(Ep.66) Wisdom From The Journey

Chuck: 0:10

Welcome back to a brand new episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, today I'm excited to have special guest Dr Jeanette Delaney Manns from Roneau, virginia, on with me today, and on this episode she shares her experience with domestic violence and how she got through it while earning a degree with the help of her two children. So you don't want to miss this inspiring conversation. As a matter of fact, do me a favor go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and listen into my conversation with Ms Jeanette Manns or let's just talk about it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in. Welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. Today I have Ms Jeanette Delaney Manns on with me. So, first of all, ms Manns, how you doing.

Dr Manns: 1:13

I am blessed.

Chuck: 1:14

Great Good to hear your voice.

Dr Manns: 1:16

Yours too. Thank you for talking to me.

Chuck: 1:18

Thank you, you bless me, thank you, thank you, you bless me as well. So let's jump right in to have those genuine conversations with genuine people just like yourself, to share a portion of your life's journey. And so, with that being said, let's jump right in to where you from.

Dr Manns: 1:34

I am from Roanoke Virginia.

Chuck: 1:38

Shout out to Roanoke. So how was it for you growing up in Roanoke, Virginia, Ms Manns?

Dr Manns: 1:43

As a young child, we moved many places but, the one that stands out in my mind most. See, we lived on the farm. My mother, in rain, clayed us farm and I fell in the water and turned blue and she bought me back. And then we ended up in Lincoln Turs and my sister and I used to do loop to loop deal on the swing sets and I fell off the swing and bust my head. They told me I'd never walk again and I did. And then later years I went to Addison and the dump was located behind our school and I ended up with chronic asthma and I had to come out with a homebound teacher. So I finished school early 1963. And in January of 64, I went to work at a factory called Halmodes and in April I caught pneumonia passed out at my machine. I was laid up in the hospital from April to 28th June, the 10th, when my class graduated. I woke up from my coma but the doctor was in the door telling my mama they had done all they could and it was no need in them keeping me on life support that I was going to die. And there was this pastor, revan HH Wade. He came to my bed every day and prayed for me from April all the way to June and everything people did to me. you can hear it when you're in a coma. And I know that for a fact, because I was in there from April till June, but on June the 10th, my class graduated and I graduated from Addison 1964. And June the 20th I turned 18,. Then I went to Central Baptist Church and joined Central Baptist is under HH Wade because, he was the one pastor that was always by my bed praying for me. But the thing I like for people to know that when I started elementary school, and loud in elementary school, we lived in a neighborhood where, up off of Center Avenue, we had neighbors of various races and guess what? I didn't know racism existed until they sent a big yellow bus to pick up big red to take him to Belmont and a short yellow bus to pick up the Syrian children and take them to. Catholic and my family had to walk rain, snow, sleet, mud. My oldest brother walked me to Laud and the next year I was out to Herston and the next one to Booker T and then to Addison and made that route back around. So that says my government had a system of racism, because it didn't exist when we played.

Chuck: 4:10

So I heard you say you fell in the water and you turned blue. So was that saying you were on my drown?

Dr Manns: 4:15

I was too At Clayton's farm. I fell in the water and they had been missing me and my mother had lost the baby the year before in birth and she said, no, no, you know, before I was born she had lost the baby and in between her and my oldest sister at the time and she decided, oh no, my mother couldn't swim. She jumped in that water and got me out and brought me back to life.

Chuck: 4:37

Wow At two years old At two years old. Wow, and what was the next one? You mentioned something else.

Dr Manns: 4:44

I fell out the swing and bust my head and they told me I'd never walk again. And I was living in Lincoln Turs and by the next year around I was six when I fell in the swing. There was no school in Lincoln Turs. In 1952. We caught a bus and went to Loudon School and my mother would give the bus driver tokens. So when I fell out the swing I went home. Everything seemed okay. The next day they all ran out for the bus and I couldn't quite make it, so I started down the hill across where the dump was located to go to Loudon and my legs gave out and an old man picked me up and carried me home and laid me in my bed because they didn't have locks on your doors back then Okay, okay. And that's where I stayed until they got home. So my brothers and sisters taught me because I couldn't get up and I couldn't go to school for my first great year. But I never lost the year in school as a result of that.

Chuck: 5:37

Wow. So how was it for you, when you felt grown enough, to leave from up under your parents' roof? How was that?

