Manns Medium

Many in the African-American community wishes to blame the fact that blacks have such a high unemployment number or they cannot secure a decent job at a decent pay because of closet racism but the truth of the matter is some who are blessed to secure a good job with a living wage presents those hiring managers and those in charge of these businesses the best excuse possible not to hire blacks.  This is all they need to deny blacks any opportunity that their experience, knowledge and skills level demands and it is proof positive that any decision you, as an individual make, will have an effect upon others. The article is titled “ 2 Bankers Charged with Creating A.T.M. Cards to Steal From Accounts ” written by Stephanie Clifford.  In it reports that “ The 15 JPMorgan Chase bank accounts had a few things in common: They had high balances, there was little activity on them and they belonged to elderly clients — indeed, at least eight were dead.  And all 15 of the account...

For years now veterans have been complaining that civilians does not get the mindset of a vet and some have went as far as to plug in former military members in certain section of their businesses hoping to put an end to that argument.  Still the issues of vets seem to survive and many even multiply and grow larger than they once were.  The newest crop of veteran’s organization has stepped up to solve one or more of the issues but still cannot seem to make a dent in the much larger issue.  The largest issue is the missing link between military life and the civilian world.  The largest issue is losing that “ Esprit  de Corps” that many feel when they serve with a group of others that they know will have their backs or watch their six.  The largest issue is hearing that there is support of the troops but failing to see this support in the area most needed and the key to their transition.  The veteran needs to see, touch and feel that support that has gu...

For quite some time you have heard me scream my head off about veteran unemployment, homelessness and suicides.  You have heard me say that there is more we, as a nation, needed to do and more that we, as individuals, could do.  You have also heard me advise any who would listen, that instead of just accenting the problems, if we intend to be passionate and truly care about a particular subject, we also need to provide solutions.  Well, I have taken my own advice and I believe I have discovered the perfect way to address, greatly reduce and/or completely eliminate these same issues.  It’s human nature to believe that money is and always will be the answer to any problem and while we all soon come to learn money is but a part of the over-all grand need but never will it be the total answer to anything, we must also admit that money is required to help with these problems.  But let’s not get it twisted and think that our current status of throwing money at th...

Leave it up to the skeptics and those who may have never spent one day behind America’s bars designed and built to correct our societal behaviors by locking us away and throwing away the key so that the decent folks in society are protected from us unruly, uncontrollable and criminals who seek to destroy our otherwise peaceful society with violence.  Leave it to them to speculate that the reason many who go to prison is often times quoted as finding God as the reason why they have been rehabilitated and has turned over that new leaf, is simply to receive more privileges in prison or get their sentence reduced.  Now we are not that cynical to think that there are some who think along that line but let’s assume that the few who actually believe that they found God in prison and that they do turn over that new leaf do.  What is the teachable moment here and how can we maybe help so many others reach this calm within out jailing everyone we see? The primary force, I beli...

T here is this group of scam artists who has now appeared to have set their sights on veterans and many of whom may already suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), have found that they were subjected to contaminated drinking water on the U. S. Bases on which they were assigned, currently fighting with the V. A. regarding disability, education and other benefits of which they earned and convincing an employer that they are hirable thereby living day to day unemployed.  For some reason, these crooks think this is a target enriched environment from which to operate but what they may not have counted on is veterans are much similar to a bunch of snakes, you mess with us and we bite back. Image coming home after serving your country in uniform and after being promised so much not being able to get any of those promises answered because while you were busy defending their freedom, some were changing the rules and policies which now deny you those promises.  But befor...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the rank structure in our military and do not know what a non-commissioned officer is, let me explain.  There are your commissioned officers beginning at Warrant Officer to General (W-1 to O-10) and then there is your Staff Non-Commissioned Officers ranking from Enlisted 6 (E-6) to Enlisted 9 (E-9).  There are your lower enlisted ranks of Private, Private First Class and Lance Corporal (E-1 to E-3 respectively) and finally you’re Non-Commissioned Officers which is Corporals (E-4) to Sergeants (E-5).  There are particular requirements to obtain these ranks and move up much of it is mostly time in grade/rank and time in service.  There was a time where only those who showed pure leadership was allowed to grab that next rung of the ladder and move up but that time was swiftly taken over by being the quietest of having slightly more resources than the others.  You had to keep your head down and not make any waves if you want...

