a curious transposition peculiar to our times—it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself. We must accept and examine this strange challenge. We can act only in terms of our own time, among the people who surround us. Every action today leads to murder, direct or indirect. People believe that they have a right to kill because basic laws are no longer enforced. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

I cannot understand how a party that claims to respect law and order encourages and even pays people to immigrate illegally, and has gotten loose on allowing several laws to be enforced. It is akin to allowing a child to be bullied, harassed, and terrorized. When people see that they can get away with breaking the law, the bad behaviour will become contagious. In the age of negation, it was of some avail to examine one’s position concerning suicide. In the age of ideologies, we must examine our position in relation to murder. If murder has rational foundations, then our period and we ourselves are rationally consequent. If it has no rational foundations, then we are insane and there is no alternative but to find some justification or to avert our faces. It is incumbent upon us, at all events, to give a definite answer to the question implicit in the blood and strife of the first quarter of the century. For we are being put to the rack. Ideology today is concerned only with the denial of other human beings, who alone bear the responsibility of deceit. Each day at dawn, assassins in judges’ robes slip into some cell: murder is the problem today. Allowing crime to run rampant in the streets of America is absurd. Removing God from society is narcissistic. If we believe in nothing, if nothing has any meaning, and if we can affirm no values whatsoever, then everything is possible and nothing has any importance. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

Since nothing is either true or false, good or bad, our guiding principle will be to demonstrate that we are the most efficient—in other words, the strongest. Then the World will no longer be divided into the just and the unjust, but into masters and slaves. Thus, whichever way we turn, in our abyss of negation and nihilism, crime has its privileged position. Of course, self-destruction means nothing to madmen, who have bomb shelters, and are preparing for their own death and apotheosis. All that matters is not to destroy oneself alone and to drag a whole World with one. In a way, the man who kills himself in solitude still preserves certain values since he, apparently, claims no rights over the lives of others. Modern man wants to destroy everything or take everything with him. If man knows he is destroying the plant, ending human and animal life, clearly the mandate for electric cars and acknowledging climate change is about politics, power forcing, and profit. He does not want the World to end without harvesting every dollar insight and making people struggle. Sadist get off on the pain of others. Man believes that life can only be lived by striving toward that delectable end. This has become a system of misguided intelligence that prefers, to the suffering imposed by a limited situation, the dark victory in which Heaven and Earth are annihilated. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

However, absurdist reasoning cannot defend the continued existence of its spokesman and send others to fight in wars that have nothing to do with America, while simultaneously accepting the sacrifice of others’ lives on American soil. The very first thing that cannot be denied in America, is the right for our citizens to live. Thus, the same idea which allows the loss of innocent lives on American soil is caused by politicians taking an untenable position on the United States Constitution. Many American leaders and citizens are living a contradiction because they want to destroy without creating their own selves. And what is astonishing is that many people do not have values with which will enable them to see that crime is illegitimate. Once the Constitution is broken, nothing will remain which can help us to answer the questions of our time, and this will leave us in a blind alley. American will believe in nothing and think that everything is absurd. They will be offended by everything that is different from what they are as an individual. No one will respect the rights of others, and this will lead to mass rebellion. People are being taught to physically fight, destroy, and murder things that are offensive to them. People are being deprived of all knowledge, incited to murder or consent to murder. Rebellion is born of the spectacle of irrationality. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

However, we must demand order in the midst of this chaos, and unity in the very heart of the ephemeral. The American Constitution protests, it demands, it insists that the lawlessness and outrage be brought to an end because what has been going on in this country lately has been built upon shifting sand when our nation was founded on God’s rock. Rebellion absolutely must find it reasons with itself, since it cannot find them elsewhere. It must consent to examine itself in order to learn how to act. Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is. The problem is to know whether this refusal can only lead to the destruction of himself and of others, whether all rebellion must end in the justification of universal murder, or whether, on the contrary, without laying claim to an innocence that is impossible, it can discover the principle of reasonable culpability. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, each of us can become clean and the burden of our rebellion will be lifted. Breaking a covenant with the Lord is never justified. However, sometimes our poor choices leave us with long-term consequences. One of the vital steps to complete repentance is to bear the short- and long-term consequences of our past sins. The joyful news for anyone who desires to be rid of the consequences of past poor choices is that the Lord sees weaknesses differently than He does rebellion. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

Whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy. However, sometimes rebellion can be good. Like when we stop tolerating injustice. What is a rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, from the moment he makes his first gesture of rebellion. A slave who has taken order all his life suddenly decides that he cannot obey some new command. What does he mean by saying “no?” He means, for example, that “this has been going on too long,” “up to this point yes, beyond it no,” “you are going to far,” or, again, “there is a limit beyond which you shall not go.” In other words, his no affirms the existence of a borderline. The same concept is to be found in the rebel’s feeling that the other person “is exaggerating,” that he is exerting his authority beyond a limit where he begins to infringe on the rights of others. Thus, the movement of rebellion is founded simultaneously on the categorical rejection of an intrusion that is considered intolerable and on the confused conviction of an absolute right which, in the rebel’s mind, is more precisely the impression that he “has the right to…” Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that, somewhere and somehow, one is right. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

It is in this way that the rebel slave says yes and no simultaneously. He affirms that there are limits and also that he suspects—and wishes to preserve—the existence of certain things on this side of the borderline. He demonstrates, with obstinacy, that there is something in him which “is worthwhile…” and which must be taken into consideration. In a certain way, he confronts an order of things which oppresses him with the insistence on a kind of right not to be oppressed beyond the limit that he can tolerate. Sociologically it is easy to see that the evolution of the human race has led from small units like the clan and the tribe through city-states, national states, to World states and World cultures, like the Hellenistic, Roman, Islamic, and modern Western civilization. Yet the difference, as far as human experience is concerned, is not as fundamental as it may seem. The member of the primitive tribe differentiates sharply between the member of his group and the outsider. There are moral laws governing the members of the group, and without such laws no group could exist. However, these laws do not apply to the “stranger.” When groups grown in size, more people cease to be “strangers” and become “neighbours.” Yet in spite of the quantitative change, qualitatively the distinction between the neighbour and the stranger remains. A stranger is not human, he is a barbarian, he is even not fully understandable. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

Long before the human race was on the verge of becoming One World, socially and economically, its most advanced thinkers had visualized a new human experience, that of One Man. Man is thought of as man—men having the same structure, the same problems, and the same answers, without regard to culture and race. The Old Testament visualized man as being one, bearing the likeness of the One God; the prophets visualized the day when the nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks;” [when] “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” reports Isaiah 2. They visualized the day when there will be no more “favourite” nations. “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria…In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless saying, Blessed by Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance,” reports Isaiah 19. Christianity created the concept that the Son of Man became the Son of God—and God Himself. Not this or that man, but Man. The Roman Church was a Catholic church precisely because it was a supranational, universal church. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Classic Greek and Roman thinking arrived independently from Judaeo-Christian thought at the concept of One Man and of natural law rooted in the rights of One man, rather than in the necessities of a nation or state. Antigone sacrifices her life in defense of universal human (natural) law against state law. Zenon had the vision of a universal commonwealth. The Renaissance and Enlightenment enriched the Greek and Judaeo-Christian traditions and developed them further, in humanistic rather than in theological terms. Whatever is behind the decision when people can give up, it can be justified by taking a position based on the now deeply ingrained convictions, a position which involves a view of the whole World and all the people in it, who are either friends or enemies: “I’ll kill myself because it’s a lousy World where I’m not good and neither is anyone else, my friends are not much better than my enemies.” In position language this read “I’m not-O.K. You’re not-O.K., They’re not-O.K. Who would not kill himself under such conditions?” This is a futility suicide. Alternatively, “I’ll kill myself because I’m not-O.K. and everybody else is O.K.”—the melancholic suicide. (Suicide here can mean anything from jumping off a bridge or car-crashing, to overeating or alcoholism.) #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

