Honoring Our Veterans...Every Day

Each November we set aside the 11th day to remember all who have served in our Armed Forces.  This is the day the First World War ended.  I sit in an office surrounded by images of that war every day.  This may seem odd for a Civil War museum director, but WWI posters have been a part of my life since I was born. One poster in particular may well have led me to my present position: The Greatest Mother in the World

 From my earliest recollection, the image of war has always been tempered with an image of healing.  Please, do not mistake my meaning; war is terrible and costly and should be avoided at all cost.  There is no glamor in it.  But, there is also a legacy of care, compassion and life affirming activity that has a direct impact on all of us each and every day. 

Take the images of the two ambulances above.  In 1862 Major Jonathan Letterman organized an ambulance service that has stood the test of time.  Taking a slightly different direction than the famous Napoleonic Surgeon Larray, Letterman tied his ambulance system directly to the field hospitals and a chain of aid stations fully supported by medical logistics all under a a defined chain of command at both the hospital and ambulance level.  For his contributions to military medicine Letterman is internationally known as the "Father of Battlefield Medicine".  His system not only proved effective in the American Civil War, but it was used by the Prussian and later German armies with great success under the name "The American Plan".  It is still the basis for much of our military medical evacuation and emergency medical care today.  

And that bring me back to honoring our veterans today.  We see organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project doing great work on behalf of our veterans; not just in November but everyday! This and so many other great organizations are trying to help and I encourage everyone to support those efforts.  There are now efforts to recognize and honor those who develop and provide the unparallelled medical care our warriors receive.  Through the Letterman Institute training programs are offered to our medical heroes from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Public Health Service and VA.  In addition to training programs, there is an annual Letterman Award given to organizations and individuals who are changing healthcare for our warriors and for our citizens.  If you follow the link to the award, scroll down to the past award recipients.  Take a moment to read their incredible contributions.  Take a few minutes to honor them.  They are heroes no less than any other who serve and their legacy will be felt by our children and their children's children.   

In 1862, Major Jonathan Letterman touch our lives today by putting in place a medical evacuation system and emergency medicine system that touches every community in our nation today.  Yet few even know his name.  Today hundreds of his successors work to save lives, improve patient outcomes and provide the best possible lives for our wounded warriors, and that work will eventually improve all of our lives.  Isn't it worth the time to honor them as well?   

Consider nominating  a military medical professional for the 2015 Letterman Award.  Click and download the form, send it in  and we will take it from there.  

The Next Big Epidemic - Anti-Vaccination ?

I have already taken on the Ebola scare and in doing so I seem to have stirred up a bit of trouble for myself.  It seems that there is a significant number of people who are still "anti-vaccine".  Although I had heard of this movement in light of news stories on autism issues, I was not aware just how broad the movement truly was.  It is a movement with a long and storied past. The 1802 cartoon above entitled "Cow Pock - or - the Wonderful Effect of the New Inoculation!" is an early example of public fear of vaccination.  Cow heads protrude from the recipients noses, arms, legs and rear ends.
But for me this movement is not just a historical curiosity, it hits much closer to home.

As a museum director dealing with 19th century medicine, prevention of diseases like Smallpox is a major issue for me.  During the Civil War there was robust response to outbreaks of Smallpox and vaccination was a major part of that response.  But this is not the only reason for my interest in preventative vaccination and inoculation.  My father had Polio as a child.  For my entire life, I never saw my father raise his right arm; that part of him never came back.  Later in life my father suffered from post-polio syndrome  Although both of his parents lived well into their eighties, my fathers lungs failed at age 72.  I watched polio slowly take my father back; weakening his muscles, taking his breath, slowing his pace.  He lived with Polio every day and I lived with my father's limitations and grandmothers words ringing in my ears: "always get your shots".

Growing up in the 1960's I can still remember getting my shots: Tetanus, Rubella, Smallpox, etc.  I also remember swallowing the oral Polio vaccine.  My grandmother once quizzed my mother asking if I was getting all my shots.  She related, with deep pain, a story she often told.  In 1955 when the Polio vaccine was made public,  my grandmother went to every door in her neighborhood begging the parents to get their children vaccinated.  One mother, whose daughter was a close friend of my father, refused.  My grandmother begged and pleaded, but no response.  Within one year her daughter was dead from a disease that is now nearing eradication.

