Manns Medium

While scanning through my email this morning, I ran across a story titled “ The opioid crisis is creating a fresh hell for America’s employers ” published on July 26, 2017 by the Managing editor at Linkedin Chip Cutter. The more I read this article the clearer it became to me exactly why many people are quietly whispering this concept of “white privilege”.  According to Wikipedia “White privilege is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in Western countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances “but when confronted by this long definition, fear of discovery and lack of clear justifications leads to denials and refusal to accept such nonsense as fact.  It is my thought then that possibly if we shorten the definition maybe then we could truly bring awareness to this reality which explains why I have chosen to define it as simply the assumption. In the previously m...

If you listen to all those who say that “white privilege” exists be sure to ask them how they arrived at such a conclusion.  You may find that their arrival is strictly based upon those who are not held to the same identical account for the same crimes are disproportionally white.  Now while this satisfies those who wish to keep us so concentrated on race that we over look an obvious primary factor it is not the truth and it is time someone attempted to open the eyes or those who wish to learn.  If you ask those who think “white privilege” does not exist, you may find that the only reason they say it does not is to lessen the fact that many who are not held to equal justice are white and they do not have a better argument but they are too false in their assumptions simply because our eyes don’t lie and the story fills the headlines of our paper and news every day.  Again what both these groups of single minded individual miss is the unseen and ignored damage that is...

When you hear someone say that they are in complete control of their lives and no one tells them what to do, take a closer look at the actions that they take if you truly want to know if they are telling the truth or lying.  You have to look for actions because none of us is endowed with the power to judge whether anyone is truly right or wrong simply because what may be one person’s truth may not be another’s.  We must try never to minimize another person’s struggles, beliefs and feelings so allow them to feel what and when they do remembering that when it is your time, you would want to be treated the same.  Now there are millions of ways one could tell if a person is indeed in complete control of their lives and their decisions but we have only listed what we believe is the top 5 here. 1.         When your decisions are not based on what is best for you but how others may see it: Ever had a decision to make but were more concern...

I bet you, no one has ever told you that there are varying degrees of patriotism, each having its own  measurable  marker. I don’t know why not because patriotism, like all others things, is not a one size fits all concept but varies between individuals depending on the experience, beliefs and values of that particular individual. For some, the wearing of a flag pin on their lapel is enough to satisfy that they are patriotic so it has become a part of many people’s apparel.  For some, wearing a shirt or outside garment made of the flag is enough and then for others it is about flying that flag proudly in your front yard.  Now each one of these carries with it, a degree of patriotism that makes one feel good about themselves and seeks to show those around them that they have a love of country.  Sad to say that this alone does not equal another nor does it overshadow the other.  What is does is satisfy your desire to prove to those around you of how...

I have often sat up many nights wondering why so many good men and women are taking their own lives after enduring so many traumas, drama, pain and suffering.  After they may have seen their best friend die right in front of them or held them in their arms as they took their last breath.  Whether it had to pick up pieces of brethren, hoping that by some miracle a Navy Corpsman/woman or some doctor can put them back together and make them whole like they were just minutes before.  Whether their dreams and nightmares are any similar to mine and make me not wish to sleep for the fear of dreaming.  I often wonder if I am personally doing enough to help my fellow brothers and sisters and why a country who says they so love their troops are not doing more.  I wonder these things and other things but the answer seems to come back to one solid clue.  We are losing the good souls not only because of the things I just mentioned but other things that no one wishes to...

While the political media is all ablaze about the big win regarding the governorship of Kentucky and Virginia keeping its House in Republican control, much is being made about how those who won ran their campaign but to a novice political junkie like me their reason for victory is much simpler. It was widely reported that Mr. Conway had the lead in the polls coming into this election and because of that Republicans employed their next best weapons to give Mr. Blevins his win.  They deployed the sheer laziness and lack of focus by the majority of Democrats knowing that as long as the polls said their candidate would win, that their job was done.  It worked and will continue to work until those who claim the title of Democrat, Independent or just plain those who are tired of sending people to office who do little if anything to serve them stay home on election day. I see little evidence that gerrymandering districts is the reason and I see little evidence that uncoverin...