For someone who really grows as a person when they help another, no other job could be better than customer service.  It is more than a procedure, it’s a calling and not many possess the skills to be even a decent customer service rep.  So how do you find them and why do they burn out so quickly. Let’s deal with the first question.  It’s easy to find someone who has that potential gold mine of a skill at customer service, watch their body language and the sparkle in their eyes when they speak about helping people.  If you do not see that, then chances are you are hiring by resume and not by benefit of company.  Having a person answer the phone does not a customer services representative make.  It goes much further than that.  A real customer service person will take as long with that one client or customer as necessary to ease their concerns.  They will stay with them until they are completely satisfied and not just appeased.  They will ...

So many employers contend that they do not have an issue with hiring seniors and in this time of economic struggle no one is being more damaged than seniors and veterans.  To listen to these employers speak, you would think that both sections of society got it really good with all of the different programs available for them.  They would be wrong. It is assumed that the only requirement to take advantage of all those opportunities is age but that would be a misnomer and an outright lie.  Seniors and veterans are limited not only but age but also by experience.  You see, it’s easy to say your support the troops or even support seniors but to actually put that support into actions take a wide range of people who do not take as serious, your personal pledge to do better by these groups. You have your hiring managers whose job is to provide the best possible candidate to their employer and by some mental connection or osmosis connection that they have with that ...

In the beginning, there were actual flesh and blood people working in a capacity called “human resources”.   In that capacity, many were tasked with the job of shifting through resumes trying to find the perfect candidate to fill an open position at a company.   As the ability of human resources managers began to fail, business owners started to look for a more precise and less expensive way to handle this issue.   They refused to invest any money into better training for the human resources personnel and thought it best to spend money on a computer software system combined with an outsourced recruiter to accomplish this mission.   The promise was better, more qualified and more able applicants to fill that job.   Their promise would never be delivered upon. What they ended up with was the very same fiasco that has befallen the credit industry.    They ended up with people called recruiters who have no connections to their company and therefore ...

Recent Congressional Actions have been played in the media as a sign of what certain groups of Americans think and believe about another.   I speak to you today about the recent very deep cut in Food Stamps or the SNAP Program.   To many it may appear that it is no big deal and in their minds and hearts they are justified in their hatred toward those who collect this service.   To the quiet majority of those who accept this form of assistance, we keep our head down and hope that no one learns that we are the ones that those who see it as a “hand-out” will not see our names on that list.   We quake at the thought that those who see recipients as “takers”, lazy, worthless, drug dealers, scammers or cheats, will look at us with those accusatory eyes and label us the same, that all we have accomplished so far in life will be wiped away and the memory of all the good we may have done will be forgotten and replaced by this scarlet brand.   Well I hate to be the be...

Many report about the unemployed and their trials and tribulations but one thing that they never mention often enough is a big factor in the numbers seemingly holding steady. There have been many reports detailing the jobs which currently exist but the number of applicants attempting to land that job. There have been many reports detailing the requirements for a particular job being more than the average person possess, so some have advocated re-training. All these are positive steps to reduce the unemployment rolls and excellent tools to get more people back to work but one item barely covered is this fascination of business to now use an applicant’s credit report as a factor in their decisions to hire. Below is an example of the effect of a bad credit report; “Thank you for your interest in the position of ________________at location 1440. We sincerely appreciate your interest in career opportunities with _______. Regretfully, we have decided to pursue other candidates at this ...

We America it has finally happened, our first weak jobs report   after a pretty good record by the Obama Administration and as figured the experts, pundits and politicians on both sides are flanging away trying to spin it to their advantage.   Both are missing a core component of their argument and so far no one from the media has detected this missing piece. According to Rachel Rose Hartman ’s article titled President Obama blames Congress for weak jobs report it is reported that “ President Barack Obama on Friday put the blame for a  weaker-than-expected May jobs report on Congress, saying lawmakers' inaction has stymied economic recovery.   "Right now, Congress should pass a bill to prevent more layoffs," Obama told an audience gathered at Honeywell's Golden Valley, Minn., facility, which the president had earlier toured.   Obama said Congress has not passed enough provisions of his jobs plan ("There's no excuse for it," he said) and must work ...

Listening to President Barack Obama’s speech today about infrastructure spending tells me that if Mr. Obama continues on this path, the road to the White House by any Republican will be long and hard. We all remember Senator Mitch McConnell’s direction to his party to make this president a one-termer.   Their idea was to do everything that they could to keep unemployment high and block every idea he supports.   They could not have been more wrong.   What this is showing voters is that even if unemployment numbers are high, blocking things that will help Americans or not proposing one job bill or doing anything that will benefit the majority; they too cannot be trusted to govern. The Republican party is not making the choice of enduring their party to the American public, they are showing that they cannot be trusted to govern and are willing to let this country fail apart just to try and prove a point about this administration.   Pundits are saying that this ...

