Recently, an Objective Straight Chiropractic (OSC) antagonist who has a good understanding of objective straight chiropractic philosophy wanted to know what our vision was. It got me thinking, “Where would we like to go with this profession?” In a real sense, we have no vision, no clear picture of where we would like to see OSC in 10 years, even 5 years from now. We are convinced that it is the most superior way to practice chiropractic, which is an interesting position to take in light of a few facts. It obviously is not the most lucrative approach to chiropractic, for you essentially are asking people to pay for care out of their pocket. Many of these people have insurance coverage and would prefer to use that for care. It is also not the easiest way to build a practice. If you can tell people that vertebral subluxation is the cause of all disease and that you correct the cause of all disease, that would undoubtedly bring in more people (at least until they find out that their diseases do not disappear).
Why do so many of us, okay a few of us, choose to practice this way? I can only speak for myself. It is because for me, it is the right way to practice. It is congruent with my values and beliefs and vision of life. It seems to me to be the most reasonable and logical approach to chiropractic. It gives me a sense of professional fulfillment. Yet, I also realize that those things are not the motivation nor are they satisfying to everyone. So we expect that our numbers are not going to be that great, that we will never have a universal acceptance of our type of practice, either among the profession or among the public. Further, it is not the easiest manner in which to practice . Trying to make our message clear to everyone is hard work, especially knowing that a good percentage of people will reject our message and we will, in a sense, have wasted our time and energy. The greater the challenge, though, the greater the reward. When you realize that someone has gotten the big idea of subluxation correction for a better life, you also realize that you have changed someone’s perspective of life itself. They will begin to look at and think about a lot of things differently, i.e., from an ADIO perspective. That’s a part of the objective straight chiropractic philosophy and that is no small thing.
So where is the vision? More important, who and where are the people with a vision? What is their vision? There are no new Reggie Golds on the scene, at least not in my limited view. It takes a unique person to be so imbued with the philosophy not to waiver or compromise it and to also be extremely articulate and motivational. Any young chiropractors who might fill that role are busy trying to make a living, get out of debt and build a practice. Not only are there no apparent Reggies on the scene, there does not appear to be any new Thom Gelardis appearing either, men with a vision to change the educational direction of the profession to reflect the objective straight chiropractic, non-therapeutic approach to practice. I seriously doubt whether we could create a new school even if there was such a man as Thom among the young chiropractors. Both of these men came at just the right time with just the right abilities and personalities to bring about this movement. Further, they had a core group of “converts” to this type of practice. Those men are passing from the scene. So we really have no one expressing a vision as to where we want this approach to be 5 or 10 years from now. Even if we did, we have no strong leaders to take us there or at least willing to step up to the plate and get the movement going. We have no schools that focus solely on this type of practice, only a few that accept it among other approaches. We have no national organization committed entirely to the perpetuation of non-therapeutic, objective straight chiropractic and, to the best of my knowledge, only one state organization. At best, we have a small group of solid thinking, but non-organized, people with no one to assume the role of organizer. We have a number of potential leaders but no one seems to want to step out and take the risk of a Reggie or a Thom. I am not faulting them, just making an observation.
So where is our vision? It is in the hearts of individual chiropractors and it mostly involves their own practices. When the young generation fulfills that personal, private practice vision, I believe they will begin to see a greater vision for non-therapeutic straight chiropractic. This wonderful principle we have and wonderful service we perform just naturally should rise to a greater level of benefit to mankind. Meanwhile the Foundation will continue to make a small contribution to that future vision and hopefully play a small part in educating those potential visionaries and leaders while they develop their vision.