It may not be the most popular position to take today, but I have taken opposite views before, such as in urging a lawsuit be brought against the AMA, et «/., in 1976. History ultimately proved that I was right and I believe I am also right on what we must do today to correct our public image. The solution should be self-evident, but I'm reminded of 1976 all over again. Have we learned anything? The picture is not pretty. Enrollment is down in our colleges; colleges are feeling a serious money crunch; practices are shutting down at a faster rate than students are graduating from our schools; major public ignorance, misinformation and fear about chiropractic prevails; 90% of the people won't go to chiropractors— some of them even if held at gunpoint; less qualified imitators are becoming spinal adjusters to replace us; we get beat up periodically by the media and press without any PR mechanism in place to forcefully respond, let alone have a proactive program; and there is no real effective PR program in the works to get our message out to the public. We can't even get a simple postage stamp com- memorating chiropractic, although there are stamps for a drug addict, an emotionally disturbed actress and cartoon characters like the Road Runner (beep-beep). Meanwhile, our leaders are agonizing over a solution and can't even see the obvious truth or answer. The most popular current idea is to give $500,000 to a PR firm to tell us what's wrong and what we need to do, while simple logic and common sense should tell us, if we simply open our minds and hearts. Do you really believe any public relations firm will ever tell you to form a chiropractic spokesperson program in each State and reduce chiropractic's reliance on them? You answer that question, yourself. Meanwhile, I'll give you the best solution free of charge. Some of you may think I am negative about chiropractic. On the contrary, nobody is more positive and up beat about chiropractic than I. What 1 am negative about is our closed-minded leadership that cannot recognize a simple and logical solution that should be self-evident to any objective observer, while some of our publications refuse to publish differing and constructive views, so as not to offend some chiropractic leaders and their big-spending advertisers. This is unconscionable. Your State Chiropractic Association can appoint its most trusted knowledgeable and articulate chiropractors and make them "Official Chiropractic Spokespersons" for their State association. Give them the vital names and direct phone numbers of all the executive producers of virtually every radio and television talk show and newspaper editor in their entire State. Armed with the powerful and provocative well-documented facts, they can make an influential and positive impact on chiropractic! The Indiana State Chiropractic Association acquired all of the names and direct phone numbers of every radio, TV producer and newspaper editor in America. This information for all other States and Canada are available to your State association free of charge by contacting me. Chester A. Wilk, DC, PC. 5130 W. Belmont Ave.. Chicago, II 60641 [email protected], Tel: 773-725-4878