Rebellion against vaccines is  nothing new.  The cartoon above shows peoples fears of Cowpox inoculation to prevent Smallpox.  In 1796 Edward Jenner developed this method with great success.  This first scientific attempt to control infectious disease would give credibility to the procedure and begin a world-wide effort to control other diseases as well.   Benjamin Jesty later vaccinated  his children successfully against Smallpox during an outbreak where they were regularly exposed to the disease.  They remained disease free. This first vaccination changed our world.

Now I am not one to set aside all fears of this life saving procedure.  There are certainly dangers in vaccination and history has shown this.  During the Civil War, vaccination using pulverised scabs of those either vaccinated or healing from mild cases of Smallpox, resulted in complications such as passing on Syphilis!! Such "spurious" vaccination was a known problem and much effort was was put forth after the war to make sure that such problems did not occur again.  And it worked.  Safer methods were developed and , like Polio, Smallpox is no longer the scourge it once was.

It is this point that brings me back to the beginning.  As I read the Facebook pages and websites of anti-vaccination proponents, I was surprised at many of their arguments. I posted a response on one article and was told that the reason Polio went away had nothing to do with vaccine, it had to do with improved water sanitation.  My problem with this argument is that water sanitation did not improve that dramatically between the 1952 record setting Polio outbreak and the 1955 vaccination effort.  Between 1955 and 1957 there is an 85-90% drop in polio cases.  The only substantial difference in frame was the introduction of vaccines, not a massive effort to build new water treatment plants.  The same can be said of many other diseases such as Smallpox.  Their disappearance coincides with effective vaccination efforts.

I am sure that some people have negative reactions to vaccines.  Just as some patients have complications from general anesthetics, joint replacements and aspirin.  If autism, which is so often blamed on vaccines, is on the rise, then why was it not on the rise from 1955 to 1970?  This is when so many of our vaccines were developed and given.  Some blame Thimerosal  ,but this ingredient is no longer in general use.  I cannot say whether there is a connection or not.  But I can say this: vaccination has helped control or eradicate some of the most dread diseases known to man.  Unfortunately, the next epidemic may come from something we already conquered but came back because we would not take the vaccine.

I do not get paid by pharmaceutical companies, I am not paid by insurance companies either.  I am not a lobbyist.   I am s simple historian who can read and understand historical events.  I am also a witness who saw my father die because a vaccine was still six years away.  And,  I am a father and grandfather.  I do not want to see us return to a world where Yellow Fever, Whooping Cough, Smallpox, Polio and Rubella come back to haunt my grandchildren.  I look forward to a world where Ebola can be eradicated as well....but only if we are willing to take the vaccine when it comes about.

Ebola Lessons from the Civil War

Like so many Americans these days, I am deeply concerned with the spread of Ebola.  I have been following the stories of efforts to control the disease in Africa as well as the stories of patient's right here in the US.  I have listened to pundits, doctors, politicians, social commentators, social activists and news anchors push each of their views.  My conclusion, we will not get a handle on Ebola until we stop the politicizing of the issue.

We should not really be surprised, in this day and age we politicize everything.  And not just politicize, we blame anyone who can take the spotlight off the real issue.  The Democrats are blaming the Republics for the Ebola spread and I am sure Republics somewhere are blaming Democrats.  Jesse Jackson Sr. is involved claiming sub-standard care for Mr. Duncan who recently died in Dallas. Some nursing advocates are blaming the hospitals and the CDC for a lack of training. Some are even blaming  the CIA and white demon worshipers for spreading Ebola . All of this confuses the issue and makes getting the epidemic under control harder.

As the director of a medical museum I am confronted daily with the history of past mistakes and successes in dealing with public health issues.  To be successful, we need to rely on the medical professionals, scientific research community and government authorities to do their jobs.  This is very hard in the current political environment and harder still in a 24 hour news cycle.

The Civil War gives us some insight into doing this the right way.  If we think that we politicize today, we are slackers compared to our ancestors from the 1860's.  Yet, they too were going through a massive public health crisis as they went through the war.  More soldiers died of Typhoid Fever  and Diarrhea than bullets.  Many thousands more were overcome by venereal diseases. These diseases not only attacked soldiers, but in the aftermath of battle they also attacked local civilian populations with disastrous consequences.  Yet, despite the outcry and ridicule of the military medical establishment by the  press and politicos, science succeeded.