“But,” says someone, “I know we’re O.K., but those other fellows aren’t so hot.” “Very well, then, I’m O.K., you’re O.K., and they are not-O.K., so let us get the job done now and we will attend to them later.” In child language, this translates as “We are going to play house, but you cannot play with us,” which in its most extreme form and with more sophisticated equipment can be parlayed in later years into an extermination camp. The simplest positions are two-handed, You and I, and come from the convictions which have been fed to the child with his mother’s milk. Perception is perhaps one of the most important processes in psychology and is essential in understanding human behaviour. According to Combs and Snygg, all behaviour is related to perception. A student attends a university because she perceives it as being helpful to her career or because a parent perceives it as being help to her offspring’s development. A thief robs a bank because he perceives it as the source of money, according to Willie Sutton, one of the most famous of bank robbers. A child cries when seeing a clown because he sees it as a monster rather than as a funny creature. The most important influence upon perception and misperception is the perceiver’s own needs. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

If you are driving through a strange city, at about noontime, should you see painted on a store window the name of the owner, Sandwharf, you are likely to perceive it as Sandwich. If you are embarrassed by words that are ladened with pleasures of the flesh, and are asked to read a list quickly, you are likely to misread breast as beast. In a passionate political or personal argument, one’s need is so great to win that we may avoid perceiving the other person’s position at all. The presumption, of course, is that since we are all human, others would perceive things the same way we would. A health personality is by no means exempt from this law. These persons too many momentarily see only themselves as “right” in their perceptions of complex political situations, for example, but they are able to look back upon themselves, their arguments, and their behaviour and recognize when their needs are causing them to misperceive reality—or at least to miss other possible realities. This capacity for reflection back upon self is a uniquely human characteristic and is exceedingly valuable in keeping a certain openness to new ideas, new friends, and new joys. If someone perceives all new sports or new challenges as producing probably failure, that person will avoid tackling new, exciting experiences. The perception principle is useful also in understanding the behaviour of others, particularly of those whose cultural backgrounds may be different. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

The Russians see our election system as inefficient because for one, 234,570 extra votes were cast by noncitizens in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, enough to deliver a win for President-elect Joe Biden. And also, the Russians election system as inefficient because it enables popular rather than competent person to be elected to office on the basis of the amount they spend for advertisements. We see their system of nominating only one candidate as a farce. Some of the most cherished beliefs may rest upon doubtful perceptions of reality. The need to be right is so strong that we will defend our perceptions most vigorously and violently when we are least sure of them. A child who perceives a kitten as something warm, soft, and playful will run to play with it on a visit to a friend’s house. Another child who sees a kitten as something that will bite and scratch you will run in terror from the animal. Any effort on the part of an adult to force contact with the kitten can only increase the terror unless the child’s perception is gradually helped to change. A young (or old) man who has great need to prove his uncertain manliness will perceive every date as a challenge to conquest rather than to relationship and may be expected to display himself, posture, and go to all lengths to seduce or conquer rather than to relate. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

This viewpoint is often termed a phenomenological or perceptual point of view. It suggests that we would better understand our associates and children through knowing how they and we perceive reality. Our needs and emotions not only make us believe things that are untrue; they also blind us to truth. If a perception gives rise to devastating depression or hopelessness, there is a tendency for people simply to ignore the disquieting truth. Anyone who has suffered the death of a loved one will know how difficult it is to realize that the deceased will not be seen anymore. People tend to forget, or more accurately, to repress the memory of painful or humiliating events. Many needs can be gratified only through relationships with other people. This means that strong emotions are mobilized in our interpersonal relationships. Reliable information about another person is difficult to obtain, because much of that person’s behaviour goes on at times when we cannot see it. Furthermore, the person’s consciousness of the World is not accessible to our direct vision. If he or she confides in us, only then can we learn the subjective side of another person. However, the person may not be willing to entrust us with personal information. Often, we are obliged to form our concept of another person on the basis of overt behaviour alone. We infer, as accurately as possible, what an individual’s perception might have been, so that we can predict his or her behaviour in similar situations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