Dr Manns: 5:44

Well, literally I lived with my mother because I was still sickly so. I would go to the Loudon School and work with my little niece and people in school because I had asthma so bad that I would go there and sit through classes because the children wouldn't listen to the teacher. So I had a little niece that wouldn't stay in school and I went there with her to get her comfortable and I didn't literally leave home until I got much older I was still 18, living at home. In fact, I was living at home and. I was 20 and I happened to run into one of those misplaced Vietnam area veterans and my sister had a birthday party up at the Cot restaurant. And this was back. April is a good time. Terrible time for me. Anyway, april my sister had this celebration because May was coming up and she was a singer and she was not going to be in town. So her friend asked his friend on April 28 to give me a ride home. On my ride home, this friend rode to this spot and I said my house is on the other street. That was the last thing. He proceeded to pin me down and raised me and I didn't know, but I was still having problems with asthma, and low-pagin found out that I was pregnant. So what they did was I went downtown and took my clothes to show them what had happened to me and the officer behind the desk looked me in my face and said did he force you in the car? I said no, he did not. I got in the car because he was a friend of my sister's friend and he was giving me a ride. But this is what he did. He said well, it wasn't right. Then you volunteered. So for months I did not see him again. But I found out later, along, about June, that I was pregnant. Okay, so I didn't see him again for months and then, all of a sudden, one day I was laying in my mother's bed Like I said, we don't lock doors and I woke up and this person was over me again. And what he ended up saying once I said to my mother that I was pregnant, that we were married or something, so they would give him access. You know, I never locked the door. I found me some locks and put them on my door, and I'm a non-drinker. So I decided that, because of what I was going through, rather than bringing shame on my family, I was on this suicide mission. So guess what my medicine was? I took two sips of a beer, made me throw up so long and I thought that I was going to end up outside of this world. And I ended up at emergency room and they informed me that I was going through something and da, da, da, he went missing again. Then, all of a sudden, he showed back again, and this would have been round about like November the fifth or so, and he said well, we need to go up to the parkway and talk about our future. On the way up there he said I forgot something on the bottom and he caught my coat in the door. According to him, it was accidental and he was dragging me with my coat and I'm pregnant down the hill in the door Wow, coming up the mountain and down the mountain pulled up and made him stop and let me out. Then I did not see him again, but the next morning I got real severe pains and I ended up in the emergency room and my daughter was born on November the 7th. I thought that we had died cause all the white stuff around us, and at that time was the first time I'd ever been to Runner Memorial Hospital it was a guerrilla in then and I gave birth to this awesome, beautiful, six pound baby who is the light of my life. And so I went to his parents and they were going to take my child. So I held out a long time and then, finally, knowing that I had no money and I was sick the way the government works, they probably would have given them my child and he was back from wherever Camp Lejeune down there, back here, out of basic. So I went to their house and told them what he had done to me and they suggested you marry him. And no, I'm not marrying somebody that's done that to me. And I did. Actually, he terrorized me for eight years. I stayed with him and then, in 1970, I gave birth to a son. But through that I never realized that the whole time this man's objective was to eliminate me. He would do crazy stuff knock me out, take me to the emergency room, blow smoke in my face, cry like a baby. Awesome human being. Government did not take the time to give this man the mental help he should have had. So when I was pregnant with my son one day I'm going downstairs to check on my daughter he has loosened the towels in the steps and I fell all the way to the bottom.

Chuck: 10:25

So he loosened.

Dr Manns: 10:25

I ended up in the emergency room out there in Ohio. And my baby was born on December, the first. So, both of my children were born prematurely. My daughter was born November the 7th. She should have been a December baby. My son should have been a January baby. He was one December the 1st. So out of this relationship, as cruel as it seems. I have two of the most awesome children in the world. The one thing I advise people do not do do not take time to turn your child against the mother or the father, regardless of who they are, Because children will blame themselves for your ignorance. And I spent my life telling my children because he's talented, Dad is gifted. He served his country. His country did not look out for me. The person is supposed to be free. They took care of him. Whenever he would do something, they would put him out at the hospital for a minute, but nobody gave him mental health. And today he's probably 80 years old and still blamed the world for what's going on, but never accept responsibility for his action. But that's not my children. I have gifted talented children and they are always looking out for their mother and they check on their father because he is part of them whether I like it or not. And I had a long time, so I won't tell anybody a lie that I got over it quick and in a hurry. Talk about it I met this human who tortured me and this was in 1967. It took me until 1994. I was doing battered women all down around Hampton Roads with a group from TAP and down in Richmond, Virginia, going around talking to people about domestic violence, and I was helping people, I thought, with domestic violence, but I hadn't healed myself. And the reason I believe that occurs is because in our society nobody reaches out to help us, john, unless we claim we are victims. And one Sunday I was in church singing and they were singing I'm free, I'm free, hallelujah, I'm free. And I was singing they're free, they're free hallelujah. what about me? I make my own words when I be singing. I couldn't sing that song, right?

