Letters to the Editor

Editor:

On June 4, The Record-Courier published an article in its business section entitled "Minden chiropractor celebrates 25 years." This article was edited from a press release my office sent to The Record-Courier. Since I wrote the press release, I am intimately aware of its original contents.

I would like to point out to the readers of The Record-Courier that all references to the title doctor (as in Dr. Pardee) were removed from the original press release.

During my 25 years in Carson Valley there have been many articles published in The Record-Courier about me, and other chiropractors in Carson Valley. Never once in all those years did The Record-Courier use the title "Dr." in front of our names. They will use it for a medical doctor, osteopath, dentist, optometrist, podiatrist, but never for a chiropractor.

I am the first to acknowledge that we are a controversial profession. The old saying, "never argue about religion and politics" should say "never argue about religion, politics or chiropractors." Everyone has their own opinion. Of course, the thing we often hear is that we (chiropractors) aren't "real doctors," meaning we aren't medical doctors. To this I have always said, "No, I am not a real doctor, I am a real chiropractor." Chiropractic is a separate, distinct, and highly specialized branch of the healing arts. It is not medicine, and I, in no way, shape or form, want to be considered a medical doctor. That's not what my degree reads, nor what I do.

That being said, the primary purpose of this letter is to point out to the readers, and to the powers that be at The Record-Courier, that the right to use the title doctor in front of ones name is reserved for those who have earned a doctorate in their particular field. In the United States, doctorates are bestowed by institutions accredited by the federal government. Thus, it is ultimately the federal government who says who may and may not use the title doctor. In the case of chiropractic, the Council on Chiropractic Education is the federal accrediting agency for chiropractic colleges. Chiropractors receive a doctorate in chiropractic, and are legally entitled to use the title doctor in front of their name.

Anyone who knows me knows I don't get carried away with my title doctor. Call me what you want. But I will fight for the respectability of my profession, and the acknowledgement that the U.S. government legally allows us to use the title doctor is part of that fight.

It is quite obvious to me that somewhere in the editorial chain of command at The Record-Courier there is a prejudice against chiropractors. I don't know if it goes all the way up to Swift Newspapers or is local, but I know it is there, and has been there for a long time. I hope this letter will change that, and allow us chiropractors the simple respect that we are legally entitled to.

Stuart Pardee, D.C.

Minden

Editor's Note: Nothing personal, Doc. The practice goes far beyond Swift Communications. The Associated Press Style Manual, which most newspapers in the country use as their guide states "Use Dr. in first reference as a formal title before the name of an individual who holds a doctor of dental surgery, doctor of medicine, doctor of osteopathy, or doctor of podiatric medicine degree." That means those folks who've been named doctors in other fields of medicine or have received academic degrees are excluded from the use of the title Dr. The same style manual states "Do not continue the use of Dr. in subsequent references."

Editor:

The headline on your Opinion Page May 21 should have read "Park Cattle Co. project will doom Valley," instead of "will change Valley."

According to Jim Slade, the author of the article under the headline, this "cattle" company is going to try to get county commissioners to allow it to build 4,000-plus homes on 4,500 acres it owns on both sides of Minden.

Slade says approval would be an "insult" to the people of Carson Valley who voted overwhelmingly in 2002 to sharply curtail residential growth.

I think it would be more than an insult; it would foretell the end of the Valley as we know it.

For 25 years, I've driven Muller Lane between Genoa and Minden almost daily, sometimes a couple of times a day; and I've watched housing developments bite into more and more valley farmland, like an oil-spill spreading on the ocean. The housing developments haven't yet erased ranch lands west of Highway 395, but if things keep going like they have the past couple of decades, it won't be long before they do.

Then you won't see red-tail hawks on power poles along Muller Lane anymore, or white egrets standing motionless in the irrigation ditches that meander through the fields, or bald eagles eating afterbirth of newly born calves in the pastures

I'm familiar with the reasons commissioners have cited in the past to approve master plan amendments for more housing developments, but they're inapplicable in the Park Cattle Co. case. Unlike some cash-strapped ranchers who've sold their land to developers, the company doesn't need the money; it's probably the richest in the county.

So this time, when so much more than money is at stake, the commissioners should reject the Park Cattle Co. plan. As Jim Slade wrote, "the future of our county depends" on their decision.

Ron Funk

Genoa