The reason we have so-called chiropractic "leaders" is that they're supposed to lead. But in recent years, I've seen a disturbing trend of leaders deferring to others on important issues. What's worse is that they do this even when the others aren't familiar with or supportive of chiropractic!

Remember when we had a big debate about chiropractic public education and advertising? Several organization leaders, who insisted they wanted to preserve the concept of the subluxation, went to non-chiropractic marketing experts for advice.

These outsiders (who were more familiar with selling cars and fast food) claimed that the public couldn't understand big words like "subluxation." Their advice was to "sell" chiropractic as a back pain treatment. Back pain was a nice, simple, short term that everyone understood. Of course, these same experts would have probably thought the public couldn't understand words like "cholesterol" or "hypertension" either.

Every D.C. who's ever given a patient education class knows better. We've seen people's eyes light up with understanding when we talk about subluxations. We've seen them nod with comprehension as they "got it."

Evidently, many chiropractic leaders had never given such a class because they let themselves be steered away from subluxations by the non-chiropractors. Instead of telling the true chiropractic story, they began spreading the back pain myth and even went so far as to delete any mention of the subluxation from their press releases and advertising copy!

Well, the same thing is happening again on the political front. Our leaders are claiming to endorse the ACC Paradigm on chiropractic, while at the same time actually deferring to non-chiropractic lobbyists and consultants when it comes to some of the most important legislation ever.

The Veterans Affairs bill is a perfect example.

Before the bill was submitted in the House, representatives of all the major chiropractic organizations got together and reaffirmed the basic understanding of chiropractic as a subluxation-based health care discipline. We all endorsed House Concurrent Resolution 46, which is meant to express the "sense of the Congress regarding chiropractic health care benefits."

This Resolution states that "Chiropractic care includes diagnosis, correction, and management of either vertebral subluxations or neuromusculoskeletal conditions performed by a licensed doctor of chiropractic, and should not include the use of drugs or surgery."

Why would anyone think such a clear and straightforward statement is beyond the mental capacity of our nation's legislators to comprehend?

Yet, that's exactly what some organizations' lobbyists have been telling their bosses. "They don't know what a subluxation is," they complain. "So they won't sign it." They blame the legislators, the committee staff, and everyone but themselves.

Do the lawmakers know what neuromusculoskeletal conditions mean? Of course they do, because the lobbyists tell them it means back pain and they understand that. But they never take the time to tell them about subluxations.

If your C.A. said she had to tell patients that you treated back pain because they couldn't understand about subluxations, you'd either fire her or put her through a crash course in chiropractic.

But instead of either firing the lobbyists or teaching them about chiropractic (and therefore making them capable of explaining to the legislators what a subluxation is), the organization leaders are shrugging and saying, "Well, I guess we'll have to delete the stuff about subluxations."

I've had many discussions with legislators on local, state and federal levels and given five minutes, I've been able to explain the subluxation enough to have them understand the basics of chiropractic. More than a few of them have become chiropractic patients as a result!

What's more, I've gone overseas and talked with representatives from the World Health Organization and other global health groups, and I was able -- even given the language barrier -- to explain chiropractic.

Why, then, do some of these lobbyists seem to be unable to talk five minutes to educate the legislators? The World Chiropractic Alliance lobbyist does it, and has reported great results. Legislators are, for the most part, a remarkably intelligent group of people and perfectly capable of learning what millions of average Americans already know.

I'm beginning to wonder if the supposed inability of the lobbyists to "sell" the concept of subluxation in Washington is just an excuse. It's very possible they're doing precisely what they've been told to do: Make sure the bills don't refer to subluxation correction.

The heads of various organizations can say they support the right of chiropractors to focus on the detection and correction of vertebral subluxations, but their actions speak volumes about their real desire to distance chiropractic from that concept and have D.C.s accepted as medical providers.

Using the inability of our elected government officials and their staffs to understand chiropractic and the subluxation in health is a rather transparent excuse. So is trying to lay the blame on the lobbyists. The lobbyists are an important and indispensable member of the chiropractic team in Washington, just as a C.A. is an indispensable member of the chiropractic team in your office.

But who runs your office -- you or your C.A.?

Who runs our profession -- the chiropractic leaders or their lobbyists?

I think we have to put our foot down and tell our organizations to take back control of the profession. If they really are dedicated to the principles of chiropractic, they shouldn't be swayed by the objections of marketing experts, lobbyists, and the other non-chiropractors they hire.

And if they're not dedicated to those principles, they need to be honest enough to state that publicly. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with saying they endorse the ACC Paradigm or House Concurrent Resolution 46 and then turn around and defend a bill in which that same subluxation language has been excluded!

Subluxation-based chiropractic is heading into a new and exciting era as a pioneering forerunner of the non-medical, wellness care trend. It's time the heads of our organizations heeded the advice to lead, follow or get out of the way.