Many exclaimed “It’s long overdue!” upon hearing of the formation of a new “national” chiropractic organization. Admittedly, it was this writer’s initial reaction also… simply because chiropractors just naturally start a new organization every few years and we have not begun a new one since the mid-70’s! Humor aside, perhaps most of our profession responded negatively to the news. The majority probably feel that there are too many chiropractic organizations already and that the last thing we need is another.
Do we need a new national organization? The purpose of the new organization is ostensibly to unite all factions: mixer, straight and any combination thereof, for the purpose of working for chiropractic. But don’t we already have a national organization dedicated to that idea called the American Chiropractic Association? It was formed many years ago for the purpose of uniting straights and mixers. It resulted in a tremendous weakening of the straight organization (I.C.A.). The ACA has always been an “all things to all chiropractors” organization. There are many fine straight D.C.’s in that organization. Apparently these chiropractors feel that the organization has their best interests at heart. Even as this is being written there are wholesale defections by straight chiropractors from the I.C.A. to the A.C.A. These men are not stupid. They believe it is in the best interest of their brand of chiropractic to belong to the ACA. They do not see it working against them. As long ago as eleven years an I.C.A. survey demonstrated that many of its members used all kinds of modalities. So the mixing/straight lines are not drawn in the I.C.A. either.
Within a few days of the announcement in a chiropractic tabloid of the new national organization, another paper was announcing “The Chiropractic Summit.” Apparently someone has decided on a meeting of the profession’s leadership in response to a survey recently taken seeking the problems that the profession perceives. These two announcements have something in common for we see that the second major issue concerning the profession, according to the survey, is “unity in chiropractic political action”…the apparent goal of the new national organization. However, the first concern of those responding to the survey was “A Chiropractic Standard of Care.” It appears that the major concern of the profession is that we have some sort of parameters, some guidelines by which to practice. What the profession realizes is that, without a system, any organization, company, country or profession degenerates. In straight chiropractic we carry that idea a little further and say that without a systematic standard of thought, your thinking will degenerate. In chiropractic we call that standard of thought, the principles and the philosophy of chiropractic. History has shown us what happens when every man does what he thinks is right in his own eyes, ignoring a set of principles. Chaos reigns. In this writer’s estimation we need a number of new national organizations. We need one to represent those who believe chiropractic is part of the practice of medicine. We need another to represent those who maintain that chiropractic is drugless therapeutics. We need another to represent the “only musculoskeletal conditions” position. Another to represent the 1920 concept of chiropractic. We have one already that represents straight chiropractic. It identifies itself as such in its name. We need others, as many as there are different schools of thought in the chiropractic profession. What we do not need is another organization that says “We don’t care what you believe. What you think chiropractic is does not concern us. It doesn’t matter what you think or how you practice. That’s not important.” We do not need another national chiropractic organization coming from that position. We’ve got too many like that already!
Editor’s Note: A number of good friends and good straight chiropractors are members of each of the above organizations. This is an area where we agree to disagree professionally.v6n1