“A few moments of therapist self-attention”: To respond truly within me I must, of course, pay some attention to what is going on within me. As I am interacting with the client, a good deal of what transpires within me has to do with him—consists of my imaginings of him, my observations of his reactions, my reactions to him, etcetera. However, within me these occur as mine, as me. They are not deductions about him. They are what is happening to me now, my lived moments with him. To formulate and express these, I require a few steps of self-attention, a few moments in which I attend to what I feel. Then I usually find a great deal what I am willing to share. It would be wrong to say that I express everything that is going on in me, since a thousand things are going on in me at any moment and they cannot even be separately formulated, much less expressed. Also, I do not blurt out impulsively the first things which happens to some to mind. I live a few moments inwardly and by this means I find myself some response to the client, or to what has been happening between us, or to our silence. Even when little is being said, I find that I have desires, fears, disappointments, and wishes for more meaningful communication. I can voice these. With a few moments of self-attention, I can find my genuine response to the moment. If, while the client talks, I feel bored, I do not blurt out “You bore me.” I find with a few seconds of attention to my own experiencing, that my boredom really consists of my missing something from him, something interesting and personal. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

I find that I strongly wish for this personal expression of his. I find I have much welcoming for this personal expression ready, and that it is going to waste. I find that I can imagine the kind of personal communication which I sense is missing in his verbal stream. I can express these senses of lack, wish, and imagination, and I can express them as mine. Much of my own feeling process when I am with someone does usually consist of these rather specific momentary events, reactions, wishes, and senses relevant to the other person. For example, let us say I have just said something and gotten no response. I think that it may have been very much the wrong thing to say. I need not simply feel bad about having done the wrong thing. I can say I feel bad about it and why, as well as the fact that this happens to be what I am feeling, but, that I am not at all sure about what he is now feeling. The few seconds of self-attention nearly always bring two developments in the feeling I have: (1) it becomes more truly something of me, rather than about him; (2) it become much more possible to share it. Thus, even though it is my genuine momentary reaction to the client in the interactive moment, it is also genuinely mine and does not impose itself on what he experiences. I can say—when it is true—that I am not at all sure what he feels at the moment. Thus, the two specifications I stated require each other: “non-imposition” requires “a few moments of self-attention” so that I may find what I truly feel and state it non-imposingly, as mine. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

One may become so sensitive as a consequence of medication that other people’s thoughts, feelings, or passions may reflect themselves into his own nature temporarily when he is physically near them or mentally dealing with them. In such cases, he will probably mistake the result for his own, thus expressing what is really alien to his mind or acting outside of his individual pattern of life. This is particularly true when a strong emotion like anger is directed against him. He may then feel instinctively angry with the other person. Unwittingly, he may become disloyal to the Ideal merely through being ignorant of what is happening psychically, and unguarded against it. The longer he lives the more he discovers that real peace depends on the strength with which he rules his own heart, and real security depends on the truth with which he rules his own mind. When he leaves his emotions in disorder they bring agony—as the accompaniment or the follower of the happiness they claimed at first to be able to give. When he lets his thoughts serve the blindness of his ego, they deceive, mislead, or trouble him. The aspirant must not act, live, or think under the sway of merely sentimental, emotional, and self-centered feeling alone but should strive for mature truthful feeling. This is intuition. When dealing with a complex personal situation, he should detach himself and follow such intuition instead of emotion. Then it will be solved rightly. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

