Category: Government, Law, and Education

Avoiding Putin’s Trap

~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to stop the Russian war on Ukraine. While he possesses a strong personality, Trump’s personality alone is not likely to stop the T-80s from rolling into Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. Stopping the war is a worthy goal, but Trump and his team need to ensure that they do not lose the peace. The following article illuminates how to get a fair deal.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Background

Ukraine is renowned for its fertile, black soil, and Ukrainian agriculture ranks among the most productive in the world. Fifty-five percent of Ukraine’s land is arable, mostly in the western and central regions, and 14% of Ukrainians work in agriculture.[1] Equally important, Ukraine has historically had several excellent ports on the Black Sea to safely and cheaply get its crops to market. These ports include Odessa, Chernomorsk, Yuzhny, Berdyansk, Mariupol, and Sevastopol.

Situated to the north and east, Russia lacks Ukraine’s vast swathes of rich farmland. For centuries, Russians moving to Ukraine to find a better life had few opportunities to settle in the western and central regions since native Ukrainians were there. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the Dnieper River in the east lacked such productive soil but, as the Industrial Revolution began in the 19th century, these regions had something even more valuable. Eastern Ukraine is flush with coal and iron and has a major river to move the coal and iron to market. In the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, Russian settlers flocked to these regions, together known as the Donbas. Nationwide, Ukrainians account for 77.8% of the people in the Ukraine and Russians account for 17.3%, but the Russian population percentage is much higher in the Donbas and in the Crimean Peninsula.[2]

Prelude to War

Putin had what he considered to be good reasons to attack Ukraine. He argued that the West had invaded Russia six times in the past two centuries, while Russia had not initiated hostilities against the West.[3] He cited NATO encroachment as a threat to Russia. Putin styled himself as a modern Russian savior along the lines of Peter the Great.

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Are US Elections Fair – My day as a poll worker

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Citizens across the country worry about America. Voters wonder if their vote counts. In my admittedly limited time as a poll worker, I believe that it does.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

“Stop the Steal” was a common phrase used by conservatives in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential Election. Official counts indicated that former Vice President and long-time senator Joe Biden had prevailed over incumbent President Donald Trump. Trump, however, refused to concede the election. His followers peacefully protested, but a few rioted, at the Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January, although claims that this was a coup are overblown.

The election occurred during the greatest pandemic since 1918, COVID-19. As a result, mail-in ballots and non-traditional voting skyrocketed. Safeguards like correcting voter rolls (eliminating ineligible people) and requiring official photo identification were neglected or even opposed. Election laws written for another time were incapable of coping with modern technologies and a global pandemic. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg poured $419 million of his private fortune into mail-in, get-out-the-vote (GOTV), and shadier efforts for the Democratic Party in 2020.[1] Other deep-pocketed influencers did the same. Their money gave the Democrats a huge advantage in the gray zones of elections where laws are opaque and lawyers lurk. Small-time voter fraud occurred, but whether it was widespread enough to change the election is doubtful. We will probably never know for sure.

Concerned about the past and wanting to improve things in the future, I chose to serve as a poll worker in Raleigh County, West Virginia on 5 November 2024. I wanted to see firsthand how my corner of the system worked. To put the bottom line up front, I was encouraged by what I saw.

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Hurricane Helene – A Grass-Roots Emergency Response

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Bringing supplies and equipment to help others in a disaster? Learn how to have the biggest and best possible impact with limited resources.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Hurricane Helene caused historic damage to an unlikely location, the hills and mountains of western North Carolina. The flooding and winds surprised many, since hurricanes usually afflict those on the coasts. Not expecting disaster, many inland residents did not prepare. They suffered. Over 230 people are known to be dead, and the estimated damage is over $30 billion.

Our Situation

Churches in the Mountain State Baptist Association (MSBA) learned of the tragedy not only through the media, which can be deceitful, but also through stories from people on the ground. The suffering was real, but just showing up to a devastated area with a trunk (or a tractor-trailer) full of unsolicited stuff is no way to help. The responders may or may not be useful to the victims but will definitely need water, food, fuel, and shelter, which are already in short supply.  As good-hearted as it may be to respond, doing so without coordinating with those on the ground can be worse than useless.