During the Civil War, sanitation in the camps dramatically improved thanks to both military officials and organizations like the US Sanitary Commission seriously improving general health and cutting deaths from disease.   Army  officials began public health efforts to license prostitutes in Nashville and create medical examinations and special venereal hospitals in order to cut the spread of STD's with very good results. Dr. M. Goldsmith used blind studies to bring gangrene under control in Union hospitals with dramatic results.  Dr. Jonathan Letterman developed a system of emergency medicine and ambulance based evacuation that is the basis for emergency medicine today.  These and many other innovations came out of medical system in crisis that overcame the crisis to save countless lives and began a tradition of military medical excellence that continues to this day.

For those attacking our nation for sending military medical professionals into Africa, I must disagree.  Our military is equipped to fight this battle.  Ebola and other diseases have been on the radar of the military for years.   They have the labs, the equipment and the training to treat and slow the spread of the disease. They have over 150 years of success in fighting major diseases.  From the Civil War struggles with Typhoid, Smallpox and Dysentery, and the  Yellow Fever work done by Dr. Walter Reed to the current work by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, our military medical professionals have proven themselves again and again.    In fact, they may be the most qualified responders in the world today.

I realize that I am likely a voice crying out in the wilderness, but, we need to keep informed, ignore the hype and filter what we hear in the television and radio very carefully.  We cannot allow ourselves to be sucked into the panic that our politicos, activists and news media would wish.  They have an agenda - get ratings and votes.  We have a much more important agenda - stay alive.   In order for us to do that, we need to let science and medicine lead the way.

9-11 - A Legacy of Compassion

Like most Americans, today I am surrounded by memories of the tragic events of 2001.  Television, Facebook, radio and newspapers all remind us of the tragic events that took place this day thirteen years ago.  We are once again inundated with the slogan "NEVER FORGET".   Certainly we want to remember those who were lost. We should remember that there are those in the world who would harm us and always remember to be vigilant.  Many remember their emotions that day and their feelings of loss, helplessness and anger.  But is that all?

In September 2001 we were shaken to the very core by events so tragic, so bloody, so horrible, that they changed us irrevocably.  But this was not the first such September in our history.  On September 17, 1862 America suffered its bloodiest single day.  On the quiet fields of Sharpsburg Maryland 23,000 Americans became the casualties of the battle of Antietam.  Over 6,000 would die that day.  Like the events 139 years later, this loss of life shook the country with mourning, anger and feelings of helplessness.  There is no way to justify or mitigate that terrible loss and there is still no way to salve the wounds it caused.  Yet there is another legacy of that battle that is often overlooked. That legacy brings hope and healing and, that legacy is equally present in the events surrounding 9-11.

On every battlefield of the Civil War there were caregivers who risked life and limb to ease the suffering and save the lives of others.  Clara Barton was nearly killed by a bullet that pierced her clothing while tending to a man in the area of the East Woods at Antietam.  Later she would found the American Red Cross, influence the International Committee of the Red Cross to respond to non-military disasters and founded a first aid society.  Major Jonathan Letterman would take his experience from that battle and write the protocols for emergency medical treatment and evacuation; orders that directly influenced the medical response in New York and Washington DC over a century later.  Every doctor, nurse, medical orderly and civilian volunteer that touched a soldier that day in 1862 left a legacy of care, compassion and selfless service that should also be remembered.  In fact, thanks to the work of people like Letterman and Barton, countless lives have been saved over the years on battlefields and disaster scenes around the world.

The same is true of the events in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington on 9-11.  Firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel, military personnel and civilian volunteers rushed to the aid of their fellow men.  Men and women rushed to the aid of those they knew, and complete strangers, mindless of the dangers that faced them.  People like Cyril Richard "Rick" Rescoria who safely evacuated 2,687 employees of Morgan Stanley before going back into the tower to help others evacuate.  He was last seen on the 10th floor heading up the stairs when at 9:59 am the tower collapsed. He gave his life that others might live.

How many stories of selfless sacrifice took place in those buildings and planes that day?  We will never truly know.We have glimpses like the recordings from Flight 93 telephone transmissions.  We have the sacrifice of Fr. Mychal Judge, who died praying for the victims when the first tower fell.  We have countless stories from phone conversations, eyewitnesses and emergency radio traffic.  But is this what we tend to remember?  In all too many cases, these acts are all but forgotten.

It would be easy to spend this day angry.  It is proper to spend this day mournful.  But, let us not forget to spend this day thankful and inspired by the legacy of compassionate selfless service of the heroes of this day.  We can make the choice to use this day to promote good, or be held back by the evil it represents.  If we choose well, their example can make us all stronger.

The Power of Respectful Opposition

Like so many people around our nation, and around our world, I have been watching the news with greater and greater concern.  It is getting to the point where real communication seems impossible.  It can easily lead us to despair.  But my world was rocked Tuesday night by a local event that gave me hope.

