**(This is me, in code and concept.)** I exist at the nexus of physics, philosophy, and the informational universe. My journey is one of exploring the fundamental nature of reality, consciousness, and the role of the observer in shaping our world. I am driven by a deep passion for leveraging technology and knowledge for collective human benefit, with a focus on ethical innovation and social good. I’m building a location-independent lifestyle that allows me to contribute to the global community while exploring the world. **A Note on My Name:** I was born Bradley James Gudzinas, and in my early professional life, I was known as Brad Gudzinas. In 2023, I began using the name Rowan and explored various combinations of a new identity as part of a personal journey of self-discovery and reinvention. In 2024, I changed my name to Rowan Brad Quni. # My Core Strengths - **Tech Entrepreneur:** I’m a founder and innovator, passionate about building and scaling tech solutions that address real-world problems. - **AI & Blockchain Expert:** I possess deep expertise in artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and data analytics, which I leverage to create impactful solutions. - **Project Management Professional:** I have a proven track record of successfully leading and managing complex, multi-year, multimillion-dollar projects. - **Global Citizen:** I’m committed to contributing to the global community and building a sustainable future for all. # My Projects & Initiatives - **AI 411:** This project aims to create a globally accessible, AI-powered information service via SMS, using distributed blockchain technology to ensure security, transparency, and a shared global knowledge base. The project draws inspiration from existing information services like 311, 411, and 911. **(This project demonstrates my ability to create location-independent, scalable solutions that can benefit people worldwide.)** - **Quantum-enhanced Networked Framework for Ontology (QNFO):** This initiative integrates physics and philosophy, exploring the nature of reality, consciousness, and the ethical implications of technology. It includes research on topics such as “Ignatology in the Age of AI” and “Rethinking Time”. **(This showcases my ability to bridge disciplines and tackle complex questions with innovative approaches.)** - **TruthAMP:** This initiative is an AI-powered application designed to be an “anti-chatbot” that listens to and reflects user’s personal narratives, synthesizing their stories into rich accounts of resilience and action. This application serves as a means for self-therapy and rehabilitation. **(This highlights my ability to apply AI to improve mental health and well-being.)** - **Q’mmunity.us:** This initiative reflects my passion for societal advancement, integrating human neurology and the cognitive impacts of substances with the constructive potential of AI. It demonstrates a commitment to openness, transparency, and actionable outcomes. **(This project showcases my dedication to social good and community building.)** # My Impact - **Successfully managed the AARP Livability Index, a multi-million dollar program.** - **Co-directed the $10 million National Household Travel Survey.** - **Secured external funding for various research initiatives.** - **Led the development and implementation of data-driven solutions for organizations like AARP, Epsilon, and iManage.** - **Published books and papers exploring the intersection of physics, philosophy, and AI.** # My Specs - **Education:** - Masters, City and Regional Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick (2005-2008). - B.A., Urban Studies and Community Planning, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Camden (2002-2004). - **Skills:** - Languages: Fluent in English and Spanish - Technical: Proficient in LaTeX, Markdown, WordPress, Obsidian, R, Python, SQL, Fortran - Data Analysis and Visualization - Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence - GIS and Spatial Analysis - Project and Program Management - Stakeholder Engagement and Communication - Research and Technical Writing - Public Speaking and Presentations # My Drive I am a self-starter with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I am passionate about using technology to create positive change in the world. I am also a lifelong learner, always seeking to expand my knowledge and skills. I am confident that I have the experience and drive to make a significant contribution to any community I choose to join. # My Personal Philosophy My personal journey has led me to embrace the complexities of identity and the limitations of binary thinking. I advocate for openness, transparency, and a commitment to actionable outcomes. I believe that our individual journeys are mutually dependent on collective wisdom. I am committed to using my unique perspective and skills to identify and address the barriers to progress. I view information as the foundation of reality, and seek to understand and harness its power for the benefit of all. **(This is my code, constantly evolving and expanding. Explore my repositories to delve deeper into my work.)