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How to identify drug activity in your neighborhood

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Drug use and abuse is a growing problem in America and worldwide. Governments using organizations such as the police are not enough to protect people. Each individual, family, and community must take responsibility for their own security. The first step is education – learning how to protect ourselves and others from drug-related problems.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Drug use and abuse grow ever more deadly across the nation and the world. Tsunamis of opioids, marijuana, cocaine, stimulants, and a host of others flood borders in the US and Europe, carried by an international class of drug mule who will stop at nothing to make money, grow in power, and get a fix. Despite billions of dollars invested in prevention, education, treatment, and law enforcement, drug use disorders and environmental harms are getting worse.[1] Mafias, hostile governments, geopolitics, and corruption come together to keep people enslaved to these substances. For example, the Chinese mafia controls much of the marijuana trade in the US while the Chinese government, always hoping to weaken America, lends a hand.[2] In one example, Oakland police officer Samson Liu owned a house that police raided and found eighty pounds of illegal marijuana.[3]

Most people do not have a drug problem, but we are all still impacted by those that do. Our neighborhoods can become unsafe. What can individuals do to protect themselves from drugs and its consequences, specifically in the places we live? Identifying drug activity in your neighborhood can be challenging, as those involved often try to keep their activities hidden. However, there are various indicators of drug-related activities. Remember that some of these signs could have innocent explanations, so it’s important not to jump to conclusions based on limited information. Report your concerns to local law enforcement rather than investigating yourself.

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Church Security – Getting Started

Church shooter
~ MD Harris Institute ~ Leave a comment

The news is largely tales of disorder and disaster leading to feelings of discouragement and detachment. Troubles from active shooters to natural disasters beset the houses of God. Guided by their leaders, churches are responsible for safeguarding their congregations and visitors from harm. This article teaches why church security is important, how to assess security risk, and the basics of a comprehensive plan.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

While the need for enhanced security in churches may seem like a modern concern, protecting places of worship has been a consideration throughout history. Christians and their churches were attacked and destroyed both by mobs and by the government in ancient Rome, from Nero (AD 37-68) to Diocletian (AD 242-312).  Eastern and Western Christians sometimes damaged each other’s churches and persecuted people, as in the Byzantine centuries. The most notorious example in the Middle Ages is the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1009.

Attacks on Christians and churches continued into the modern era. Muslim powers continued to persecute Christians. Ottomans butchered Christians and leveled churches in the early 20th century. The Nazis, Soviets, and Chinese Communists killed and imprisoned millions of Christians and eliminated churches in the 20th century. These threats were governmental and institutional, but destruction also came from the hands of hateful mobs.

The nature and scale of threats have grown, particularly in recent decades. Governmental attacks on Christians have been replaced in many places by smaller-scale attacks mounted by one or a few people. The number of these attacks has increased in the past century.

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Gender – A Biblical View

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A lava flow of anger, resentment, bitterness, and lies covers the landscape on issues of gender and sexual identity in Western culture in the 21st century. Some people believe in multiple, self-directed genders unrelated to biology while others believe in two genders, male and female, fixed by biology, culture, and ultimately God. What does the Bible say?

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Sexual practices and gender identity have become hot issues in the United States and elsewhere. The “culture wars” pit those holding to traditional social norms against those who believe that such norms are oppressive. Followers of Jesus Christ need to know what God says about gender from both sources of revelation, Creation and the Bible. Finally, Christians must do what He commands, both in their own lives and in dealing with and teaching others.

Sex as an act or as an identity

For every culture in most of human history, sex was an identity conferred by one’s immutable biology and confirmed by one’s culture. The word “gender” was rarely used concerning people until the mid-20th century. The day-to-day living out of one’s sex was called sex because biology was so closely tied to identity and activity. Gender was primarily used in language studies. Only in the past several decades has the word gender been applied to sexual identity in opposition to sex.

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