"Rush Judgment Not Rash This Independence Day" Guest Editorial by Chris Barr

A signer of the Declaration of Independence from Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania delegation, Dr. Benjamin Rush was once personal physician to George Washington and the preeminent medical doctor of early America.

Dr. Rush also led the Pennsylvania delegation that ratified the United States Constitution. He put forth a very strong recommendation for inclusion to that founding document of this nation.

"Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom."

This urging of Dr. Rush went unheeded.

Red …

I am red with embarrassment that this nation has arrived at just that place that Dr. Rush predicted. There was no rush to such an arrival as it only began to come about almost 100 years after the death of Rush. That place was solidified throughout the last century.

In this storied "land of the free" today's modern medicine is severely restricted to one primary method of drugs and surgery. Medical practices are limited by laws, courts, government agencies, insurance regulations, and in one case just a few years ago, by armed guards.

A Colorado couple gave birth to their first child and were informed that a screening test cited the mother as positive for Hepatitis B, and therefore the newborn would be vaccinated immediately. The new parents' joys were turned to horror. They said there must be a mistake and refused the vaccination.

Armed guards were brought in to ensure the vaccination was administered. Subsequent testing very shortly thereafter confirmed that the new mother did NOT in fact have Hepatitis B.

The young father had cited the Constitution in his arguments against the vaccination. Alas, the Rush provision never made it into the Constitution. The grieved father was ganged up on by modern medicine with its members aided by hospital officials, social services, courts, and an armed contingent.

… white …

I am white hot with anger that this nation squelches non-medical treatments as "unproven" while fighting against research that would bring proof in these areas, and fighting against any research that manages to be performed with favorable results that are outside of drug and surgical methods.

In this storied "home of the brave" those who are brave enough to buck against the system do so at varying degrees of peril to their own life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Royal Raymond Rife developed a cure for cancer in the 1930s that was verified 100% effective under the watchful eyes of the American Medical Association, the University of Southern California, and others. Professional medical men refused to give a written stipulation that no one would be refused treatment based upon financial condition, so Rife refused to sign over rights to his method.

Subsequent court battles were extensive and expensive. Rife was unable to match the exhaustive legal muster of modern medicine. His treatment was buried and cancer victims have followed needlessly to early burials as a result.

Meanwhile, Rife was driven from his pursuit of happiness to pursuit of hard liquor in his despondency. He subsequently became an alcoholic.

Two decades later Drs. Seidel and Winters of the prestigious Franklin Institute of Dr. Rush's own beloved state of Pennsylvania tried to revive some of Rife's work. They ignored the anonymous phone calls warning them to cease their research. They didn't ignore the bullets ringing through the rear window of their automobile and ceased their research.

Then there is Dr. John R. Christopher who was one of the last herbal doctors licensed to practice in America. He was arrested and jailed many times for practicing medicine without a conviction before his death of old age in the 1980s.

Countless other incidents like these few dot the historical landscape of the past century. The predominant practice of medicine has fended off competition to practically "restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others". It is just as the medical doctor Benjamin Rush warned more than 200 years ago.

… and blue

I am blue with sadness for the needless suffering in this nation from the stranglehold modern medicine has placed over the health care system. It has effectively choked off competitive juices and the life flow of citizens in this nation.

Modern medicine twists and turns facts and figures to question and mock non-medical options. Fear of injury or death from these other options is the primary weapon employed. Yet few are the actual injuries and deaths from the non-medical methods. Meanwhile, conservative estimates note 100,000 deaths each and every year from modern medical errors. Other estimates more than double that number.

In the beginning of the last century antitrust laws smashed a string of bullying monopolies. It is time to smash the bully of modern medicine such that it see proverbial stars, and be beaten as though with stripes, forever ending its health care monopoly.

Christopher C. Barr writes Naturally Speaking from Arkansas: The Natural State … naturally! You may write him at P. O. Box 1147, Pocahontas, Arkansas 72455 or by e-mail at cbarr@childrenofJesus.org.