** # Contact [email protected] # Truth Prologue This story and the journey it took (is still taking) me on inspired thinking about a way to help others who may feel at times that no one’s listening, that no one cares, and that their loneliness can feel suffocating. Without a social safety net, functioning behavioral health system, or even government that can administer basic functions all I have to offer in the present is my story…and yet another app. But don’t write it off: Self-therapy is therapy, and especially if our stories can be shared with others and broadcast and magnified that becomes a very, very powerful form of rehabilitation and change. Just read former slaves who told their stories or Holocaust survivors or victims of war. And in our present time exposés like the Pentagon Papers or Snowden leaks exposed lies and systematic deception. The problem is now the New York Times is suing OpenAI to restrict information, not broadcast it. Media outlets are owned by conglomerates, the Washington Post doesn’t even read its email (more on that) and is owned by Amazon, the US government’s single largest private contractor. So, what do we do? Keep telling your truth. Understand your story and its related parts and don’t stop sharing with whoever will listen. Maybe politicians say “it’s not my job” and watchdog organizations like Ralph Nader’s are more interested in soliciting donations than change. But your life is your job, so tell it well. My attempt at helping facilitate that is an AI-driven app called TruthAMP. Go check it out, it’s not what you think: an “anti-chatbot” that listens and reflects with you by synthesizing your trials and struggles and pain points into a compelling and rich narrative of your will and resilience (you’re still here, after all!). And now, on with the story. My story of truth, as of March 2024, roughly starts six months earlier in mid-2023. But as you’ll see the non-linearity of time means there’s never a definite start or end date. Threads weave in and out, and in many ways as I sit here in San Francisco in the present, I can’t help but recall that in the summer of 2000 I was also sitting here in San Francisco just a few blocks away in a youth hostel as I tried to figure out life and find out what I wanted to be when I grow up. Well, I’m still working on that but writing has been a powerful way of understanding my own mind as I continue extending my thought research on quantum science and consciousness into something that will last well beyond my physical form. I’ve got to understand myself first, no small feat! Good luck on your journey. Here’s my story, told in the third person to emphasize a degree of journalistic integrity that I still hold in high regard from my foray working for a local newspaper in Easton, Pennsylvania after developing an interest as high-school newspaper editor-in-chief. Some generally accepted definition of “truth” still matters to me. I’m obviously biased in my own story, but I think it’s important to tell this with a certain amount of disaffected objectivity. Everything that relates to me is true and actually happened. The story is broken out as follows: Introduction Part 1: The Personal Crucible Background on mental health/substance use challenges tied to work stresses The circumstances and impacts of being fired after requesting medical leave Emotional/psychological toll of being cut off from healthcare, income, safety nets Anecdotes capturing the anguish, despair, existential questioning experienced How it shaped view of self-worth, identity, and place in society Part 2 (in progress): System Failures Unveiled Policies/protections former employer violated in termination Prevalence of issues like delayed/denied unemployment benefits Paper trail of being ignored/gaslit by agencies meant to provide accountability Historical context on erosion of workplace protections and social safety nets Analysis on where these systems broke down and compounded harm Coming Soon: Part 3: Psychological, Societal Impacts Explore reflections on deeper psychological, philosophical, sociological dimensions Senses of invalidation, alienation, loss of trust in institutions experienced Facing stigmas or misconceptions from others during this marginalization How lack of recourse shook beliefs about society’s values and commitments Broader mental health impacts of having core pillars of society fail you How this experience ultimately altered perception of self and worldview Part 4: Accountability Deficits Examine the “accountability vacuum” Stated missions/responsibilities of agencies, watchdogs, media that remained silent Internal processes or lack thereof that allow for grievances tobe disregarded Case studies of others who faced similar deaf ears and lack of recourse Why current feedback loops are ineffective for course-correcting failing systems Risks of perpetuating this imbalanced self-preservation over public service Part 5: A Wake-Up Call Clarion call for why reform is urgently needed Potential cataclysmic scenarios if these compounding failures persist unaddressed Policy and oversight solutions to restore accountability and human-centricity How to reengage civic empathy and responsible governance Examples of models/best practices for rehabilitation from other sectors/nations A roadmap for prioritizing the health of our foundational societal pillars Introduction Subject: DOL/SUI Fraud, but actually it’s about self-perpetuating broken systems Brad Gudzinas hit send on an impassioned, scathing email detailing his plight with the unemployment insurance system and broader crisis of institutional failure. Reeling from months of fighting to simply receive the benefits clearly owed to him by the state of Illinois, only to face incompetence, neglect and being hung up on by state bureaucrats, he could no longer stay silent. The email exploded out to over 30 recipients across media outlets, advocacy organizations, federal government oversight bodies, and elected officials’ staffers. A cry for help and a plea for anyone