Chuck: 12:42

could you do it for me? And then it hit me wait a minute, baby.

Dr Manns: 12:46

You have successfully raised two awesome children that helped you through storm after storm and you're out here with a group that you founded that reaches out and help people and grandchildren out doing what they know how to do under this group to help others. And you're sitting here talking about you're not free. You know why. I was not a victim, I'm a survivor, I'm an aliver, and that freed me. See cause, at that moment I realized that I still had enough little stuff up in my head that, although I was going to these groups talking about people on how to say yourself and I believe I was having people I had not endorsed myself to help me. I was mad at me, I was going over. Why did you stay in a relationship eight years when somebody was torturing you every single day that they breathe and you know what? When Dolly Prottin wrote a song, I remember I was living in Ohio she said thank God in Greyhound, he's gone. And I thought I used to thank God in Greyhound, he was gone. That was my song. I will be whispering that and Dolly wrote it. And then, when I got back here and I had gone to school and took up a course and thought I was helping people and moving along and started a group and getting ready to get this group going, and then it hit me all this time, whenever I go somewhere, they talk to you you're a victim, you're a victim. You're a victim. But no, I learned what my mother taught me when I was very young. She said do you know when God created you? I don't use the word sorry, because when I was little I stayed in that dictionary because I was disabled and the word sorry implies junk, something beneath a low life. And she said, number one, you are not sorry because the creator don't make no joke.

Chuck: 14:32

Absolutely talk about it.

Dr Manns: 14:34

And the first person you got to learn to love baby girl. No matter how far you go with, what you do is love God's greatest creation, which is you. When you walk around this world and talk about, oh, I love the Lord, I love the Lord. All that went. She made me mad. I can forgive her, but I can't forget her. Only God can forgive. And number one when you learn to love yourself, I see the ignorance of what other people will do. In my terminology, it may not be in yours. There will be people you and I may be friends that you will get along with and I'll choose not to be bothered with, because it's called wiping the dust off your feet and keep it moving. Now, my children's father is an awesome, talented human being. Once I got over being a victim, I realized if I went and did something to him, where would my children be? In foster care? Somewhere? I didn't tell you this at age 14 of battle with my mother and father, I ended up in foster care for 18 months. That foster care saved me Because I watched people who walked in society in their perky hats and fur clothes but were prostituting the kids in the home I was in.

Chuck: 15:43

So, ms Mann, you said you was in the foster home as well.

