In 20 years of practice, my dad was never arrested, although many of his colleagues here in Louisiana were.  Because of his friendships with several sheriffs in succession, most of whom were patients, he was always tipped off.  But he never quite knew if a new patient was an investigator from the medical board. Maybe my earliest experience was when I was 14 years old. My older brother had been killed in Vietnam months earlier, and mom took it very hard. Finally, when she got out of the house, she went to my dad’s bowling night. Within 30 minutes, they were back home and mom was visibly upset. She went into the bedroom. I asked dad what had happened. He said that there was a medical doctor bowling on the other team, and he refused to bowl if a chiropractor was there. So he made a big stink and mom just couldn’t believe that someone could treat them in such a fashion, especially after just losing a son in service to country. 

Before my mom’s passing several months ago at age 85, we had many talks about those early days. She reflected on how she had been asked by neighbors to join the local carnival club, only to be turned down because her husband was a chiropractor. She later became president of that organization. 

I grew up in that kind of environment and have many similar stories, just as other sons, daughters, husbands and wives of chiropractors could share about “bad times” in those dark days of the AMA boycott. It was especially hard during months when the legislature was in session. The “contain and eliminate” strategy was put into action by political medicine all across the country and the chairman of the AMA committee happened to be from Louisiana. So is it any wonder why Louisiana was last to license the profession?  

What else did they do?

One of the action steps by the committee was to indoctrinate medical school students about those unethical and rabid chiros. The good doctors then shared their new unfounded prejudice with their patients. One of the earliest quotes my dad had me learn was from Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can make you feel inferior unless you give them permission.” My dad was very proactive in the profession. He was the president of the state association in Louisiana in 1974, when we finally received licensure. He had a saying when trying to encourage his beaten down and too often complacent colleagues, “How can you expect patients to support your practice if you are not willing to support your profession.” This still holds true today.

Louisiana was the last of the 50 states to license chiropractic. What happened in those final years to put it over the top, to change this longstanding injustice?

We elected a new governor, Edwin Edwards, who later would be sentenced in 2001 to ten years in jail for racketeering. Governor Edwards had a brother he was very close to and they campaigned together. His brother, Marion, had always been treated by a chiropractor for various ailments. And because of his brother, among other things, he said, “When I become governor, I am going to license chiropractors.” And he made good on that promise. Dr. Jim Parker of Parker Seminars was also a huge help in raising funds to counter all the misinformation of that time and for inspiring the doctors in the battle for licensure to never give up. In the pictures of the governor signing the law, Dr. Jim was front and center with many from the state leadership, as he deserved to be. 

You are the President of the World Federation of Chiropractic. What is the mission of the WFC and how did you first become involved?

The WFC was established in 1988 in Sydney, Australia, by bright and visionary DCs. I am one of two ACA representatives to the WFC; the other is the current ACA president, Dr. Rick McMichael. My first WFC meeting was in 2001 in Paris, and in 2004, I was elected to the executive committee in Singapore and subsequently two years later in Johannesburg South Africa. In Seoul, South Korea, in 2008, I became first Vice President. In Budapest in June 2010, I became the tenth WFC president and fourth from the United States, following in the deep footprints of Drs. Gary Auerbach, Lou Sportelli and Gerry Clum.

The World Federation of Chiropractic represents chiropractors who practice in 85 countries. Those 85 countries are all voting members of the WFC who meet every two years at the WFC Congress. In the year in between, the WFC Council meets. It is comprised of elected representatives from the world's regions.  In 2011, the Congress meets in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. At the Rio Congress we are going to celebrate a huge victory by our Brazilian colleagues, who had to fight back against a strong physical therapy association, who attempted to have a law passed that would have made chiropractic a sub-specialty of physical therapy. There’s been an ongoing battle in Brazil for many years, to preserve and protect chiropractic’s separateness and distinction. The WFC has led and supported the Brazilian chiropractors in this battle. Just several months ago, a judge ruled that one profession, even though they might be larger—there are 98,000 physical therapists in Brazil with maybe 400 DCs and two colleges of chiropractic—cannot overpower another profession just because they have more strength and resources. The judge ruled that chiropractic is a separate profession and now the fight for regulation continues in their legislative system. 

The mission of the WFC is a global perspective to unite members of the profession, protect the character and status of the profession, promote ethical practice, encourage improved standards of education and practice, encourage research and cooperate with appropriate national and international organizations. Of the 85 countries the WFC represents, almost half of them are still in pitched battles for recognition and regulation.  The WFC is in their corners against what oftentimes are great odds—kind of like what we had in Louisiana. The WFC and FCLB recently held their second joint meeting in London on issues of professional mobility and the teaching by chiropractors of chiropractic methods to non-chiropractors in unregulated countries. These are ongoing issues that both the WFC and FCLB, as well as many country representatives, are working on in earnest.