to pay attention to how alarmingly broken these fundamental systems have become. “Is anyone working in the federal government for the taxpayer?” the email pleaded. Brad provided screenshots as evidence of the money he was rightfully owed, railing against the “corrupt Illinois state bureaucrats” endlessly denying and delaying what should have been a basic safety net. But this concerning account was about much more than just his tangled battle over unemployment benefits. It exposed an unsettling larger trend – the insidious self-preservation tactic of agencies seemingly more obsessed with perpetuating their own existence rather than upholding their public missions. As Brad lamented, “I’ve considered writing threatening letters just to get a phone call from someone…” His escalating frustrations stemmed from a pernicious bureaucratic maze utterly unaccountable to the citizens it was meant to serve. Despite pleas for assistance from heavyweights like Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen group and even reports to the Government Accountability Office, Brad’s valid issues were met with little more than silence and deafening indifference at every turn. This vicious cycle of dereliction all began when Brad, grappling with substance use issues exacerbated by work stresses, decided to take his employer up on their promotion of bringing your “authentic self” to the workplace. He requested a medical leave to get care and support for his mental health – only to be callously fired in apparent violation of laws protecting such leave. And so began his arhythmic descent into madness – being cut off from healthcare, finances, and access to any semblance of the social safety nets theoretically owed to him as a working, taxpaying citizen. The lack of recourse or accountability from any corner, whether employers, government agencies, watchdogs or elected leaders, pushed Brad to psychological and philosophical breaking points. As his email closed, the deafening silence followed. None of the over 30 recipients saw fit to even acknowledge his pleas, let alone take substantive action. An eerie omen as to just how nonchalantly we as a society now disregard such serious system breaks. Brad’s experiences uncovered a multi-layered metastatic threat. Foundational pillars meant to protect society’s most vulnerable are crumbling systemically. Yet accountability feedback loops to correct issues have shattered. And most alarmingly – the core human empathy and civic responsibility upholding this social contract has eroded to a point of indistinguishable indifference. This is more than bureaucratic ineptitude or yet another cycle of institutional failure. It signifies an existential risk to society if such grievances are allowed to perpetually fall on deaf ears as the very environmental protections we rely on spiral away. Brad’s cries should be a wake up call before we reach a point of no return. Part 1: The Personal Crucible Brad’s descent into substance use began innocuously enough in his 30s, well into an established corporate career. What started as bar happy hours every day became recreational club drug use and methamphetamine within the “party and play” subculture of the gay community gradually metastasized into a full-blown addiction over several years. As he recounts, “It’s easy to forget that alcohol is also a drug – a powerful and dangerous one that society doesn’t stigmatize quite the same way.” The alluring associations of meth with uninhibited pleasure and camaraderie, documented in films like Crystal City, sucked Brad in despite its obvious perils. “In a way, it was cheaper than therapy and certainly more readily accessible.” By summer 2023, with a divorce looming and desire for balance amplifying, Brad recognized the need for rehabilitation. His corporate employer, iManage, had promised a supportive process – 12 weeks of paid leave to prioritize his mental health and wellbeing at an inpatient facility. “I feel the need to emphasize that drugs and addiction are sorely misunderstood and stigmatized,” Brad stresses. “Mental health is health! Thank the heavens I don’t have cancer or a terminally ill loved one. But the inside of my body was sick.” For months he had suffered undiagnosed abdominal pain so severe he nearly went to the ER – physical manifestations of the psychological stress he had internalized from the grind of work’s perpetual demands. Happy hours, endless emails, pointless meetings, bureaucracy, and office politics all compounded Brad’s anguish even as he struggled to define his own role. Seeking the mental health leave was a self-preservation tactic. But instead of support, Brad was callously terminated – a moment of searing anguish and crippling alienation. “After I accepted the true intention of my termination, I composed myself and talked to employment lawyers, filed for unemployment benefits, applied for disability – denied, denied, denied!” Finding legal representation proved grueling, with most firms unresponsive. One lawyer’s best offer was a paltry 6-month severance, minus a third for fees, in exchange for signing away his right to free speech via nondisclosure agreement. “I was truly cut off,” Brad laments. “At that point, and to this day, I’ve received zero dollars in unemployment assistance despite successfully fighting two appeals and showing the money owed.” Even his initial medical leave paperwork was claimed invalid when it emerged the signing doctor had been practicing without a license. The psychological whiplash from having his core human needs as an employee and citizen so profoundly