Dr Manns: 15:46

Yeah, at age 14, my mother and father was in a battle over who was gonna get us, and they moved us because the philosophy was the man had the better job and he was the better keeper of the children. And we stayed in that foster care for 18 months and my daddy never came to get us. So the lady I was in the last foster home we fought with us, fought with the system and helped us to get back home and in foster care I had the most awesome, beautiful lady I've ever wanted to see. Keep you. Her grandson would walk in the room and kick you in the shin and then the daddy would take the little girls that live there with me, the woman's husband, lay them across this little thing that you cut wood on, and he would whip them like slaves. They had marks all up and down their back and they came to see me one day and said that I saved them because I wrote a letter to the newspaper about foster care at the age of 14, because it was a perpetration of government. If I'm a bad parent, why not? Because nobody is born into parenthood, you learn it. What's the reason you don't help me to learn how to take care of my children and myself through awesome programs that you haven't left money in your government to do. No, you would take the children and distribute them to people who say they can be better parents and most of them, the children are getting beat like dogs. Like my first home, my second home, this beautiful lady belonged to the awesome church and warfare coach and she was prostituting the kids in the home. And the way I found out one night I was upstairs, we slept in attic rooms, but the room she showed to the public were big and beautiful. My house didn't have heaters. So a little beast was pro-locking the room and I was laying up in the bed and I felt something touch my leg and I had spiked here shoes because I wore them three inch spikes, that made me six feet tall and I beat it and I beaten the eye out of this person. So the next morning when I woke up, all the foster kids had run away but me. But I was a threatening little skinny 5'10". I would tell somebody in the heartbeat you can beat me up today. But you better not go to sleep tomorrow I'm gonna kill you Now. I never killed anybody, but that kept me when I went through a battered situation so that I didn't go out. But it took me 27 years of thinking about killing the person that had tortured me, that had raped me, that had beat me and treated me like I was nothing. But I learned that day that I'm God's greatest gift and the greatest gift the good Lord could give to this world is me. And since when he made us, he left a little teeny, weeny thing out, and when he did that, that's what makes us link. We call ourselves United States, but we look at what I know is better than what you know, because I got more greenbacks than Chuck, so I can dominate Chuck and go dominate somebody else with the average person. They don't learn to love God's greatest gift, which is them, cause if they did, they wouldn't need everything. What they do is they would share the wealth, the glory, the joy, because what you know and the fact that you're helping me today to prayerfully reach out to somebody else you're saving somebody and if we don't save but one, at least one person love you so much till you wish no harm to somebody else. Do not do that unto somebody else, which would destroy you. And you know when it's wrong. You'll act like you don't. But see, you know when you're doing wrong. You know when it doesn't feel right. And the problem we got today. You got all this stuff running around and they talking about oh, this gun violence is games. When mamas and daddies turn their back because they don't know and choose not to know that somebody in your family, your best friend, your neighbor, is molesting your little child and that child has no defense, be it a boy or a girl, and you turn your back and the child don't want to tell you because they feel like they are pain. Learn to listen to them and hear the cries of those around you. How many times was I in domestic violence and people would turn their back because that was their friend? How many times would I come into church and you could see what was going on me and the pastor had his own family. He wouldn't speak up for me because this awesome man would jump and play that piano and wake up the roof and hallelujah, drunk playing like a clenching.

Chuck: 20:16

What was mean?

Dr Manns: 20:18

You understand, but I believe that in everybody there is some good. But what's wrong with you if you and I don't get along? Chuck, won't you walk away? What's the reason you got to destroy me on the way? Who are you to thank you on me when you don't have enough sense to own your?

Chuck: 20:35

own death and be a Catholic On yourself. Yeah.

Dr Manns: 20:38

Thank you.

Chuck: 20:38

Wow.

Dr Manns: 20:39

And that's the bottom line, if we teach people to love themselves number one and recognize you are greatest God's gift and because you choose to love me and I don't reciprocate, get up, walk away, because there's somebody out there that will appreciate who you are.

Chuck: 20:57

Absolutely.

Dr Manns: 20:58

But first you got to appreciate yourself.

Chuck: 21:00

I love it.

Dr Manns: 21:00

And we got to spread that down to our children. I think in our society babies coming into your school, if I'm a bully nine times out of 10, I'm getting a heck beat out of me at home or somebody in the neighborhood on the way to school. If I'm the little teeny kid that's set back and terrorizes everybody and talk crazy nine times out of 10, something's happening to me on the way. The devil is real and it resides in all of us, but you got to recognize what it is when he hits you. I'm not perfect. I mess up, I make mistakes. I don't say to people forgive me that. I ask you to humbly apologize me before I start because I recognize my capabilities and if I mess up, hey, I don't know what I've done. I've been years on this earth. I don't always keep a list of what I do wrong, because I like to think about the good in me. But another thing we do not do we have the sense of nature that we don't just look at people. See, god made us not to do outreach. Outreach is posting a sign on the wall we're supposed to reach out. That's why he gave us hands and, regardless of what you got missing, everything that God created is beautiful and some of the most creative people in our world have been those that you have sat down and said couldn't do. How you think the man cooked the peanuts and made all them back on different things.

Chuck: 22:20

Absolutely, miss Mann. You've been through a lot, and to talk like you do now is amazing. So why is it so much depression and anxiety right now? Today is like we can't handle anything.

