New Beginnings: Are You in the Right Jungle?
I just got back from an incredible weekend at New Beginnings. Given the upheaval occurring within our profession it was a reminder that there are chiropractors out there that hold the Sacred Trust in their hearts and that it will be pried from their grip only when their hands are cold and dead.
Someone this weekend remarked about the lack of passion displayed by the Cartel during both the CCE Hearing before the Federal Government and at the CCE Annual Meeting just a couple of weeks ago. I can tell you that there is one thing the folks attending New Beginnings do not lack – in any way shape or form – and that is passion.
Passion about chiropractic. Passion not only about what chiropractic has done but passion about what chiropractic can do. Passion about its unrealized potential. There was a distinctly defiant tone expressed by all of the speakers regarding what we will tolerate in this profession and what we will not. As Dr. Brian Kelly stated so clearly: we will not tolerate drugs within the profession and we will not tolerate a profession without subluxation as its core. It seems that as we move through the next year’s discussion with our chiropractic brothers and sisters that we are clear that at least these two things are non-negotiable deal breakers.
The passion for bringing chiropractic beyond the 3.4% of the market we currently reach was apparent as well. In a professional climate where many chiropractors are struggling and acting out of desperation it was refreshing to be around chiropractors whose biggest problems involve effectively managing the volume of patients coming through their door - not where are they going to get new patients.
In that vein it’s important to remember that a rising tide lifts all boats and that is where the New Beginnings message is so crucial. I met people who were there for the first time. People who had never experienced this “brand” of chiropractic and for me even after a lifetime of being in chiropractic, it is always amazing to see that look in someone’s eyes when they hear the message of chiropractic for the first time. I saw students who scraped together the money to be there and hear the message from a radical group of chiropractors who showed up on the beach in New Jersey in the middle of the winter to deliver that message. That some of these students were hearing the chiropractic story for the first time is shocking. Shocking, no matter how many times I have been forced to realize that the entrenched powers within our profession practice professional birth control and keep the truth of chiropractic from its own students – its own future.
Many of the speakers issued a Call to Arms and declared our living in a time where crucial decisions about the future of the profession are at hand. I recalled hearing this many times during my lifetime in chiropractic but the warning is all the more serious right now. We are being presented with the proverbial Fork in the Road. I’d suggest there is no fork but much bigger decisions about our geography. In relation to those that are looking ahead on the current path of drugs, and a profession devoid of subluxation, I suggest this is where we face this even more difficult choice. Do we carve out a parallel path alongside these other kinds of chiropractors dividing things up related to our professional identity or do we climb the highest tree and realize that not only are we on the wrong path but we are in the wrong jungle.
And if we agree we are in the wrong jungle then do we have the right people in the right places to get us on the right path in the right jungle and clear that path for the future of this profession? A future laser focused on reaching as many people as possible who are suffering because they are subluxated and are in need of an adjustment.
Being at New Beginnings this weekend gave me some solace that we can get where we need to go. The question is whether or not YOU are coming.
As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.
Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Editor – McCoy Press Journals
http://mccoypress.web.officelive.com/journals.aspx