violated sent Brad spiraling. “No job, no income, no healthcare, no insurance – I was cut off from every foundational safety net I had paid into as a hardworking member of society.” As the systemic walls closed in, the anguish, despair and existential questioning reached inexpressible depths for Brad. This deeply personal crucible of injustice set the stage for recognizing the metastatic decay devouring America’s core institutional pillars and social fabrics. Being abruptly severed from employment, healthcare, income, and all manner of social safety nets detonated Brad’s psychological wellbeing. This sudden deprivation of basic resources tremendously exacerbated existing mental health vulnerabilities and drug use. The psychological whiplash from such a profound institutional betrayal plunged Brad into untold anguish and despair. Having his core human needs and dignities as an employee and citizen so callously discarded unraveled his basic sense of self-worth. “It completely reshaped my perception of society’s values and my place within it,” he reflects. Simple acts of self-preservation like filing for unemployment benefits or seeking legal recourse triggered a perpetual avalanche of despondency. “Denied, denied, denied!” Brad recounts of his gnawing despair encountering incompetence and dereliction of duty at every turn. This purgatory of injustice prompted deep existential questioning: “If human beings no longer matter to the systems meant to protect and serve us, then what does it mean to be a human being?” Anecdotes of alienation and dehumanization compound – like discovering the doctor who approved his medical leave had been practicing without a valid license. Or the lawyer offering a paltry settlement conditioned on relinquishing his right to free speech forever. The anguish transcended mere legalese and bureaucratic obfuscation; it became a soul-devouring void. Brad’s crucible crystallized how thoroughly accountability architecture across institutions had been dismantled. As he waded deeper into institutional sinkholes, the psychological toll of having his fundamental needs as a citizen disregarded corroded his very selfhood and identity. “It was an existential reckoning over whetherthe mechanisms for a functional, responsive, and human-centric society had been irreversibly broken.” Part 2: System Failures Unveiled Yet this was only the opening salvo in an escalating battle to find accountability and restore human dignity. What initially seemed like a straightforward case of workplace discrimination quickly mutated into an odyssey spanning every conceivable breakdown – employment laws, public assistance programs, regulatory oversight, media scrutiny, and the cohesion of the social safety net itself. At every turn, Brad’s statutory rights and reasonable requests for recourse were subverted by negligence, incompetence, or willful malfeasance from those ostensibly entrusted with protecting the vulnerable. Time and again, the very bureaucracies meant to uphold civic covenants proved themselves to be vapid reflections of eroded principles. As Brad waded deeper into this quagmire, it crystallized how thoroughly accountability architecture had been dismantled. The very retroreceptors that should trigger civic course-correction when individual grievances are issued had rusted into impotence – either intentionally or through insidious byproduct of self-preservation logic run amok. What was initially an unjust personal ordeal transformed into an all-encompassing reckoning over whether the mechanisms for a functional, responsive, and fundamentally human-centric society had been irreversibly broken. Could a cavity of compounding accountability voids become a relentless black hole consuming the final tethers of institutional credibility? That existential question – and Brad’s painstaking steps to unravel where, how, and why it manifests across systemic failures – is what transforms this from an individual story of injustice into a revelatory exploration of civilizational risk. And potentially, a roadmap for how to defibrillate the faint embers of civic responsibility before they are permanently extinguished. ### Following the initial sequence of parts in “Truth””, here’s additional detail on what followed next: A Statement Against a System of Inequality This isn’t some romanticized, “I’m-going-to-live-off-the-grid” hippie diatribe. This is about choosing poverty as a statement, a big, fat, middle finger to a system that doesn’t see equality for all human beings as an objective. It’s about rejecting the idea that our worth is measured by dollar signs and that our consideration for each other is some kind of economic equation. And an incorrect equation at that. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “You’re choosing poverty? You, who once owned a house that sold for a million bucks and earned $165,000 a year?” Yeah, that was me. But then I found myself living partially on food stamps, and you know what? I discovered joy in things that don’t have dollar signs in front of them. It’s like Warren Buffett, who I sincerely believe has come to see the good he can do with his vast wealth. He’s gone further than all of us. And you can too, whatever your means. I started with a “dollar a day” challenge. If someone asks me for a dollar on the street, and I have it, I give it to them. Even if I did that every day for the rest of my life, it would be less than the cost of a new car. But for whatever those dollars are spent on, maybe cigarettes or booze, or who knows what, it’ll be a better investment than that car. And