Dr Manns: 22:35

You know the problem of today. People think that today is so different. I hear people talk gun violence, dot, dot. I still got a bullet in my body, a sign that gun violence is always there. I witnessed it from my youth on up. Kids in the neighborhood something happened. We were in a mixed neighborhood, two little black boys walking in the street. They'd go missing. You never hear from them again. Then you find that the white man on the corner actually went through and killed his whole family, but he got away because you arrested two little innocents and you didn't take time to look at it. What's happening today is we have now allowed technology to take over our humanism, and I'm not against it, but I'm not a technology expert either. But the bottom line is sometime in the day I'll tell you like my children told me. I used to be a parent that believed that if you did wrong you should get a spanking. But I don't believe that people should slap their kids in the face and punch them. I think the back end, that little ruffle tougher, is made for a little talk on the box and it don't hurt you. But society said you couldn't spank your child and you can't pray. And then you got disciplined going crazy, because those same people would go out here and get in a group and decide to hang me or give me life in prison for stupidity, whereas if I look like some of those people that are doing that, that have the money, I can walk away and get a million dollars for killing somebody. You see, we have different rules for society and we don't recognize that we are all in this world to gather and that we need to end stupidity, historical racism, by coming into communities and looking at the human beings and doing the reach out and touch. If we start in one little city like Roanoke, virginia, and back in the day when you had neighborhood groups clean up one block at a time, create jobs with benefits $15 an hour with no benefit is like giving me $2. Because the hospital or the doctor's appointment is going to cost me that first 100 I made from you in two hours, you know, and that's just 30. So we haven't got to the 100 yet, you know. But in our society we have got to create viable jobs. If technology is what you're into, then why tear down all the businesses in a city like Runa and you hire consultants to come in and tell you what you need to do, but you don't pay the people that live there to have the job or be the consultant when they know what they need. So we like to cut the human out, and then we want to call it the computer is the boss. Have you ever gone to the doctor's office and had an appointment in the computer come in and say I do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do and touch you and tell you what's hurting. It took a human to feel my pain.

Chuck: 25:26

Right right.

Dr Manns: 25:27

It took a human to listen to me and understand, Because when I talk to your computer it'll tell me that answer is not correct and hang up. But a human would take the time to help me correct the problem. See, we want to cut humans out and let the computer control. What a human feeling. But I bet you that's not what your people doing. It's got the big power jobs you pay in the home.

Chuck: 25:51

Wow, amazing conversation, amazing conversation. What would you say to a young lady right now that has gone through the situations you've gone through? What would you tell her that you wish somebody would have told you when you were going through?

Dr Manns: 26:04

Let me tell you something. People in a sense talk to me, but nobody I felt in any young lady I'm talking to today would be the same way. I may be talking to her about my situation, but I guarantee you, because I did, when I was around people I would hear them and I know for well. Had I told my family what was going on with me, this man would never have made the age he is now. But I also know that my two young brothers one of them that has eight children and one had seven would have never had children because they would have been the ones to decimate him. But they would have ended up in lifetime in prison. You see, what I would say to folk is this look out for your children, find yourself that quiet place or that loud place. I believe that what happens to us, we so locked in, we don't go somewhere in a place and scream. But you know what? You don't have to be outdoors to scream, because a lot of times I'd be in my room and I lay back and relax my body and I'm screaming and yelling because I'm insane mostly and I'm going through it and rising up. But you got to open up and be real, and the council person works in an organization like I did Doesn't mean that they hear you. I went to a counselor one time and when I sat down with my counselor they proceeded to tell me what I thought. What you thought and after a minute I had to stop and I thought to myself hold on. She just told me. I said that's your purpose. It's your purpose to get paid. I've had a man and a woman that pushed me out because they felt like I was in another space and didn't hear me. It's your purpose to open your ears, take a 30 second break from writing those notes and see me as a human and hear me. Do you know the funny part of that? Psychology will acknowledge they never saw the black side of me, even though I'm mixed with a whole bunch of other things because the side to side that we live in, they never saw me as a human. So, how could you hear me? Number one, and the thing with a person that's with that is that they need to take, if it's just that second when you go, get that bath and breathe in and look at yourself, the goddess of your bruises and what somebody else has done to you, and recognize you are worthy of living, you are worthy of being in peace and find yourself that peaceful place to plan on when you shall leave, because if I tell you to leave, you're going to do what I tell you but you still won't receive what it is. You need A person that's going through that need to stop back up, because you'll get a second alone and take that time to recognize the beauty in you and you are worthy. You are worthy of being loved, you are worthy of being treated right. You can sit there and think about how you're going to get revenge on that person, and you may get it. But while you're thinking of revenge, think of what it takes to free you, to love you. Then you will start working on issues to get you away from those bad situations. And once you go, don't look back. Don't look back. I like it. Remember it's behind you for real. Somebody said to me that the problem with old people like me is we like to live in the past. Where you know what I know, that I know. If you forget your past, you would definitely turn around and repeat it. So when all of us become enlightened to the true past of America, we will learn to not be so greeted to always go and intercept somebody else's property or somebody else's land. But we'll clean up in America by making everybody recognize that they are worthy, because God said it was so. Regardless of what men do, he might make a robot, but he can't create a human being. Only the master of the universe can do that, and he gave me you and I the opportunity to reach out to one another and recognize that we are worthy of life. Utilize what you know to help you grow, because everybody's got a skill.