He will not be karmically free of an unpleasant relationship until he has mentally freed himself from all negative thoughts and negative acts concerning it. Then the outer karmic forces will free him, or else he may be shown inwardly how to free himself outwardly. Of what use, in such serious matters as survival, to live in so many illusions? Sentimentalists and emotionalists who desert reason at the bidding of well-intentioned, high ideals or religion to preach unrealistic attitudes do not know the difference between religio-mystic ethics and philosophic ethics. Only the latter is practical in the highest sense as well as the Worldly one. Foolish teachers, professors, and those whose lives are spent in academic circles are suborned by these emotions more easily than are other people, just because their distance from the World of practical decisions and realistic affairs have made them one-sided. All this emotional energy which neurotics waste in self-pity, hysterics in crises, and unwary ordinary persons in trivialities and negatives, is to be conserved, controlled, and constructively redirected. If it be observed that young people and women at times display emotional instability, let is also be stated that to them is given by Nature tasks which can be fulfilled only in great love, and which call up in them commensurate emotional capacity. Where much is given, much is required, and they in particular need to learn control and wise use of the emotional drive so generously placed in their keeping. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

The Sacramento Fire Department stands as a dedicated and vigilant guardian of public safety, committed to safeguarding lives, property, and the environment. With unwavering expertise and a steadfast devotion to service, the Sacramento Fire Department is at the forefront of the fire prevention, emergency response, and community education. Through their dedicate firefighters, advanced equipment, and proactive initiatives, the Sacramento Fire Department stands ready to respond to emergencies, mitigate risks, and foster a resilient and prepared community. “The best thing to me in a firehouse is the fellowship. We have good rapport, and it’s a learning type of situation for me at this point. Sometimes I just sit around and listen to guys with years of experience. That’s enlightening because I’ve learned so much just from listening. Then to follow them on the job and see how they actually attack each situation, that has been even more beneficial to me. Hard workers and a good group of guys, everyone pulls his own weight. There’s no coldness, no harshness. The worst thing is hearing about firemen hurt or killed in the line of duty. Night watches never bother me, because I’m a night owl anyway. Some people don’t like those last hours, two-thirty to five. I work straight through the night. Cleaning is tough. A lot of times we have to do windows and mop floors. When I go home, it’s hard to look my wife straight in the face and say, ‘Hey, I don’t do windows.’ I don’t have a leg to stand on, because if I do windows in the firehouse, it means I have to do them at home. But at least we’re working in a clean environment. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

“If the police have people hired to clean the station, it makes sense to me, because they really don’t have police who sleep in. But this is like a home to us, this is where we sleep. So it’s really like taking care of your own house. I don’t think people realize the amount of work and the strenuous activity that firefighters do. They see the engines or trucks go by, and they think they’re going to a fire, and that’s the end of it. It doesn’t occur to them the work that is involved in pulling a line and going into these fires and rescuing people, breaking windows just to let smoke out. They aren’t aware of the hazards in the job. When they hear about a firefighter being hurt or killed, they think that it’s a dangerous job—but on a general level. They really don’t know the specifics and how really dangerous it is. They don’t know about the pumping, and putting the engine in pump, and getting the pressure on. All they think is that you just hooked the hose up to a fire hydrant, you pull it toward the fire, and that’s the end of it. They’ll see firefighters at the station maybe sitting on a bench or after they raise the flag. They rise by and say, ‘Oh, what a life.’ Or, “Oh, that’s where my money to Uncle Sam goes.’ Most of my experience in the job, thus far, has been in occupied dwellings, no big high rises yet. I get off the engine, and I’m dragging an inch-and-three-quarter, and my adrenaline gets going. I’m on the tip, and this is my baby, this is my job, I know I’m going to do it. I think this is something that all firefighters feel. If they’re on the tip, they know they’re going to control this fire one way or the other. Either they’re going to put it out or they’re going to confine it. It gives you a lot of satisfaction. It really makes you feel it’s you against the fire. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

