Category: Government, Law, and Education

Gunshot Wounds

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Police officers, fire fighters, and other first responders encounter more and more gunshot wounds. Knowing how to diagnose and treat such wounds, at least until delivering the victims to definitive care, is critical.

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

The Second Amendment, communicating the right to bear arms, is sacrosanct in American culture. Patriots for centuries have seen it as a defense against tyranny. Americans have a larger number of guns per capita than most other developed nations. However important having all those guns is in neutralizing bad guys, the ubiquity of firearms in the US results in larger numbers of suicides, accidental gunshot wounds, and homicides.

History

Treatment prior to the 1880s involved the doctor sticking his fingers into the wound to try to grab and remove the projectile. US President James Garfield (1831-1881) died in September 1881 after being shot in July 1881. He probably would have survived the wound had doctors not repeatedly probed the wound with dirty fingers and dirty instruments.

Providentially, in July 1881, George E. Goodfellow (1855-1910) performed the first successful open abdominal surgery for a gunshot wound in Tombstone AZ. He used sterile technique and his patient recovered. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) invented the Induction Balance which found bullets in Civil War soldiers. Radiographs followed as an even better way to find projectiles and other foreign bodies through skin.

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Arab-Israeli Conflict

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On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Arab terror group Hamas suddenly attacked Israel, killing over 1400. In the succeeding two months, more than 10,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed. This article, part of a lecture series called the Bible and the News, answers the questions: What is the situation? How did we get here? What does the Bible say? What do we do about it?

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

What is the situation?

Jews and Palestinian Arabs claim the same land as their homeland, the area known as Palestine. 25 April 2023 was the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel. 7 Oct 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab states’ most successful war against Israel.

The Israeli claim to the land. God gave Abraham and his descendants the Promised Land. The granted land includes Canaan, part of Transjordan and much of modern Syria. The promise is far larger than modern Israel.

  • Bible testimony
    • Genesis 12:1-3, 7 – God promises to make Abram into a great nation.
    • Genesis 15:18-21 – God promises give Abram a son, make him a great people, and give him the land of Canaan.
    • Genesis 26:3 – God repeats His promises to Isaac, Abraham’s son.
    • Genesis 28:13-15 – God repeats His promises to Jacob, Abraham’s grandson.
    • Exodus 23:30-33 – God repeats His promises to the Hebrew nation.
    • Numbers 34:1-12 – God promises specific areas in Canaan to the twelve Hebrew tribes who came out of Egypt.
  • Historically, the Hebrews only comprised a majority in Canaan from roughly 1400 BC to 586 BC, 800 years. Jews did not live in the land in large numbers from AD 135 to about 1940, over 1800 years.
  • The Hebrew Temple Mount and much of Hebrew religious history is in Palestine.

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Quality and Political Parties

Uncle Sam asking people to vote
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We demand quality in every aspect of life, from the food we eat to the cars we drive. We demand quality in government as well. But quality in government is not the same as quality in politics. What do we want in politics, and in political parties, and how do we get it?

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

Introduction

Quality is the ultimate reason for existence in any organization. It doesn’t matter how many patients a hospital sees, how many widgets a manufacturer makes, or how many planes an airline owns if the patients get sicker, the widgets break, and the planes can’t fly. Doing one task well will get a man a job. Doing 1,000 tasks poorly will not.

Politics is one area in which we probably don’t think enough about quality. What is a quality candidate? What are quality elections? What is the best process to choose between candidates? What should a high-quality campaign look like? Who decides? This article will delve into quality and politics, in the hopes of increasing the quality of our political system.

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The Balanced Scorecard and the Republican National Committee

19th century picture of young Abraham Lincoln
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) has struggled to capitalize on some big advantages in the elections of 2018, 2020, and 2022. The Balanced Scorecard is a widely used tool to help businesses, non-profits, and governmental organizations achieve their goals. Perhaps by looking again at their operations, the RNC can prevail in 2024.

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

Introduction

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a proven tool for organizational evaluation, strategy, and improvement. Typically, it includes factors such as “financial,” “customer,” “internal processes,” and “learning and growth.” According to Blocher et al., 2021, BSC financial goals include increasing profitability, growing revenue, and reducing costs. BSC customer satisfaction goals address improving the profitability of each customer, raising customer satisfaction, and reducing the time required to fulfill a customer’s desire. Internal process goals would be improving quality and productivity. Finally, learning and growth goals should focus on developing employees, using technology more effectively, and communicating strategy better to all stakeholders.

The BSC was developed in the 1990s, and since then has been adopted by thousands of organizations in a wide variety of fields. The BSC has found a home in the public sector, as I used it in the US Army Medical Department for over 20 years. Miller, 2017 wrote that the public sector, especially when reelection depends on organizational performance, has widely adopted performance measures such as the BSC. Private sector companies of all sizes have capitalized on the BSC, and it has proven itself valuable in non-profit organizations as well.  I worked in the past with the Republican National Committee (RNC), so this work will discuss how the BSC might look in the context of the RNC.

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Southern Baptist Disaster Relief

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Truck and Trailer
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Natural disasters can devastate a community and even a region. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) employs hundreds of volunteers around the country to meet peoples’ needs after disaster, and to introduce them to Jesus Christ.

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

The state of Vermont endured historic flooding in July 2023, the worst since Tropical Storm Irene hit the landlocked state in 2011. Rivers overflowed, with the Winooski in Montpelier cresting at 21.02 feet, the highest since 1927.[1] Two people died, including one hiker on the Appalachian Trial.[2] Local police, fire, and emergency medical services responded, as did the National Guard from Vermont and the surrounding states. The American Red Cross arrived to provide shelter and other services.

Other groups came to Vermont to help, but with much less fanfare, including the Samaritan’s Purse, Salvation Army, and Billy Graham’s chaplains. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief sent hundreds of volunteer responders to help flood victims recover. I joined the West Virginia team in Barre VT, from 23 to 29 July. Led by Ron W and supported by Roy P. (SBDR’s incident commander), our group of eight tackled recovery jobs throughout the region.

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Taxes in the Bible

Taxes in the Bible
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The Bible has much to say about, and many examples of, taxes. God’s plan for taxation in ancient Israel was compassionate, effective, and limited. Modern thinkers, policy makers, and voters would do well to move American, Western, and world tax and government policies closer to what our ancestors would recognize, the taxes in the Bible.

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

Governments, like people, have always tried to procure as many resources as possible from everywhere they could. Resources ranged from beautiful things (seashells, beads, precious metals, precious stones) to products (grain, wine, cotton) to labor (forced labor, slavery). Taxation is, by definition, involuntary. Freewill offerings, such as what the Hebrews gave to build the tabernacle (Exodus 35:20-35), are not included in this discussion.

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