Manns Medium

  According to an article titled “The Conversation- A concise history of the US abortion debate, by Treva B. Lindsey, Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University, Published: June 10, 2019, https://theconversation.com/a-concise-history-of-the-us-abortion-debate-118157 . History has again been totally ignored and the lesson lost.   This being the case, it bears out the great need for educated people to finally diagnose history as it happens and make the necessary changes to ensure that this particular piece of history is not constantly repeated. Consider this, “While many may think that the political arguments over abortion now are fresh and new, scholars of women’s, medical and legal history note that this debate has a long history in the U.S.   It began more than a century before Roe v. Wade. As of 2019 “around 1962 the Food and Drug Administration approved the first commercially produced birth control pill, Enovid-10. Although various ...

  The Idea that because something bad has or is happening to me, gives me the right to take any action that I deem appropriate even if it results the most unnatural act of all, the taking of another human being’s life.   Ethan Crumbley entered his Oxford High School armed with a pistol and the knowledge that it was okay to shoot it up because his family had been totally disrespected by those immigrant parents who did not care about learning and is the primary cause to his family’s financial struggles. He wanted to change his mind and was hoping that someone would talk him out of it or stop him from completing his task, but no one stood up for him, no one saw him, no one heard him, and no one listened to him.   The desire to win the admiration of his parents won out that day and ends now with a 15-year-old teen being charged as an adult on 24 counts of murder and terrorism. He sits in his jail cell, under suicide watch and with a public defender at his side, while ...

The American justice system was designed so that all who attend would receive a fair and balanced judgment.  All would get fair and balanced treatment but like all other things man tends to control and screw up, so goes our justice system.  It does not begin and end with the cops on the beat nor does it begin and end with riches being the primary resource necessary.  It simply begins and ends with those in authority failing to remember that justice is blind, that all are innocent until proven guilty and that all deserves the same amount of respect as those in charge demand.  It simply begins and ends with those at the top.  If the boss is setting an example of intolerance, then those under him/her are also going to develop that way of thinking.  To lead by example is the primary ingredient necessary for a decent society and the true mark of a leader.  Not having it means that fixing this system was died long before it was even born. In an article ...

Talk to anyone who is familiar with our current justice system and many will point you toward reform but that is typically as far as the conversation goes because those who seem to care still are not sure how to go about making the change.  Some strongly suggest starting at the bottom where crimes are committed and those committing those crimes come in contact with the system but all that is mostly done there is a change in the law or procedures.  While this is and could be a good thing, it does not go far enough to make those abused by the system whole and no amount of money will ever return another’s lost dignity and self-respect.  Once you are arrested, you immediately have a record and nowhere in the remnants will there ever be the outcome of your case.  A bad arrest will show on your record just the same as a good arrest, so now the dreams, aspirations and goals of someone who were abused by the system are just as tainted, stained and tossed as someone who ...

Pride used to be something that we all felt when we accomplished a goal that we set for ourselves and the majority of the time it was not a goal for all to see or hear about.  That is the major difference between pride and arrogance.  Pride makes you smile from the inside as you recount accomplishing that goal while arrogance makes you smile only when someone sees and comments when you have accomplished something.  We used to take pride in mostly everything we did, which elevated our attention to detail and level of work but today that sense of pride does not exist and we simply only do enough to get by. There used to be a time when we sought to do a better job than we did yesterday not for the sake of the company but for the sake of ourselves.  Coming home at the end of a hard day used to make us walk taller and broader but now coming home after a hard day’s work means that you had to put up with more drama than you did yesterday.  You come home angry and ...

You can get no more evident that how we currently live today is to pleasing to God than to have a church file a lawsuit against the city of Rockford, IL when the Bible clearly tells us that Christians do not sue another.  Now maybe some will say that the city of Rockford is not a Christian because it is not a person then we can say the same about the church, can we not?  Some may say that the children who was present during that shooting has been scarred for life and deserve some sort of compensation for their duress, pain and suffering but I say if you are attempting or had been attempting to teach these children the true word of God at this daycare then why not show them the ultimate lesson that Jesus shared with us, turn the other cheek. The title of the article is “ Trial nears in Rockford civil suit over Mark Anthony Barmore shooting death ” and it reports that “ a trial in a lawsuit stemming from the officer-involved shooting death of Mark Anthony Barmore could begi...

In the beginning, judges were set up to administer justice by counseling and being peacemakers between those who had a dispute.  They were supposed to be above bribes and godly which is where wearing of the dress/robe may have come in.  They were supposed to listen carefully to all sides then find common ground, make the ultimate decision where both parties walked out of there with a slight win and all would be fair and balanced.  That was how it was supposed to work so what happened to that concept now. According to Exodus Chapter 18 Moses’ father in law, Jethro came to visit, saw him spending morning to night helping to settle people’s disputes among them and when asked called himself a judge to dispense who was right or wrong.  His father in law gave him some advice and told him to choose capable, godly, honest men who hate bribes and appoint them judges under him.  They could decide and hear the smaller cases but if the case was too complex or complicat...

