Regal, Relaxed, and Ready . . .
Today's update is on "the good fight." I know, you're probably thinking, "I'm a lover, not a fighter." Perhaps our reluctance to embrace the warrior within comes from being conditioned to think of fighting as bad.
But, if you've ever been bullied or abused, you'll know that sometimes a good fight is a necessary thing. Examining challenging times when the noblest choice is to have the courage to stand up for yourself, your values, or a cause (no matter what happens) is what this newsletter is all about.
When Only a Good Fight Will Do
Honoring the Warrior Within
The snow had melted and slush was all over the asphalt playground. I was next in line to play "foursquare" during recess, a game with a rubber ball that four kids bounce to each other while standing in four different squares. Marco, a boy in my class, just got "out."
We were both in fifth grade. I disliked Marco because he had a habit of directing racially denigrating insults at me, which I had repeatedly ignored. This time, he strode out of the game and wiped his wet, asphalt-dirtied hands down the front of my coat.
"Hey, stop that!" I said.
"What're you going to do, fight me?" He sneered, looking down at me as he gave me a quick, sharp push.
"Yes!" I said, pushing him back.
Well, that did it. In no time, the two of us were on the playground. Hair pulling included. My younger brother picked up my thick glasses and begged me to stop fighting. He simply caused me to pull Marco's hair harder, because I was pinned to the ground and couldn't do much else. A teacher soon disentangled us and marched us to the principal's office.
Afterward, Marco told me that he was going to beat me up after school. So, I prepared.
Sure enough, Marco and two other fellow bullies headed toward me after school. They turned around, however, and got back on their school bus when they saw me...and the two Tonga girls flanking me on each side. My bodyguards were slapping their fists into their palms and smiling evilly at them.
I'd like to say that he stopped bullying me after that, but he didn't. He made one more attempt to insult me as he passed me in the hallway one day. I just stared in his eyes and said emphatically, "I'm not afraid of you!" He didn't say anything, but just looked at me and walked away. After that, he did stop bullying me.
When the Maryland Board used the peer review process in 2007 to try to undermine my holistic practice, I remembered my experience with Marco, probably because Marco was the perfect real-life analogy for the fight I had with the Board. After 1.5 years, my battle with the Board resulted in setting a legal precedent for holistic medicine in Maryland. For the first time, a holistic practitioner was cleared of all charges without probation or removal of their medical license (although the Board had the legal right to remove my license even if the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) cleared me of all charges.)
In 2012, the Board made an even more aggressive attempt at crushing my holistic practice. When they could not make a case with the initial complaint, they ordered me to produce medical records from eight patients they randomly chose from my practice. But shortly after receiving the charts, they dropped everything (perhaps because so many of my patients showed positive outcomes during and after medication withdrawal.) This second case was also unprecedented, though we did not publicize the win the way we did the first time.
Nowadays, anyone who's following politics knows that there is a battle going on in our country. This is not the time to be lukewarm or brush aside our principles for the sake of getting along. It is the time to stand up for what you believe in and to fight for it if you must.
Bullies challenge us in ways nothing else can. They question the level of our resolve. They push the boundaries of our tolerance. They clarify our beliefs and values. They ask us this: do you have the courage to fight me?
The great leaders of history all had the courage to fight for what is right. They got jailed. They got nailed. They got shot. Because of their integrity and unselfish concern for others, they refused to stand by and let bullies persecute the weak and defenseless. They fought "the good fight" because their love didn't stop at a prayer, a meditation, or a wish. Their compassion, high ideals, and self-sacrifice move us deeply to this day: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Liu Xiaobo, Abram Hoffer, MD, and countless others.
The foundation of a good fight is love and courage, strength and goodness. When these are the motivators behind a fight, success is inevitable.