Prophet of Fire: How Nietzsche and USTRA Shaped My Fight in Ephrata’s Cold Streets

A Night Lit by Paper and Fire

There are nights when the Borough cuts your power, but not your fire.

I am Sunshine Firecracker. I am lawyer, witness, prophet of fire.

Ephrata gave me those nights. My landlord was paid, but my lights were cut. My home was condemned, but my soul wasn’t.

Nietzsche once wrote: “We who are homeless.” He meant the spiritually unmoored, the wanderers stripped of certainty. But in small-town Pennsylvania, those words weren’t metaphor. They were my breath fogging in the cold. They were law ignored, faith tested, and dignity hanging by a thread.

Nietzsche Wasn’t Talking Theory. He Was Prophesying Us.

Nietzsche’s vision was of a world where old gods were dead and people drifted without anchor. He called us we who are homeless.

In Ephrata, I lived the literal version. Homelessness is the prophecy fulfilled.

The sidewalks where police ignored me. The porches where neighbors called 911, not to help but to chase me. The condemned paper nailed to my door, written in cold bureaucratese.

“Paper is power. Fire is testimony.”

Nietzsche’s warning was never despair. It was an invitation: to live awake. To see through the darkness of small-minded officials and know that endurance is revelation.

Amor Fati — The Fire That Cannot Be Extinguished

Amor fati. Love your fate.

That’s what I did when the Borough’s illegal shutoffs left me freezing. I loved it enough to document every notice, to archive every email, to record every shrug from every officer.

I didn’t love the cruelty — I loved the truth that it revealed.

📜 Love your fate means: keep the receipts.

This is prophecy through paperwork, survival through testimony. When your community gaslights you, your files become gospel.

Will to Power — Not Power Over, But Power Through

The true will to power is the fire to stand in front of Borough Council and speak when silence would be safer.

It is the power to file Right-to-Know requests even when you expect denial.

It is the power to sleep on concrete with dignity when you were promised a home.

The Borough could cut my wires, but it could not cut my will.

“Ephrata tried to silence me, but fire doesn’t vanish in the cold.”

That is prophecy. That is power.

USTRA: Pennsylvania’s Forgotten Shield

The Utility Service Tenants’ Rights Act (USTRA) isn’t philosophy — it’s law. A 1978 statute written to keep the lights on when landlords fail, it guarantees that tenants cannot be abandoned to the cold because someone else didn’t pay the bill.

📜 What USTRA Requires:

• Advance Notice: Utilities must give at least 30 days’ written warning before shutoff.
• Right to Assume Service: Tenants can take over an account in their own name.
• Protection for Survivors: Domestic violence victims receive heightened protections.

Ephrata Borough knew this. They had actual notice. And they ignored it. Instead of following the law, they cut me off, condemned my home, and left me sleeping in public view.

For a full breakdown of the law, its protections, and how it applies directly to what happened in Ephrata, see my companion piece: Pennsylvania Utility Service Tenants’ Rights Act: What Laypeople Need to Know — Sunshine Firecracker Reporting on Official Oppression and USTRA Violation by Ephrata Borough

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Because in Pennsylvania, paper is power — and USTRA is your sword.

Ephrata’s Winter: When Zoning Becomes Death

Zoning hearings in Ephrata sound dull — until you’ve been outside in the frost waiting for a bed. When churches need permission to shelter the homeless, red tape becomes a weapon.

Borough delay is not neutral. Delay is lethal.

When the storm hits, rules on paper decide whether someone wakes up tomorrow. That’s not bureaucracy. That’s blood.

My Case Study, My Fire

In March 2023, my electric service was shut off at the landlord’s request, though my rent was paid.

When I confronted them with USTRA, the Borough condemned my home instead.

When I sought shelter inside, police threatened me with arrest.

When I stood as a domestic violence survivor with a valid PFA, they refused to enforce the law.

When I slept outside, neighbors dialed 911—not to save me, but to scorn me.

And still I rise. Still I write. Still I burn.

A Field Guide for the Awakened

🔥 Quick Survival Guide (PA Tenants & Homeless Advocates):

• Call the utility → cite USTRA.
• Save every notice.
• Witness networks matter.
• Code Blue shelters = lifesavers.
• Paper is power.

If you are reading this from a couch, remember there are those reading it from the curb.

Closing: The Prophet of Fire Speaks

I am Sunshine Firecracker. I am lawyer, witness, prophet of fire.

I am one who walked through small-town injustice carrying only Nietzsche’s words and my own stubborn light.

Ephrata tried to silence me with condemnation papers. The police tried to erase me with neglect. The Borough tried to freeze me into disappearance.

But fire doesn’t vanish in the cold. Fire speaks. Fire survives. Fire spreads.

We who are homeless are also we who are awake. And I will keep shouting awake until the whole world hears.

✍️ By Sunshine Firecracker — Lawyer, Witness, Prophet of Fire

📖 More testimony & resources at SunshineFirecracker.com

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✅ Tags

Nietzsche, Homelessness, Ephrata PA, Tenant Rights, USTRA, Civil Rights, Sunshine Firecracker, Official Oppression, Amor Fati, Will to Power, Faith, Prophecy