In a 1999 address given in New Zealand to the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC), entitled, "Chiropractic in the 21st Century, the WFC's Secretary General David Chapman-Smith made the following statements referring to the time when osteopathy changed its terminology:

"Chiropractors must do something similar with chiropractic subluxation -- use the term internally because of its 'rich history' but use another externally. I would recommend joint dysfunction. They must acknowledge that adjustment is manipulation, albeit precise and skilled, and that they do not do anything unique -- they just do an interesting blend of things better."

Egads, fellow chiropractors! Adjustment is manipulation? Drop the use of our own lexicon, our beloved subluxation? Change subluxation to "joint dysfunction?" Proclaim that we have nothing UNIQUE?

Without subluxation, analysis, control, reduction and correction we will have nothing unique and no reason to exist!

In this address, Mr. Chapman-Smith refers to chiropractic as "manipulative care" and calls our care, "treatment approaches." His total view of chiropractic care is basically manipulative "neuromusculoskeletal treatment."

Egads, once more! Shades of the ACA's "S.M.T." (Spinal Manipulative Therapy) -- the very term that I and thousands of other chiropractors have steadfastly fought to prevent from becoming our standard vernacular, our preferred lexicon.

Both the ICA and the ACA support the WFC and, unfortunately, so do most of our ACC (Association of Chiropractic Colleges) schools. I have spoken out before the board of the ICA for more than a decade now in respect to the ICA's funding of the WFC. I do believe it is morally corrupt for the ICA to do continue this funding.

Perhaps, this is the major reason I lost out in the last board election. So be it. I did not campaign for the job and I went down running on three major issues:

1) To stop funding the WFC.

2) Hearing ALL insurance proposals for ICA malpractice. Dr. Rondberg was invited to present the WCA's malpractice insurance to the ICA Board at the June board meeting, but he sat two days and was denied a hearing -- a discourtesy I found intolerable.

3) I spoke out before the assembly on term limits in respect to the ICA Board.

Be that as it may, the fact is that for 12 years now the ICA has supported the WFC only to have voice as the minority opinion. Such a position merely aggrandizes the majority, as they proudly attest to the fact that they do allow a minority opinion to exist.

The minority opinion serves little purpose in an autocratic organization. This was one of the major reasons I took the helm of the last merger battle between the ICA and the ACA. In the merger, the new board would have been made up of seven ACA members and three ICA members -- hardly a merger, my friends. The ICA's opinion would never have prevailed.

Such is the case here. To pay the WFC $20,000 per year just to have a voice is to assume the ostrich posture. We "good guys," the guys for freedom of choice and fair play, play the fool -- again. "Enuf" said on that matter.

When I spoke with Dr. Christopher Kent, who actually resigned from the ICA Board and the ICA over the WFC issue, and when Dr. Patrick Gentempo gave me a call, I was told that Dr. Rondberg was opening the WCA to the concept of a broad-based Board of Directors and an international body of representatives. They asked me to serve on the WCA Board and I said, yes!

I decided to serve an organization that would actively oppose the WFC's therapeutic stance and fight for the principles that I, throughout my career, have dedicated my life to. I saw the need for a second organization to represent chiropractic internationally!

I believe in the two-party system, as whenever one party stands alone, totalitarianism exists.

"Nothing is worse than the practice of totalitarianism because nothing that free men do is half so dangerous as the evils which inevitably follow in totalitarianism's wake." -- K.F. Pople

I have clearly seen this in the WFC. They are autocratically endeavoring to create chiropractic into a musculoskeletal treatment discipline and bastardize chiropractic's unique non-therapeutic stance. They are endeavoring to establish chiropractic in the international arena as a "primary contact specialty" in the conservative management of neuromusculoskeletal disorders! Egads again! This would automatically relegate us to the "aches, pains, cricks and strains" domain.

I ask you, fellow chiropractors, where would that place my own personal practice that was built on caring for conditions such as epilepsy, high blood pressure, asthma, heart arrhythmias and infectious disorders? Where would such a dictum today place B.J. Palmer and his Research Clinic? I never saw a backache case enter in my term as an intern.

Where would this place your practice fellow chiropractors? Those of you who care for children's problems and the elderly with chronic "diseases?" Those of you who accept ALL cases regardless of the condition, knowing that if the patient is subluxated, we can be of help?

No, no, no, no. Not in the twilight of my years!

Not after we have endured all of the indignities organized medicine could cast upon us -- including jail! Not now at the dawn of the new millennium when the public is crying for anything other than allopathic designed health care. Not now when we have reached a level of acceptance that will allow us to step into our rightful place as the doctors of the future!

So, I say to you, one and all, brothers and sisters of the principle, join the WCA, the international organization that will dedicate its efforts to counter the opinions of attorney David Chapman-Smith and allow CHIROPRACTORS to speak for chiropractic! We are not -- and will not be -- a competitive organization to the ICA, ACA or FSCO, nor do we solicit you of those organizations to quit and join us. We say, join us, TOO ... for the reasons I have explained.

I'm sure you realize by now that the WFC is asking for individual D.C.s to join that organization. We are simply saying that no chiropractor whose basic frame of reference in care is the detection, location, analysis, control, reduction and correction of the vertebral subluxation should be caught dead supporting the WFC. WE offer you the alternative -- the WCA -- and pledge our efforts to guard the principle. And, allow me to personally assure you (as B.J. said) we shall "guard it well!"

That, my friends, is WHY I joined the WCA. I will not quit the ICA, but I will remain a member and work for this association as I have all my professional life. BUT, I have joined the WCA, too, the organization pledged to the international effort to establish chiropractic for chiropractors worldwide!