Chuck: 30:16

Got a purpose.

Dr Manns: 30:17

Absolutely Wow. And we ain't got to live side by side in order for us to be in peace. Sometimes you got to walk away. Let it go. Let go and let the spirit in you dwell and feel good about you. And to parents you are the master of the universe for your children. Look out for those babies, because one day they will grow up and if you do not raise them loving you, then they'll learn to hate you in the universe too.

Chuck: 30:48

Wow, you say you have two children.

Dr Manns: 30:51

I have two awesome human beings, a son and a daughter. I've got four awesome grandsons and two awesome great-grandson.

Chuck: 31:01

Wow, I got a question. What would you say to your two children from the heart right now? What would you share with them right now?

Dr Manns: 31:08

At this point I'll tell you this In my life I've earned numerous little levels of college degree, but that's not what makes me a person. Got you, because those things can be burned and thrown away, right? My children, oh my god for the blessing they are to me every day, them, their children. I could reach out to any one of them and they will do anything in this world to make sure that I'm OK. God blessed me with two sunbeams, and those two sunbeams I will tell you this quickly and let it go. When I got shot up, I went to school to earn a degree and my children were the ones that, when I came home, messed up because my goal in life I wanted to be a model, but my skin was not the right color and I sewed and I could make all kind of stuff. So I probably got clothes all over America that I made way back in the day and I wanted to be the best seamstress and designer and I still settle in and draw and I got clothes from old, old times. Those two children helped me get through college and earn my degree. They restored me. I came home out of a bed where they said I wasn't going to make it through the night because of me getting shot up and those two little babies. You hear me? A niece came over and she helped me, but those two little babies were my saving device. They taught me how to wiggle my hands and get moving back in my body and how to do this and do that. And then I turned around and I went to work for our government at the VA hospital in Salem and a patient hit me, split my face, caused me to not to be able to see, broke my neck, my back in three places. My body was totally decimated. I couldn't stand, I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk. You know, I went to school and earned another degree and all I could do is whisper out the side of my mouth and, do you know, those babies deciphered my papers and turned to me and as I earned my degree, they really are the ones that earned it. And then I decided I wanted to start a program to help people and it's called Strife Economic Empowerment. My city would not give me a dollar for my program. Our money came from people donating, friends that I had, the Catholic Church and the Presbyterian of the pigs. Then I still own that organization and we still working under, because the goal of economic empowerment is not for me to strive for money, but for me to empower myself so that I can use my talents and skills and be able to earn a decent living and take care of my children, and I think that's what everybody in society wants. I work four jobs and I still had to come home and take care of my children because society didn't say to the person that helped me to get those children that you have to take care of your children. They did in Ohio, but when I come to the South, in Virginia, it was on me. In Ohio I was protected. In Virginia they have a different law. They still control the issues but don't look out for everybody and there's some judges who do, but those end up on the outcast sheet, I'm sure. But if the society would say if the men and women do the same thing, let me get that straight. Back in the day, women used to say oh man, a dog. So my position is did you sleep with all of them and define what I found after I got out there in the real world and started looking? Women and men do the same thing. One's not from another space, they're both from Earth and they're sneaky women. They're women who walk out on their children and leave them behind, and men that end up raising them. My saying to people in society today learn to look people in the face and be real and tell them when they're doing well and reach out and touch somebody and let them know that you love them. And loving me don't mean beating me up or trying to shoot and kill me. See, we have a sadness in our society that I will break with this. We tend to stand up and say, oh, she ain't number to Uncle Tom. Well know who Uncle Tom is. Had it not been for puny disabled Uncle Tom, who was the butler that Mr Whomever didn't care what he said in front of him. Harriet would have never been able to free the slave because when he heard them talk in front of him, because they did not respect him, he sang a song. He said two gates to the east, meaning don't go to the east. Two gates to the west, don't go to the west. The Africans sung and fought for freedom from the day that they came to this country, but they were the ones that led Columbus to land. So give us credit for what we do and give reparations so that we can build our community, because you're not a community, we're not an America of greed. We want everybody to succeed so that God can bless America and you and me, and that means everybody was in these walls.

