Manns Medium

A parents number one concern is to try and prevents any harm, injury or death from coming to their children and to that end, we often rush to their defense considering that this actions proves our love but what if I tell you, it is not the action that you perform then but the actions you perform during the beginning stages of their lives that really shows your love.  Each and every time you step up and provide a buffer for your child, you are essentially setting them up for paying a heavier price of pain, injury or death because who will shield them when you are no longer around?  They have grown accustomed to you jumping in to save them and they have lost the fear of jumping in the deep in of the pool because they know you will jump in after them but what if there is a time they jump without thinking and you are not there to save them?  Do they now perish; do you now have to bury them?  The mistake your child makes growing up is the time to educate them and fin...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earths as well as man by breathing life into a pile of dust.  He crafted and created us in his own image as a spirit but because he wished us to hold domain over all else that he created, a vessel was necessary to carry this spirit from place to place.  His design was the boiler plate and identical in all aspects for man and woman.  As he sat back pleased with his design and creation, these same men and women began to stop appreciating what he had done for them and began to seek self-gratification.  They moved around this planet and all others from place to place seeking that place where they felt most at home. This migration to different areas caused our adaptable tissues to conform to that particular region and some developed deeper and more  pigmentation  within their tissues than others.  Some found food a plenty and ate quite well while others found food hard to come by and ae less.  Each...

This thought occurred to me as I was looking at answering yes to all of my youngest daughter’s recent requests.  I surmised that since she has already gone through things that no child should ever have to endure at such a young age, that saying yes would make her feel and know that she was loved and appreciated.  It wasn’t until she kept asking for one thing after another that it dawned on me that maybe what I was doing was not actually for her but only to make myself feel better.  I dawned upon me that I was actually doing her more harm than good by saying yes to everything. I began to truly think about that concept of giving in makes them give up and the more I thought about it the more it began to make sense and possibly explain why kids today have little or no respect for anything or anyone.  The primary reason is the lack of a good example set by their parents, guardians or caretakers but a large factor appears to be our desire to try and make things better...

The world is constantly changing but there are somethings that never change.  One of those things is the competition between people of who is better, bigger, bolder and smarter than anyone else.  Today we attempt to measure the intelligence level of people by some tests which was created by a group of people claiming and receiving acknowledgment that they are supposed to be the elite of intelligence.  The sad part of all this truly is that no one is smarter than anyone else.  It is simply a matter of opportunity and aptitude than it is about anything else. Consider this, you make straight “A” s in school and immediately you are viewed as smarter than the other kids in your class but this same straight “A” student would have a very hard time putting those mastered skills in action the very first time he/she has an opportunity to do so.  You can learn everything about the engine of an automobile from a book and repeat those lessons as eloquent and articulate ...

As a retired U.S. Marine, there are few things that truly makes me wish to grab certain people and shake them until an apple falls out except when I read that I have lost another brother simply because some loud-mouth politician decided to start a war that they did not have to fight in.  It makes things even more frustrating when those who saber-rattle are also those who can make the changes to correct these suicides but refuse.  I assume that they believe having “yes men and women” on their payroll allows them the conscientious to sleep at night because those yes men and women are former military and tells them exactly what they wish to hear.  I guess my frustration is even more aimed at myself because even after writing a book on how to handle this, it still appears not enough and the more that I attempt to do the less it seems to matter.  That was before I read this article titled “ Suicide Claims 14th Marine From a Unit Battered by Loss ” written by Dave Philipp...

To say that we all do not make mistakes is an understatement but to listen to those in the child protective trade, you would think that they were so professional in their duties that when they leave the bathrooms and you go after them all you would smell is roses.  Now we all know that following anyone who uses public facilities, that smell is definitely not that of a rose. I call your attention to an article titled “ Documents: Girl, 15, who shot brother, 16, suffered abuse ” written by Jason Dearen for the Associated Press.  In this article it is reported that “A 15-year-old girl who fatally shot her 16-year-old brother suffered years of abuse, including being locked in a room for weeks at a time with only a blanket and a bucket to use the bathroom, according to police reports and interviews.  The shooting at a small white house off a dirt road in rural north Florida happened Monday while the children's parents were away for work. The father, a truck driver, and hi...

