On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee signed a document surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at a farmhouse in a town called Appomattox Court House, Virginia. With that event the great conflict commonly known as the Civil War ended. Much more ended than just a conflict that pitted Americans and in some cases literally brother against brother. Slavery ended once and for all. A way of life in the South, as close to an aristocracy that this country ever had, came to end. An experiment in states rights, where states could maintain the ultimate right of withdrawing from the union if they so wished, failed. The United States in some ways is better, in some ways it is worse as a result of that war and in some way it is no different.
Recently the Boards of Trustees of the three straight chiropractic colleges (having status with SCASA) signed the following or a similar statement. “Now, therefore, do we, the Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania College of Straight Chiropractic hereby resolve, that the Board subscribes to the Standards of the Council on Chiropractic Education as set forth in Article 3,01 (1) of its Bylaws” With the signing of that document a professional civil war lasting fifteen years ended. The dream of a separate accrediting agency, separate colleges, and ultimately separate state boards, state examinations and separate licensure is all but ended. Like this country’s war, after Lee’ surrender, there will still be a few pockets of organized resistance that will not surrender. But things will change. Straight chiropractic education and the profession will never be the same. What changes occur and how drastic they are, remains to be seen. But they will come. Obviously SCASA was started fifteen years ago for a purpose. That purpose was to provide an accrediting agency that reflected the different approach to the practice of chiropractic, an approach called straight. The need for a different accrediting agency has not changed for the CCE is no different. It’s leadership has changed over the years but its idea of the role of a chiropractor has not evolved since 1978. It sill believes that chiropractors diagnose and treat disease. If the straight schools had joined CCE fifteen years ago would they be holding for the straight chiropractic philosophy that they do today? The straight schools that did join CCE in the 70’s do not espouse the SCASA straight philosophy. But then perhaps they never did. Clearly though, things will be different. The question is can straight chiropractic survive in that environment. There is concern on the part of many whether the straight schools can get a fair evaluation form CCE. There is also concern that even if they get a fair evaluation, they can not pass. The “war” has cost the straight schools considerably the areas of enrollment and finances and has seriously affected their programs. And of course the third concern is that the straight school’s idea of education is different than the CCE’s (see last issue of The Pivot Review, Volume IX, No. 3, “Philosophy or Education”). the bottom line is that he straight schools, if they become CCE, will likely have to make changes in their educational programs. the whole approach of straight chiropractic is to evolve the practice of chiropractic to make it look less and less like the practice of medicine. The idea in the mind of many in the movement was that one day (when we had a separate identity) the education of a straight would reflect the practice of straight chiropractic. With the most recent event sit is clear that that concept will never be realized. Straight chiropractic education will never reflect straight chiropractic practice. We will always teach diagnosis as well as other purely medical courses. Perhaps even more than we do now. Whether straight chiropractic education will not move in the direction of reflecting the practice of straight chiropractic. The concern now is that the practice of straight chiropractic will begin to reflect the CCE idea of chiropractic as it will be taught in the straight schools.
Things will also be better. More states may open up to straight graduates. More students may enroll in straight chiropractic colleges and be exposed to straight chiropractic philosophy. But most important the straight chiropractic profession will have greater opportunities to present straight chiropractic. Vehicles will be open to us that have previously been closed. Whether the good that will come form the cessation of hostilities outweighs the bad remains to be seen.
Some things will not change. The principle will not change. The philosophy of those who hold to straight chiropractic is not going to change. Circumstances do not change principled people. There will always be that group of chiropractors, probably a small group, who will tenaciously hold to the vitalistic principles that straight chiropractic embraces. The principled men and women will never compromise or abandon their philosophy. But one of the danger of being a principled person is an inability to recognize and acknowledge defeat. We can say, “we’ve lost this battle but the war is not over”. Frankly I find that an unrealistic approach. This war is over an we have lost. Once we admit that, we can get on with our lives. we can develop a program for delivering the chiropractic principle in a medically-controlled profession. We have spent the last twenty years trying to develop a non-medical profession in a medical world. We have apparently failed. the reason or reasons or who is to blame is unimportant. Every one of us as individuals could have done more. But we as a collective movement did all we could. now we must develop a program to present a non-medical principle within a medically oriented profession to a medically thinking world. That will not be easy and we cannot afford to sit back, lick our wounds and feel sorry for ourselves. many will look at the casualties of the past fifteen years and say, “how sad” and “what a waste”. I disagree. The war has not been in vain. If gave us fifteen years to solidify and define our philosophy. We have more clearly developed our philosophy, we have been forced to, on the intellectual, verbal and written battlefields. That has been a positive result of this war. Before CCE there were a number of straight schools. Those that joined were not forced to defend and clarify their straight philosophy. Not being forced to defend it caused these schools to weaken and no longer hold to the original objectives of the Palmer’s philosophy. When you are forced daily to explain and defend what you believe, you come to know what you believe, you work constantly to clearly define it. The past fifteen years has forced that upon the straight movement and that alone has made the monetary cost, the energy expended, the wounds and the scars worthwhile. It has made us stronger and able to handle the future circumstances.
The straight chiropractic movement was designed to make it easier to practice straight chiropractic. It is easier to practice straight chiropractic if you graduate from a straight chiropractic college. It is easier on the colleges if they do not have to jump through a lot of mixer hoops for recognition. It’s easier to perpetuate straight chiropractic if you have an organized separate identity. The straight chiropractic movement made it easier for us. But it appears that is over, perhaps forever. Consequently it will not be as easy any more to produce, practice and perpetuate straight chiropractors and straight chiropractic. It will be harder, much harder. The last fifteen years has hopefully made us stronger, tougher, smarter and more able to meet that challenge. The question is do we have the resolve, the fortitude, the desire to perpetuate straight chiropractic in a new arena, one that is not so comfortable, one that forces us to work in a system that we abhor, dealing with the modern day carpetbaggers whose bags are made of black leather and carry medical instruments? We can do what many of the defeated South did, pack our families, what we have left and flee to South America. We can insulate ourselves in small communities with those who think the way we do, ignoring the profession or the rest of the world that does not think as we do. Or we can do what Robert E. Lee did. We can pick up the pieces, maintain our dignity, our honor, our principles and dedicate the remainder of our lives to being educators, teaching students, the profession and the world what straight chiropractic is all about. Whatever our decision, the principle will survive. it was here before D.D. Palmer and we cannot destroy it. Principles do not die. Their survival do not depend upon us. Whether mankind receives the maximum benefit from this principle does depend on us. God help us that we do not fail. v9n4