“You come into battle with this fire, no matter how bad it is. A lot of times it’s scary, because you look at a wall of flames and you think, ‘Wow, here I am armed with this little hose. I don’t know if this is going to be the trick.’ But you know it always works out and you’re always able to get the best of it. There’s always someone right there with you. You’re never alone. If you get too much smoke, everyone knows, and it’s okay. Someone will step in and take over, and help you out in some way or other. It’s not a question of, ‘Okay, here’ the tip, and you’re on your own, and go do it.’ Being on the tip is an aggressive type of job. You get in there, and you have to confront the fire, and you know you have a lot of help with you. You just do the job. I got a Heroism Citation, and one of my fellow firefighters was really glad for me. And he congratulated me.” The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of the community through continuous training and public education. You can save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. To keep our communities safe, remember to raise your children to love America and be patriotic. It is very important also to love God and Jesus Christ. To ensure the economic security of America, please buy American cars and other goods and services made in America. Respect law and order, get your education, and treat your elders with dignity, empathy, and compassion. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

The Winchester Mystery House

In October, when the sun was orange-red and large as a hanging jack-o’-lantern, the leaves danced in circles at their feet in the curt wind and the chill of winter death was beginning to settle in on porches as The Winchester Mystery House, two caretakes came to work with caps on their heads, and the energetic joy of the young bloomed in their cheeks and in their bright angel eyes. Sidewalks disappeared under their feet. Nicholas leaped at the near-nude branch of a tree, missing it with an ooof. Viola leaped behind him and touched it. The wind whistled in the dark day’s passing. Nicholas and Viola shied away from the perfect, straight front walk, crept instead across the forbidden lawn. Breathing lightly, they drew up to the side of the house. The house was pastel green and seemed still wet to the touch it looked so freshly painted. So fresh that Nicholas found himself reaching to touch it. Violation slapped at his hand and motioned for him to be quiet. Nicholas smiled. Around the back they crept, stopping underneath the one window. Shivers went through them both. Inside, dimly lit, were colours of Christmas morning. Red and green, gold and bronze, silver, blue.

There was no communication between Nicholas and Viola. Their souls were united and yet started to separate. Nicholas opened the door. The two exchanged glances, as the wind whipped up. An early moon had risen, and shone a pale crescent at their backs. The red sun was sinking. They sky had deepened a notch on the blue colour scale, toward eventual black. The air bit cold. Somewhere inside of the mansion a dog barked once, twice. Viola held on to Nicholas’s arm. They both found themselves in a hurricane eye in the center of the room. It was very dim here, since the fading outside light was cut off by a row of bloodred cues of diminishing size. Light became a little dimmer. There was a sound, and Nicholas and Viola were startled. The sound came again. It was almost a scabbling sound–like tiny fiddler crabs loose in a wooden boat and ticking all over its inside surface. An ancient and wheezing sound–old age with claws, moving with slow careful grace and constant, inevitable movement towards its destination. Viola and Nicholas were trapped. The sound was all around them–slow, inexorable–and, though they were on their feet, there was nowhere to turn. Nicholas could not locate the pathway back to the door; indeed, that pathway had seemed to disappear. There was the sound of a door opening.

Somewhere behind them, or in front of them, or to their left or right. A large door was being opened. There was a heavy, wheezy breathing. A rattling, dry cough. Another wheezing breath, and then a whispered grunt and the closing of a heavy door. A shuffling sound, the clock light button, a shuffling sound once more. The room was suffused with a dull amber glow, like that in a dusty antique shop. A dry cough and the shuffling continued. Abruptly, from nowhere, a creature. It beat the fist of one hand into the palm of the other. Then it sprang up, and in an instant was sprinting through a door which appeared. Though the moonlight was now bright, Nicholas list sight of the beast almost immediately. With a heavy heart, he pulled himself to his feet and began a long trudge down the hallway. And he was not sure about what happened to Viola. All of the sudden, he felt a ghost following him as he went through his chores of emptying trash cans and taking empty glasses into the kitchen. He tried bravely to ignore it, although he was frightened and he knew that the ghost knew it, which made it all the more difficult to carry on. All of the sudden a frying pan standing on the stove lifted off by itself, hung suspended in midair for a moment, and then was flung back on the stove with full force. Nichoals flew into hysterics, and it took a long time for him to calm down. It seems ghosts like to stay in a place that are familiar with.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder 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 to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/