"Welcome to the year of the Fire Hose", one of our colleagues jokes. Though many of us don't know it yet, there is language in the 'Big Beautiful Bill' that, if enacted as planned over the next 4 years, will cut off access to student loans for most acupuncture schools, which would not only decimate the number of students entering the profession, but also disrupt our familiar suppliers of herbs, needles, continuing education etc. There is no question this would also impact our professional standing, with dry needling by other designated health care professionals emerging over time as the dominant form of acupuncture.
While the Chinese word for 'crisis' does not also mean 'opportunity', as JFK famously asserted, it does convey the sense of a critical turning point. As with climate change, the thing has already happened, and we don't have the power to change it. What we *can* do, though, is
(A) in urgent cases treat the branch: who are the people, patients, regions and institutions most at risk for harm in this situation and what can we do to help, at White Pine and out in the world?
(B), of course, is to seek and treat the root. We can identify choices and compromises that the profession has made over the last 40 years that, though they seemed like the best option at the time, led to a number of deficiencies, excesses and failures of communication that made us unnecessarily vulnerable to the current shock. (A number of us at White Pine have been doing this already, but we believe that more voices is always better). In our public conversations to date, and in additional zooms and texts and dinners and phone calls, the White Pine board has been reaching out to colleagues and trusted institutions, to seek and address root level issues.
Please join us and help!
In addition to the monthly online events, we anticipate adding 'courses' to this study group which are really free working groups, each of which provides a topic, focus, and one or more self-identified leaders, with space for live zooms and online discussion threads after the fact.
THESE WILL BE LOCATED UNDER 'TOPICS'
We will likely start with Re-envisioning Curriculum, Policy and Advocacy, and Outreach -- but are very much hoping that others will start new ones!
We will also be posting resources as we identify them, starting with a FAQ for all that's happening (we'll update this as we learn more), a list of the practice acts in all 50 states (these will be important in understanding which areas are most affected, and in thinking about curriculum). THESE WILL BE LOCATED UNDER 'DISCUSSIONS' which has better tools for discussions such as space for links.
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