When I first heard President Obama say that his administration would do all that they could to create jobs even if congress and Republicans would not help, I really did not know how he was going to be able to keep that promise.   I got the answer while watching the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC last night. Apparently while Republicans and some Democrats are happy to let Americans continue to go unemployed, our bridges and roads to continue to disintegrate, and teachers and first responders to suffer, this administration does not.   Rachel Maddow reported on several police departments winning an award from the Justice Department which allows them to not only keep those first responders on the job but in many cases allowed some departments to even add officers. Since these awards are coming from these individual agencies and their budgets have already been approved, Republicans and those few Democrats can not block these job creations.   It appears that this administ...

Imagine my surprise when I heard a gentleman interviewed during a segment about the 99%’s on Wall Street and protesting all over the nation.   What surprised me was this gentleman’s question of “what happened”.    Now I do not know exactly where that gentleman has been but to look around and not know how we got to where we are today makes me wonder just whose hands this nation has been in all of this time.   The answer, however, is quite simple and can be clearly seen in the following paragraph. According to an article titled Thirty-seven states cut education funding this year in The Lookout published Monday, October 10, 2011; “ A majority of state governments have cut funding to K-12 schools this year as they struggle to balance their budgets without the $100 billion infusion from the federal stimulus that has now dried up. Thirty states are now funding their schools with lower budgets than they had in 2008 (measured in inflation-adjusted dollars); even though...

Hedi Harris, a Las Vegas Talk Show Host used her time on the Ed Show on MSNBC to proclaim that this taxing the rich campaign was unfair because people who pay no income taxes could still get the earned income tax credit.   It was then that it occurred to me, the real meaning of this talking point for all those of the same mind as Ms. Harris.   After doing a little research and using my own personal experience, I decided that it was time to try and dispel this rumor. The earned income tax credit was designed for those that don’t earn a high income and mostly for the low to moderate income bracket.   What that really means is earned income credit is just what it says.   If you do not have any earned income for that year and meet the minim gross income amount, you will not be able to get this credit.   In other words, no earned income, no credit.   Now we all know that if you can take this credit, you must have earned some money during the year from which...

Christopher S. Rugaber of the Associated Press penned this article titled Unemployment aid applications stuck at high level, in which he reports “the number of people seeking unemployment benefits hardly changed for a second straight week, stuck at a high level that points to a slowing job market.   Applications had fallen in February to 375,000, a level that signals sustainable job growth.”   The article goes further to explain that “the report suggests that employers have lost some confidence in the economic recovery, said Neil Dutta, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He pointed to higher gas prices, the Japan crises that have led to a parts shortage and the inability of Congress to agree on a plan to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling as the main reasons. He expects employers will likely add about 150,000 jobs per month for the next few months, a level that would barely reduce the unemployment rate.”   While I am no expert, I am acutely aware of wh...

My dream ended on the day I had to shut the doors of my business because a one-man shop could not compete with well established businesses especially with the economy crashing as it had.   That day was December 12, 2009. Since that time I have lost everything that I had worked so hard to obtain and took a serious hit to my manhood.   Seeing the look in the eyes of my children when they learned our fate, did little to make things any better.   There was no unemployment compensation for me because of being self-employed and even after surviving a family of 10 with a single mother, this sequence of events seemed insurmountable.   The only place left to turn besides family was my faith in God that things would get better. April 22, 2011 my prayers were answered and a new job was mine.   It’s funny that it is exactly the same job that I had been doing so I attribute acquiring this position to my experience.   It’s also strange that other agencies that I had co...

Nick Watt and Suzan Clarke’s article titled Cindy Jackson Sets World Record with 52 Plastic Surgeries, Cosmetic Procedures , is proof positive of why there is such a divide between the have and the have nots. The article reports that “Jackson, a Londoner who hails from the American Midwest, has had $100,000 in cosmetic, including 14 full-scale operations as well as cuts, pulls, peels and jabs. She's had Botox, five face-lifts and liposuction, and her eyes have been done – twice. In total, Jackson has had 52 cosmetic procedures, a world record for the most procedures ever undergone by one person” and while I am sure not many would begrudge her for spending her money on what she wishes, it begs to question why when so many of us are struggling to keep our homes and finding work. While in this day and age, $100,000 may not go far but I am sure many of us could think of far better ways to spend it than plastic surgeries and cosmetic procedures. Still it is her money and she should...