Manns Medium

When it comes to understanding why there is and will always be difficult to bridge the gap or find solutions for issues, major or minor, perhaps it is because each of us have developed our way of thinking and believing by our experiences. We tend to gravitate toward those of like experiences for confirmation that we might be right and are not alone. This newly-formed herd now acts as our strength and justifies all actions we take toward maintaining our thinking and believing. This believed utopia appears to only be threatened when another individual or herd enters the equation with a different thought or belief. We make all attempts to first correct their wayward thoughts and change their wrong-headed beliefs until we discover that not all of them can or chooses to comply. Those we then label as uneducated or any other label which allows us to rest and not have to expel the energy to try and listen, learn, hear and understand their reasoning. Soon, it becomes a power str...

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...

One of the factors that many of us seem to forget is the one factor that is often times over looked and is the most inconsistent part of not only the way we see things but the way we reaction to things. This factor is the “human factor” and when I say human, I mean human. We as individuals reaction based upon the knowledge that we have about any subject and since the bulk of that knowledge comes from our experience or what we have been taught at one point in our lives it is also gained from what we have been exposed to either directly or indirectly. Direct exposure tends to lend itself to something that we know and sometimes will not only base our existence around but flatly refuse to change or modify that stance for any reason. Indirect exposure is malleable and can be shaped by thoughts or opinion of others so it could be fluid and quickly changed or modified. Our divine over this George Floyd murder and many of the other atrocities when it comes to the authorities’ heavy...

Attention All Americans, let’s stop with playing the “blame game” and talk about “personal responsibility”. For decades now, many of us have been blaming others for our misfortunes and our lives not being what we think it should be and to be honest, in the begging, we had a very good case but that all changed, yet we refuse to change with it. We blamed others so often that it became easier to blame others than to take a good hard look at ourselves and accept the part of the blame that fell squarely upon our shoulders. We dismissed our personal responsibilities faster than we leveled the blame at others. It’s time for all of us to grow up, to mature and to clear the way for each and every one of us to become that perfect person God knows us to be. It’s time we stop looking to others to justify how we feel, why we feel that way and what we believe in, it’s time we all stop making excuses for our shortcomings and start to own them before they own us. In the beginning our ex...

When we are first born, we shed the protection of the womb and entire into an existence that is extremely frightening, we cry not so much about the doctor spanking us on the butt but simply because we know of no other recourse to express this fear. This is the first time we encounter a mentally traumatic event, we call abandonment. Our only true solace is to placed in the arms of the person whom we had come to know as our safe haven strictly by heartbeat and possibly smell because only after hearing that familiar heartbeat and later the sound of that safe haven’s voice, do we calm down enough to stop crying. If that sensation is missing, we will continue to be unsettled and affect by this for the rest of our lives. If this sensation is present, we tend to settle in and when something happens which creates a fear in us, we run to that safe place for comfort also for now and the rest of our lives. As we grow, several other mentally traumatic events happens, each leaves it’s o...

One would think that since mental illness is not so much stigmatized as it once were and so many health care plans now cover treatment, we would be making great strides in our ability to help those “non-functional” individuals to become more “functional”.   I say that because this appears to be the only true difference between those who suffer and those who claim to not.   The non-functionality and functionality separate those who are strong enough to get the help that they deserve and those who continually deny that they need the help.   Those who may be functional at this moment often find themselves non-functional because they did not prepare with new coping skills and continue to rely upon the old ones to navigate through their days.   I say this because unless you are a robot, trauma occurs within the life of every human being.   The degree upon which it affects that individual is the difference between what may be very traumatic to you may not be...

By Ron Manns It often times appears that we only acknowledge history when it is convenient for us otherwise we pay no attention to it even when it is happening directly in front of us.   With the recent revelations of top tier politicians being captured in blackface, America’s protectors of the innocent are all up in arms claiming to care, if it wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.   I say this because there is a history and while it was occurring in prime time very few if any complained as loud as they protest now.   Lest we forget. There was something called minstrel shows which has its roots in guess where, you got it Virginia.   These shows were a popular form of entertainment beginning in the early 19th century and featured comic skits, variety acts, and music performances, among other things, that depicted white people wearing blackface  showcasing blacks often as uneducated, lazy, superstitious, someone to laugh at and not ever to be ...