First please allow me to say that I was one of the most argent detractors from those people that I referred to as “eggheads” when they first came out with this thing about “parental involvement” being necessary to help children develop better.  I was one of the ones who claimed that it was just a few “know-it- all ” who was attempting to shift the blame from educators and teachers doing their jobs.  After seeing evidence of this just a few days ago and thinking back to all the times this happened that I did not capture makes me wish now to ask all those for their forgiveness because I was wrong. It took a matter of ten minutes to turn my failing daughter in math, spelling and reading into someone who now cannot only do the math assigned but has advanced to geometry.  She now craves reading and was recently excited about reading the dictionary.  This from a child whom we were told just a few weeks ago was reading at a lower level than others her age.  Ten mi...

If this is true and these two citizens were let go because they refused to remove the Confederate Flag symbol from their own personal property, this nation has allowed it’s citizens to violate the very principal that so many pride themselves on when bragging about this country.  God Almighty, knew that attempting to control the minds of men was a lost cause which is why he gave us the authority to decide for ourselves.  He told us that we are in control of our actions, non-actions and lives so that on judgment day, we will not have anyone else to blame for the way we decided to live that life.  I can understand removal of the Confederate Flag from public buildings but when you begin to think that you own another person to the point where you can control and make them remove any symbol from their own private property, you have gone too far. The article titled, “ 2 In Alabama Say They Got Fired For Driving With Confederate Flag ” written by Jackie Salo for Internationa...

There is a very soft rumor of many now truly beginning to take a serious look at our adult and juvenile justice system.  Some are just now discovering that which those unable to get past a particular point of poverty have known for years.  Both the adult and juvenile justice system sucks and does not work half as well as it should for all Americans.  They see where those with enormous resources can get their voices truly heard in court and considered long before the verdict but when it comes to those who are not privileged with the funds to purchase the assistance of the best attorney in town, their voices are quickly silenced and often never heard at all. For those just now paying attention, their focus is on the length of sentences or if the judgment set down by the courts really does fit the crime.   Their focus is on whether you can get more time selling crack than you get selling high end cocaine or heroin.   No mention of how those providing...

Many times, you read an article and think that this kind of stuff only happens to other people.  This allows you to disconnect and not really feel the pain that is the pain of those without resource or a course of action to help them in their situation.  But every once in a while a story crosses your path that reminds you that what you have endured is not exclusive and has happened to others.  You find out that what you thought was only happening to you in your state is happening to others in other states and now you feel their pain. This very thing happened to me when I read an article titled “Couple Brings Sick Baby to ER, the Next Day Police Show Up and Kidnap All of Their Children” by Matt Agorist for The Free Though Project taken from a story by Bridget Bennett for KSFY TV an ABC Affiliate.  In the article Matt and Bridget speak about “Molly Bowling and Michael Becker just spent Christmas without their children after police, acting on behalf of Child Protec...

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...

If you have ever tried to rent a home or apartment, you know that the most important and often repeated phrase by any landlord is “have to check your credit”.  While this may provide landlords a moment of control and sanity, it violates the rights of potential tenants and lends them to be pre-judged based upon a piece of paper which may or may not be correct.  Lord knows how often you find mistakes on your credit report and the gamut of games you have to play to get it cleared.  This always happens after the fact, however, and the opportunity to relocate, secure and settle your family is lost.  Now the character of that potential renter is damaged, the degree of depression it casts upon that renter is palatable and an inquiry is added which will decrease that all important number which all things are based upon called a score.  But the most damaging thing out of all those is that this act of insanity continues because landlords, far and wide, have been allo...

Today, President Barack Obama launched his “My Brother’s Keeper Initiative” which is designed to bring together industry, faith-based organizations, religious groups and business owners to help create, fund and monitor programs which has been proven to help erase the enormous gap between young minority males and their white counterparts.  Some of those programs already have a proven track record and others are still in the experimental phase.  These programs would seek to open doors which has been closed and locked to minority males for years.  This was supposed to be a good thing but as luck would have it; to some it wasn’t seen as an opportunity to fix these long broken promises and times.  It was seen by some as another excuse to keep this nation as broken as it always been. Now I did expect individuals like Mr. Charles Hurt to be offended by the comments made by President Obama considering that there has been nothing that this President has done or said whic...