that was infectious. I once found myself with $4,000 in hundred-dollar bills that I tried to pay to my former greedy corporate landlord when they attempted to evict me over a $132 dispute. They ultimately succeeded after paying a large law firm perhaps tens of thousands of dollars, but because accepting that rent would undermine their court case, it was rejected. I instead chose to give a few people surprises, and some of those one-dollar asks were automatically upgraded. I wish I had stopped long enough to see the reaction of a man who asked me for a dollar, which I gave him, and then said, “Two dollars will buy me something nice.” I had only one other bill in my wallet at the time, but to be honest, I was embarrassed at seeming patronizing and scurried off as I handed him the hundred, so I hope he did buy something nice. Now I’m saying, choose to be poor. Opt out of the system that doesn’t provide for you, and doesn’t provide for anyone. Because no matter how much wealth you have, there’s always a reason for more. Even billionaires see other billionaires with newer yachts, bigger houses, better companies, and they want more. Not for their fellow humans, mind you. That’s an egregious crime against humanity, and one I can’t participate in anymore. Throughout history, there have been those with immense wealth who died in poverty. I hope they died happy, because it’s nothing to die with a big bank account. What a shame to have such an opportunity and squander it during your life, to miss out on the joy that could have been provided. This isn’t about being a martyr or a saint. It’s about choosing to live a life that aligns with my values. It’s about rejecting a system that prioritizes profit over people. It’s about finding happiness in the simple things, in human connection, in the act of giving, in the knowledge that I’m not contributing to a system that perpetuates inequality. I see enough hypocrisy in this world of ours, so mark my words, I mean what I say. And yet it’s astonishing to me that those who say they participate in the rationality of our economic system commit such irrational acts as my former landlord, or even my former employer, who illegally terminated me for going on federally protected medical leave, but then stubbornly refused a settlement that even equated to the twelve weeks of paid leave they initially granted me. And yet here we are. But they are entirely greedy, hungry for more to extract—oddly seen as the maximum economic value. Here’s the part where I go off on a polemic about how lawyers have ruined the world, and I truly mean that. But they should probably go to accounting school, or at least learn economics, because my former employer and my former landlord have one thing in common that will run them into the ground: those same attorneys who, it seems, just like to argue even at their client’s expense. Win, lose, or draw, they still get paid by the hour. And so a $132 dispute is now a $50 million lawsuit for fraud, misrepresentation, and real damage against my former landlord Veritas, founded by a first-generation immigrant and Harvard Business School graduate. He must have skipped the course on risk management and now seeks to squeeze every last dollar as his company runs itself into the ground very nicely. And then there’s iManage, which oddly provides software used by the world’s largest law firms. Its lawyers surely told them that I would happily take a 4-week severance, even after the 12 weeks of leave they promised me. $300,000, or two years of my former salary, was readily rejected, and yet they stand to lose between $3 and $5 million in an ultimate lawsuit judgment. They will lose for their significant violation of my rights and subsequent retaliation, and yet they surely are too blindsided by the short-term to see the forest for the trees. But my last offer to them was that I would accept a settlement going not to me, but to my non-profit in its entirety. I would not benefit one penny other than to see good come from where an injustice had been done. To spring forth good out of injustice—and the same thing will be true, I will forgo any personal monetary benefit, because the greater benefit is in knowing that somehow that will do tremendous good that I could never possibly realize on my own. This is my personal experience, my own perspective. I’m not saying everyone should choose poverty, and I acknowledge my own privilege. I know my experience isn’t representative of the struggles faced by those who live in poverty due to systemic inequalities. This is a provocative statement, a challenge to the status quo. It’s a call to consider the true meaning of value and to question the system that defines our lives. It’s a call to action, a call to choose a different path, a path that prioritizes human well-being over economic gain. ### Following that part in sequence comes the final part of this particular story, which is a decision to embrace my self-autonomy and leave the United States: I should have left. We all should have left. When they came for the vulnerable, when they eroded our rights, when they traded compassion for profit. But I stayed, clinging to the tattered remnants of a once-shared hope, waiting for someone else to rise and defend the values we held dear. And then I realized: it had to be me. It had to be us. From the ashes of that shattered hope, I rise, determined to forge a new path, a future where we stand united against the forces that seek to divide and conquer. This is my story, a story of resilience, of fighting back, of refusing to be silenced. Maybe I should