Manns Medium

Before anyone can began to discuss racism and truly have an open dialogue about over 357 years of oppression, they must first be willing to have their feelings hurt and be willing to hurt another person feelings. This conversation will never advance if we adhere too tightly to being politically correct. Now with that being said, there is always a way you can make your point without being harsh or abrasive. It’s the difference between hurting someone’s feeling intentionally or unintentionally. We began with the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The transatlantic slave trade was essentially a triangular route from Europe to Africa, to the Americas and back to Europe. On the first leg, merchants exported goods to Africa in return for enslaved Africans, gold, ivory and spices. The ships then traveled across the Atlantic to the American colonies where the Africans were sold for sugar, tobacco, cotton and other produce. The Africans were sold as slaves to work on plantations and as...

There are misconceptions and then there are plain bonehead assumptions, when it comes to the recent rash of officer involved shootings and it appears that many are guilty of the later. A misconception is the assuming that someone is a bad person long before ever really getting to know or even taking the time to get somewhat acquainted with that person and defined as “.a view or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty thinking or understanding.”  This happens a lot in life especially when we generalize about a certain segment of society based squarely upon the actions or perceived actions of some within that segment of the population.  If you consistently see a certain group of people committing crime over and over again, then one tends to assume and build a misconception that all people of that same particular group must also commit crimes on a regular basis.  This misconception leads us to assuming the worst or the best of a section of society even thoug...

Racism began as a thought, and idea based on a belief and reinforced by Genesis Chapter 1 verses 26 through 31 where it is written “Then God said let us make a man someone like ourselves to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.” “So God made man like his maker, like God did God make man. Man and maid did he make them and God blessed them and told them multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, you are the masters of the fish and birds and all animals and look I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and the fruit bearing tress for your food.  And I have given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for food.  Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way.  This ended the sixth day.” This passage was what they used to justify taking control of the earth, the sky, the seas and all else God had made except man in his ultimate betrayal to God took this one step further....

Americans pride themselves on comparison of their intelligence level and many even join special societies to promote just how intelligent they are.  Others use grades from academic institutions to measure their level of intelligence and still others use their knowledge of how certain things work or how well they perform their chosen tasks as proof of their superiority over another.  All this and yet still we prove each and every day just how unintelligent we are and how insane our motives to prove one better than the other really is. We have all heard the old saying that the true sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, the exact same way but expecting a different result.  This act alone shows us for what we really are.  A bunch of insane fools who keep searching for that elusive longing in the exact same area we have been searching for it for decades now and still not finding it.  We keep looking for that answer to the same question bu...

Yesterday, the wife and I were talking about the shootings in Dallas and she said something that got me to thinking and something that had never occurred to me.  She mentioned how our generation and the generation before us used to exercise the art of peacemaking.  She remarked that those of us who sought peace first would always be the first responders to any crisis and begin immediately to look for a peaceful solution to the issue.  We never waited until it was too far gone and we never stopped to pose for a picture or camera while doing it.  She mentioned how we would always try to find the common ground before racing toward the high ground.  She then said something that made me sit up in my chair; she asked if possibly our generation and those before who sought peace first was a dying breed. I got to thinking more and more about what she asked and this morning came to a conclusion.  Many of us who had and have children wanted to raise them to quest...

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed just how moody America has been lately.  I mean from politics to parenting and all points in between.  We hear people talk about a slight willingness to change their minds about anything except their core beliefs and principals but even those things are flexible depending on the right amount of influence used to alter their belief or principal.  Here are a few examples I have noticed and see if what I am trying to say makes sense to you. There was a group of young black boys calling themselves representing “Black Lives Matter” who was witnessed harassing a combat veteran at some restaurant.  As the veteran stood up and was walking out of the restaurant, one of them struck him in the back of the head and then he was robbed of at least $400.  Now for those who stand with “Black Lives Matter” and support their cause, you must now decide if every action by those who claim to support the same group you do depicts who you ...

When you have high profile shootings where everyone tends to have an opinion and none seemed to be even slightly wishing to listen to the other sides, you get a well-thought out and programmed response from those whose job is to dispense equal justice within the law.  For those on the other side of that line, finding a reason to allow those officers a way out instead of jail is the only course of action they feel is best because of the situation that they find themselves in.  For those on the side of the line where voices are never heard and often ignored, the results is all the proof they need to demonize police , prosecutors and judges.  Both sides lack true conviction is making things right and neither wishes to see nothing but what they has deemed a clear victory.  In the end, no one wins, we all lose and none of us seem smart enough to know the difference. From the prosecutor’s side having to work closely with the police, they tend not to wish to alienate t...