Today I received a “chiropractic publication.” On the front page was a follow up article on “The ‘Growing Pains’ Sitcom Incident.” For anyone who has been underground for the past four months, it seems Alan Thicke, the father in the show, was lecturing his son on honesty and told the boy that if he did not stop lying he would probably grow up to be a chiropractor. It seems that Alan Thicke’s father is an M.D. and his sister a chiropractor. What is apparent now that the furor has passed is that this was not part of an AMA plot to discredit chiropractic.
The producers, directors, and actors of the show do not have an ax to grind against chiropractic. No one was intentionally trying to belittle our profession. It was simply a joke that was not funny to a certain segment of the public. But then neither are most ethnic jokes. The problem occurred when we got bent out of shape, started letter writing campaigns to networks, sponsors, and everyone else involved, made them edit the joke out for syndication, and demanded an apology. When the apology came, we were not satisfied. In fact, this publication indicated that we still were not satisfied and were working on the situation.
Frankly, as a profession, I think we acted a bit childishly. When I first heard the remark, I simply cringed a bit. It was no big deal. If the remark had been made substituting “dishonest plumber” do you think the American Plumbers Association would have started a letter-writing campaign? A remark like that must be taken in the context in which it was said. It is, after all, a comedy show. Most people probably thought it was funny. (If the writers had used lawyers instead, I would have thought it was funny.) I cringe when I see a comic strip with a person bent over on his way to a chiropractor because, to me, chiropractic is not for bad backs. Most of our profession probably think that is great for P.R..
In the same issue (page three) was a full-page article “Is There a Doctor in the Journal.” It referred to a Wall Street Journal article on Palmer vs. Life Rugby and how the writer of that article kept referring to the chiropractors involved with the two schools as “Mr.” rather than “Dr.” The inference was that the W.S.J. is controlled by medics who will not give chiropractors the rightful title “Doctor.” Come on, gang, aren’t we being a little childish?
On page 27 of the same issue, almost an entire page is devoted to blasting a chiropractor who is selling a book teaching the public to give adjustments.
Do you see a common thread throughout these unrelated incidents? We have a profession that has such low self-esteem, such an inferiority complex and is suffering from such paranoia that we believe the entire world is out there trying to destroy us, steal what we have, or both! Children get upset when other children call them names at play, adults don’t. Chiropractors who are secure in their profession don’t fall apart when someone purposely maligns chiropractic in general or inadvertently forgets their status. Chiropractors who know they have a unique service that no one else can offer are not afraid that someone is going to steal it.
It is apparent that many in our profession have such low self-esteem that they must scream and kick when they feel they are being ridiculed. They have such little regard for what they do that they believe a do-it-yourself book can replace them.
After almost one hundred years it is about time we grew up and started acting like an adult profession. We should be secure enough that we would not allow little attacks, purposeful or inadvertent, to throw us into a tantrum. v3n5