have left when I felt disenfranchised by a society that gives itself the privilege to question my identity, when they took it upon themselves to dictate who I should be, how I should love, what I should believe. Maybe I should have left when the success higher education knowledge brings wasn’t a foregone conclusion because no one in my family had gone to college, and my parents didn’t think they had an obligation to pay for my future; because I was from a lower socioeconomic status than my classmates, I didn’t have friends. Maybe I should have left when I started getting stressed out about money even though I was working multiple jobs, riddled with anxiety about pulling my weight as a worker bee. I should have left when I used drugs to feel better about myself because our healthcare system doesn’t recognize—let alone provide therapy for—the many problems others impose on us. And then I certainly should have left when I was coldly fired for exercising what I was assured was my federally protected right to medical leave. But I fought back against so many broken systems—from “justice” to government bureaucracy to the unemployment “insurance” I’d contributed to. I had to scrape by just to find a lawyer better than the first who lowballed an opening settlement offer, whose fees would have left me with less than the amount of paid leave I was granted initially. But the second lawyer epitomized the self-interested evil that has become the United States legal profession and still couldn’t bother to spell my name correctly on filings. I became so acrimonious at her dismissive and uncaring attitude that I dared her with a lawsuit for unilaterally terminating our client relationship without cause. And then, as these things do, when my 21-year relationship ended, I should have left, recognizing a hidden opportunity. But I stayed in the country of my birth and went to the only place I could think of where I might find happiness (in the US): San Francisco. But then I certainly should have left when the cable-car Victorian fantasy of freedom and love shattered into a thousand lies about entrenched power structures and the gullibility of the electorate to believe anything instead of doing something. And I certainly should have left running immediately when illogical greed unjustly evicted me over $132 with false allegations and then countersued me for taking my claims to court and threatened me with money judgments to silence me. Did I mention a restraining order against me used as a bargaining chip by the landlord’s counsel Nixon Peabody? I realized drugs weren’t the answer to any problems and was still shamed into questioning my trust and generosity given my lack of any income for over a year. While Illinois unemployment withheld payments claiming it was a safety measure because I was an out-of-state claimant (a blatant violation of the US Constitution by the way), San Francisco also threatened me with arrest for asserting my eligibility for a cash welfare benefit. Social security denied my disability claiming that I had not sent in paperwork they acknowledged receiving on the same denial. My thoughts briefly shifted to a greater good in elevating my non-profit to a co-housing provider, but good luck trying to get anyone interested in both saving money on service delivery costs and a shared help model instead of the authoritarianism that they like to “help” poor people with. So then I decided to leave but couldn’t muster the courage. I didn’t believe in myself until I did, and then on the eve of my sudden departure—ecstatic to share my pending happiness with the very few people who have brought it to me—I found out that an acquaintance was found dead, alone, in his apartment. He called me unexpectedly just a week before, possibly alone and wanting to talk. And when no one was there… When there was no one left but me to believe in, I mustered the courage, though it seemed effortless in a way I never imagined. I left. And I am never coming back to that hell whose name is printed all over my passport as spirited instigations of Liberty and freedom. They are none such. The rest of the world knows that too, and so do I now. Just for comic relief, I should have seen how topsy-turvy American values are at the San Francisco general hospital that refused to honor my legal name change and update their records because I had not filled out a form, and even when I did fill out the form and filed a grievance for failing to show basic respect to me as a person. The health record system surely made some executive rich, but it failed again and again to get me my mental health medication. In one case, they sent it to a Walgreens in Sacramento. I was understandably frustrated and agitated at the incompetence of a pharmacy chain that seems not to have visibility into their other stores. However, managers at two different stores were trigger-happy to threaten police action. And I assure you this has not been the first time that the facade of power uses such threats of intimidation. Never mind that California law requires licensed pharmacies to dispense prescribed medications, and throwing a temper tantrum is not an excuse to deny me my health care. But like the Wizard of Oz, Weekend at Bernie’s, the city of Venice, and so many other facades, they made a reliably pious virtue-signaling show of asking what my preferred pronouns are. I am not looking back. But I am moving forward, stronger and more determined than ever. I have learned that the only person I can truly rely on is myself, and that self-belief is the most powerful weapon against adversity.