There are far too many instances where this takes place so for the sake of brevity and not to confuse too many people, let us concentrate on just one.  I am speaking of the Office Discipline Referral Form.   It is the policy of District 205 that a parent/guardian/caretaker must accompany the student back to school if they were suspended but this is after the suspension.  Due Process says that you are innocent until proven guilty, so any reasonable parent must assume that if their child gets suspended, an investigation into the offense was properly done and presented to those who decide on suspension.  If any reasonable parent assumes this, then they must also assume that their child or ward was exposed to this part of life without them being present to defend or supply a representative for their child or ward’s defense.  This, in turn, teaches the child that they have no voice because those representing the petition to suspend are adults and will be believ...

Far be it for me to judge but the truth often hurts especially if it is a truth that no one really wants to hear.  This is the case with this article so for those with sensitive egos, you may wish to stop reading here. Speak to anyone who takes their parenting really serious and the first thing you will hear from them when addressing why they make some of the decisions that they make and you will hear “I don’t want my kids to grow up like me.”  That statement alone is not only a cop out and an excuse but a poorly constructed one to boot.  Think about it!  You don’t want your children to grow up like you. You who takes their parenting responsibilities so serious that they stay in a loveless marriage or in a thankless job in order to keep the family together.  You who take you’re parenting responsibilities so seriously that you make time to show up at each and every event that your child or children are involved in.  You who take you’re parenting so se...

Ask any parent what is the number one responsibility of a parent and they will say to protect their children.  I know this because I have asked plenty of them and this was the same response from me as well.  I have recently discovered that this reason ad this reason alone may be the primary reason that so many parents fail and so many children are then lost to the streets.  A parent’s number one responsibility is not to protect our children, it is to educate them. Now the title of this piece is how Hollywood can help but before we get to that, we need to explain why protection is not number one and education is.  Think on this; as a parent you set yourself to believe that you need to protect your child and when you fail to do just that, a world of misery is dumped directly upon you.  You feel inferior and weak because your child is hurting and there seems to be nothing you can do to ease or stop it.  You sit there with your head up your butt wondering ...

Rockford, IL-Starting yesterday 3/29/2012, the Rockford School District Teacher voted to picket to bring attention to the need for a new contract with the Rockford School District.   There are many on both sides who can clearly explain why this walk-off may be necessary but none seem that convincing.   It did cause me to look deeper to try and understand just who may benefit.   I kept coming back to the kids.   Nothing, it appeared, was of benefit to those who should matter more than anything else.   While those teachers, who walked out, stroll the picket line, the kids are left to their own devices or the hasty implementations of working parents plan for them being home instead of in school.   It also occurred to me that the School District really do not appear to have a valid interest in doing all that they can to keep the teachers in the classroom because they are not risking anything at all. Think about the funds that school districts rece...

As parents many of us wish to explain and explainable action by our child and in so doing, we search and search.   During this search we sometimes come upon a good enough reason and if they reason could provide us an even slight excuse, we take it.   Could we be doing the same with autism? According to MSNBC there has been an increase of 57% in autism cases from 2002-2006.   The report said that there has been a 600% increase in the disorder and it affects 1 in 110 kids in America.   While this information is astounding it should not be so alarming that we do what we so often do and that is over-react.   We over-react like we did with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and began to prescribed medication for our children which today results in more than average amount of children, teens and young adults now hooked on some type of drug and rely solely on the medical community to solve their aches and pain instead of themselves.   We leave all of our health dec...

Of all the people parents place in high positions to help us watch over our children and keep them safe, none ranks higher than teachers and police officers.   To learn that the two most entrusted positions are a part of an international child exploitation ring is nothing short of appealing. According to Mike Corder of the Associated Press article titled Police say international pedophile ring smashed, this is truly the case.   “ Police said Wednesday they have smashed a huge international pedophile ring, rescuing 230 children from abuse and arresting 184 suspects — including teachers and police officers.”   “The three-year investigation codenamed Operation Rescue identified and safeguarded children in more than 30 countries by arresting people suspected of abusing them, said Rob Wainwright, director of the European Union police agency Europol.”   “The ring was centered on an Amsterdam-based online forum called boylover.net, which Wainwright described as "probably ...