Wall Street Journal Draws Battle Lines

The war between complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and mainstream medicine and its ally the pharmaceutical industry has taken a new turn against the people in America. On December 25th the Wall Street Journal gave a gift of support to the forces of business and the status quo with a one-sided article by an author hawking a book claiming that all CAM is a scam. I won't even dignify the article by using its name because it is such a biased article it should have been on the op-ed page.

To give you an idea of how ridiculous this piece was it called Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Deepak Chopra "veteran hucksters" and basically called them stupid and charlatans because they promote health without prescription drugs. The author also denigrated the NCCAM for being a waste of taxpayer money. The author's qualifications are far less accomplished to say the least.

The reason for this article and the timing is easy to understand. With the incoming administration there are going to be major changes to America's health care system and early indications are that the current gravy train of profits is going to come to a screeching halt. We can't forget that the Wall Street Journal is all about business. It's unfortunate that the paper has chosen to promote profits over the health of its subscribers. They prefer to see healthy stock prices than healthy people. This lack of common decency and morality is the Achilles Heel of capitalism.

I am here to say the Emperor has no clothes and that in the war between money and health the people of this country are increasingly turning towards common sense and away from a drug-dominated health care system that places itself on a pedestal of profit. People are waking up to the facts that have been hidden for too long and recognizing the current health care system for what it really is, a very profitable sick-care system.

I can only applaud the efforts of Tom Daschle and the incoming administration to put the health of Americans above the profit margins of the drug companies and medical institutions. I hope they continue to have the courage to ignore the army of lobbyists who are deathly afraid for their jobs.