You ask me why I say unbalanced justice system and I simply have to answer, pick up a local paper, magazine or turn on the news and look closely at those stories reported that are similar in circumstances.  If you are able to see the difference in reporting and the results then you may understand why I say unbalanced but if you cannot then maybe it’s just me who is unbalanced. Take this article titled “ Chicago man convicted of murder for giving teen niece gun used in fatal Facebook confrontation ” written by Jason Silverstien for the New York Daily News  In this article it talks about an uncle giving his niece a stolen gun and escorting her to the home of the girl she ended up shooting.  In a court of law, he was convicted of murder for his ignorant judgment of giving his niece a gun and going with her as if this was the adult way to handle any dispute.  How I see this as unbalanced is Tamir Rice is dead because someone gave that officer who was seen as unfit b...

There is not much that can get my dandruff up more than seeing an official abuse their authority or say one thing while doing another.  You see this a lot in politicians, promising one thing on the campaign trail but seemingly to quickly forget their first few hours in office but they are not as closely related to the community as a whole than those elected to sit on our benches in our courts.  Most Americans see this place as the only place left on earth where they can get a fair shake and the impartiality of those wearing that robe would listen, hear and understand their plight, provide them with a sense of belonging and even help where ever they could.  Today’s justice is not benched with judges such as these but people with their own agenda, their own bias and an overwhelming mixture of self-importance.  This can clearly be seen in the case reported by an article titled “ Florida judge berates domestic abuse victim, sentences sobbing woman to jail ” by Melissa C...

We are all entitled to our day in court and have the right to present our case as to why we are not guilty of what we are charged with but to begin so early to attempt to discredit those who oppose you leaves me to wonder why.  Could it be because you know that they have the facts on their side and the results of a verdict from any kind of jury would lead to you being found guilty or is it because privileges have been extended to you that others can only dream about? The article is called “ Lawsuit alleges Waco biker grand jury conflict of interest ” written by Emily Schmall for the Associated Press and it reports that “ a biker arrested after a deadly shootout involving bikers and police in Waco, Texas, argued Friday that it's a conflict of interest for a policeman to preside over the grand jury that may hear his case.  Matthew Clendennen, who sued after he was one of 177 bikers arrested following the shootout, alleged in a court filing that James Head's presence as fore...

There was a time, in America, when your best calling card was simply a business card and your reputation was built upon being firm yet fair and treating people as you wished to be treated.  That time seems to have passed us by and now it appears that how you build a reputation is to do and say the most outlandish things that you can.  I remember watching the old western and wondering who the good guy was because that’s what people always wished to be the good guy but today it seems like no one wishes to be the good guy anymore and wear the white hat.  They want to be the bad guy and the big dog on the block which pits immature males in a battle that no one will win.  This disease has now affected our police departments, with the recent unarmed shootings, and our justice system with these current and recent miscarriages of justices that is rampant as we speak.  Case and point is a local article from one of our local channels WREX which reports that “a trial begi...

“Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. told Bassett: “You should have more respect for police officers.”  Is what is reported that the judge said in an article titled “ Police Confronted an Air Force Veteran While He Tried to Save His Dog’s Life. Now He’s Facing Felony Charges ” by Jon Street for The Blaze.  This is doing a time where compassion and sensitivity is far outweighed by arrogance and that thin blue line supported by so many within our justice system regardless of what the circumstances are around ones action.  This is probably the same judge who would allow some Wall Street banker the luxury of using his “being too rich defense”  as an excuse for robbing his customers blind but failed to see the biggest clue in this case involving an Air Force Veteran. The article reports that “Air Force veteran Samuel Bassett was arrested Friday in an alleged brawl with police that broke out when the cops wouldn’t let Bassett back into his burning home to save his do...

It is never a bad thing to have pride in something whether it is pride in your country, your race and even yourself but when that pride turns into arrogance, therein lies that quiet snake ready to bite.  This arrogance is what I think lead to this story titled “ Man Arrested After Threatening to ‘Kill Cops and Innocent White Kids.’ But a Friend Downplays It All as ‘Speaking His Mind .’ written by Dave Urbanski for The Blaze.  In it Mr. Urbanski reports that “after a suburban Chicago man made threats on Facebook that he would “kill cops and innocent white kids,” police searched a home he sometimes stays at and arrested him on weapons and other charges, WLS-TV reported. While Aries Woodfin, 33, wasn’t charged with making threats, a friend who owns the Ford Heights, Illinois, house where Woodfin was arrested downplayed his Facebook threat.  She said it was a reaction over the grand jury decisions in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City where white police officers weren’t i...