Chuck: 36:09

Wow, Miss Madge, you're amazing.

Dr Manns: 36:13

Hey, God bless me to stand up and there's a world full of people out there that may not agree with what I say, but you know what I also found in my conversations with people? Check it me and you can be saying the same thing. You say potato. My mama used to say, and I say potato, but don't they come from the same bird?

Chuck: 36:31

Right, right, same. Thing.

Dr Manns: 36:33

Same thing. Just got to learn to stop and think wait a minute. We're setting your organ, but we're on the same page.

Chuck: 36:40

Yeah, one more question. I've enjoyed this conversation. Last question If you could go back to talk to the younger Miss Madge, what would you say to her?

Dr Manns: 36:53

If I went back and talked to the younger Miss Madge, I would say breathe, girl. Learn the Chinese way of technique of keeping people off for you. Keep your inner peace and learn to have joy in who you are and what you are and trust the family that helped to raise you, because they always had my back.

Chuck: 37:22

Yeah.

Dr Manns: 37:23

See, I lost that in the weeds. What I did is, I thought, if I tell them. But they were smarter than me. See, old folk are telling you this tale and since I'm an old folk, I'm going to tell it to you. I used to say my mama thinks she know everything. In my own way, I might not have said it in that way, but I'll be. She be saying stuff, I'll be. Oh, I always try and tell me something, but you know what she really did.

Chuck: 37:44

Yeah, but.

Dr Manns: 37:46

I couldn't see it because I was too busy figuring out how much smaller I was than she was and that old stuff they used to do don't work no more. But, if somebody could talk to Moses, he would tell you it was a journey way back then, and still continuing because we've not learned to love ourselves and the creator that exists in every one of us, even though many have died the spirit resides with us because it comes to us in love and peace and harmony. We want to break down the evil of the world, Then you've got to start in yourself by loving you. See, we talked to Jesus, but if you think about it, they said, oh, I forget you. But Jesus hung on the cross and they had beat him according to the Bible that I learned and ripped his clothes and credit him up. And when he hung on the cross he didn't look down and say I forgive you. He looked to the Holy Spirit, which is the creator of the whole world, and said Father, forgive them, for they know not what they've done, and my young self would embrace that.

Chuck: 38:52

Wow, wow. I enjoyed this conversation. I appreciate you I really do, and thank you to your daughter for allowing me to meet you this way and share your journey, your story, with the world, and I really appreciate you. Once again, thank you for this conversation.

Dr Manns: 39:10

Thank you so much for taking your time with me. Because you know you counsel me. I tell people all the time my doctors, when y'all call me and check on me, I show thank you, because guess what you did? You allowed me to throw stuff out and get on a better journey. Because you helped to cleanse my soul for the day.

Chuck: 39:25

Thank you, wow, wow. Thank you, I really appreciate it and talk to you soon.

Dr Manns: 39:31

All right Power to you.

Chuck: 39:33

Yes, Wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to my friend, ms Jeanette Mans, for having this dialogue with me. You know, one of the things that really stuck out to me, amongst many other things, was her ability to recall where she came from and what she went through in life, what she uses now to advocate for others who may be going through a domestic situation. So today I want to say thank you, ms Mans, for your wisdom and thank you for surviving, so that others can realize they can survive too, as always, thank you so much for tuning in to let's Just Talk About it podcast, and please check out my website. Just Google let's Just Talk About it podcastcom and then hit that subscribe button to receive all the new episodes every Friday. You can also find me on Facebook. Just type in Chuck LJT8I, which means let's Just Talk About it. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's just talk about it. Talk to you soon.