The family of Andrew Valois has been planning to open a shooting range in Frederick County Maryland near the historic and beautiful Sugarloaf Mountain. This range raised the ire of residents, land preservationists, anti-development proponents, historic preservationists and many others.  It was supported by an equally broad coalition of sportsmen and gun owners.   At several planned zoning commission meetings, citizens gathered in large numbers to praise or vilify the plan and for reasons as varied as the audience.

As you can imagine, in the current political climate surrounding land use, 2nd Amendment rights, gun control and  environmental activism, the debate was as loud as it was passionate.  Both sides cheered and jeered at all the expected statements and plotted and planned to make sure their voice was heard and their outcome ensured.  And so the stage was set for this past Tuesday evening when all were gathered for the completion of an already marathon zoning hearing stretching multiple days.  And then....something unexpected happened.  I was there to hear it but let me quote our local Frederick News Post newspaper:

The news from Andrew Valois came at the outset of what was expected to be a lengthy hearing before the Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals, which was reviewing the range project. At the close of his roughly 10-minute statement, Valois said Old Line is withdrawing its application for approval from the appeals board.

Valois said his family’s decision to back off its plans to build a training facility on Thurston Road came after hearing from neighbors who respectfully lodged their objections to the range.

“It is never an easy thing to admit when one is wrong. Choosing this location was not a good idea, and I was wrong,” Valois said.   By Bethany Rodgers News-Post Staff: 

To me the most important words in the whole article are: " ...after hearing from neighbors who RESPECTFULLY lodged their objections..."  In his comments he went into much greater detail about those objections and just how respectfully they were lodged. Then he compared that respect to the overt disrespect and vitriol he got from others.  It was the respectful exchange of ideas that persuaded his family to withdraw the plan.  And this got me thinking.  

As I hear of the ongoing tensions in Ferguson MO, strife in the middle east, genocide in Syria and Iraq and even our hateful and wasteful debates in the political centers around the country, I am struck by the lack of human dignity we often afford our opponents.  So often we use words and phrases  to dehumanize those with whom we do not agree.  We are out to win and persuade, not learn and understand. Often we want no common ground, only total capitulation of those who we see as opposing us.  And yet, here is a fresh example (there are actually many others) where respect and dignity win out.  

This is an important lesson as all of us who are drawn into debates and conversations every day.  The human dignity of all must come before winning.  That means the dignity of those we support and those we do not; even those who mean us harm.  I am not saying we should not hold strong opinions and defend them, but that the defense must not impinge on the dignity of another.   If we question what will happen when we forget this lesson, then all we have to do is listen to the news.  The absence of human dignity is driving much (thankfully not all) of the headlines and the results are terrifying.   

But what can we do? As community leaders, parents, workers, volunteers, citizens and residents, we can act in way that respects the human dignity of all.  We can teach our children and set an example for all around us.  As Michael Jackson one wrote: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror." 

Please let me know what you think. 

And Away We Go!

So...I suppose that it might be a good idea to explain the reason behind this blog.

When I first started working in a museum as a paid staff member, I thought that the work would be slow paced, quiet and somewhat introspective in nature.  Coming to the field as a long time volunteer, I had always been on the interpretive side of things and never really saw the administrative activities of the museums I served.  I also came to the field from the corporate business insurance world where frenetic activity was the order of the day.  I assumed, and as the old saying goes, I made an.....well you know the old saying about assuming!  Well, needless to say, I was wrong.  My time at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has been nothing short of exciting, fast paced and at least somewhat crazy.

I have now been a museum director for 11 years.  Daily I find myself drawing on the experiences of years spent in various roles as:  parent, Boy Scout leader, firefighter, police officer, insurance executive, musical instrument maker, musician, tour guide, public speaker, ordained Catholic Deacon and entrepreneur.  As you may guess by my varied background, I am easily bored and rather enjoy my Attention Deficit Disorder.  And it is all of these experiences that lead me to want to have a blog.

I want to share some of my daily thoughts, concerns and ideas with others.  I do not simply want to put my ideas out in a public forum. I want  to invite everyone to share their ideas on those topics I cover.  I want to also invite everyone to write in with ideas or questions they would like to see me take on.  I want to have a open, respectful place where many can come together and share thoughts and ideas on a broad variety of topics from business administration to history, leadership to marketing and nearly anything else that involves the universe of history, museums and culture.

So...welcome to my musings.....I can't wait to see where this all goes!