In an article titled “ National Bar Association calls for Federal Charges against Darren Wilson ” by Onomastic for The Daily Kos it is reported that “In 2010, the last year for data on the number of federal criminal cases and grand jury decisions, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.  Newspaper accounts suggest, grand juries frequently decline to indict law-enforcement officials. A recent Houston Chronicle investigation found that “police have been nearly immune from criminal charges in shootings” in Houston and other large cities in recent years. In Harris County, Texas, for example, grand juries haven’t indicted a Houston police officer since 2004; in Dallas, grand juries reviewed 81 shootings between 2008 and 2012 and returned just one indictment. Last night, the National Bar Association, "the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges," is...

POP QUIZ, what is worse than a hothead with a gun?  ANSWER, a hothead with a badge to go along with that gun.  There is so very much wrong with the story and much of what else is so wrong is not even covered in this story.  In an article titled “Video Of Cops Gunning Down Young Father In Illinois Hospital Released (VIDEO) ” written by Randa Morris for NBC 5, it is reported that “On November 11, 2014, the Lake County, Illinois state’s attorney ruled that Highland Park police were justified in the shooting death of 27- year- old Christopher Anderson. Anderson was killed by police inside Highland Park Hospital on November 3. Anderson and his nine year old daughter were taken to Highland Park hospital, following a car accident that left both with minor injuries. According to police, Anderson became ‘agitated’ over the care that his daughter was receiving in the emergency room, and pulled a gun.  Police say that the officers involved in the shooting repeatedly asked ...

Ever heard the saying “never take the law into your own hands” yet is that not the case when vigilante justice is being propped up and approved by governmental and law enforcement agencies?  Some may argue that this is just one tool for law enforcement to keep us and our streets safe but to them I ask, safe like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and the multitude of others shot or killed by police that don’t get reported to the media or to the public.  Talk about a slippery slope, how much easier is it for those valiant Americans who claim to be guarding the borders but go a little too far in that effort?  The only guard that this nation has to ordinary people dispensing justice on their terms was the fact that those who do may face prison time themselves but maybe all that is changing since Hollywood has and is producing more superhero movies which makes us all feel like Captain America. Take for example the article published by our local WREX-TV which reports that “a p...

Many people believe that the best way to show you love your children is through money and states have even gone as far as to make sure that they get in on that act as well.   Apparently all men who do not pay child support do so because they are deadbeats and the only excuse they use is the excuse of being unemployed. So what really happens to that money which falls in arrears? State legislators have an answer for that and in collaboration with the courts; they have designed a system where even if you do not have a job, they can still place the stone of a deadbeat around your neck.  It doesn’t matter if you are unemployed because now some states are allowed to slap you with child support based on a 40 hour work week at minimal wage.  Now if you still can’t force an employer to hire you, they take it a few steps more by having the state revoke your driving privileges and make a derogatory entry on your credit report.  Don’t know what highly educated person c...

Ask the questions of those who commit crimes and often you may get the answer that it’s the only way that they know how to survive.  There is no truth in that statement but many who ask really could care less about the answer or a solution so it’s widely accepted and we all move on.  But if you want to really know the real reason, the ultimate excuse which can be proven, it is the years and years of unequal justice found permeating from within our justice system.  Many have talked about it and some have even made some attempts to deal with it but soon they either run out of energy or just plainly give up.  All the while those who they say could do better can’t because the process  doesn't  allow them to. If you are financially well-off, then justice will be something you think nothing about and often you will take for justice.  If you are not financially well-off then justice will be something you may never know about.  Justice for most ...

I read a conversation about the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri where some excellent advice was being passed along that dealt with waiting until the facts are in before arm chair or Monday morning quarterbacking the event.  It was something I had said myself so it sounded like really good advice, but the more I read the stronger this thought became.  Is there any such thing as fact? I say that because no one can tell what is actually happening in the minds of those involved in any incident except those who are actually involved.  And many times, things happen so fast that even they have a hard time recanting what they were actually thinking at that particular time.  If Fox News report that something happened in a particular way, is that fact especially if MSNBC reports it happening a different way.  Whose fact are we going to go with?  Does it depends on which one you, as an individual, think is more fair and balanced than the other? ...

Since attention was first drawn to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, many have been scrambling to define and treat it.  What seems to be lost on those chasing this mythical beast is a plain and simple truth that when clearly understood will lead to a much better life for all concerned. Experts would have you believe that PTSD is only a condition suffered by those who are combat veterans and nothing could be farther from the truth.  To get to the truth one only has to close that hole below their nose and open the two on opposite sides of their heads.  In other words, shut up and listen.  Do not think that a piece of paper depicting your years of study or a degree gives your insight into this disorder because it does not.  What gives you insight is the memory of any event in your life that caused you to re-think your entire existence and question your reason to live on.  That people is PTSD and it affects everyone at one time or another in their live...