My personal physician is great. She’s a progressive forward thinker with a preventive approach to
medicine that in my estimation places her in the top 1% of her profession. That said, we don’t always
see eye-to-eye. In particular, right now we disagree on how reliable information coming out of the CDC
is. I don’t want to get bogged down in another COVID discussion right now, that’s not my point. The
point I’m making is that intelligent well-intentioned scientists not only can, but often do disagree.

A couple years ago I was at a convention where one of the keynote speakers did an excellent job
reviewing the science and history behind “Big Sugar”. And yes, there really is such a thing. And yes, they
have been stunningly effective, much as “Big Tobacco” was for so long, in covering up the huge health
crisis perpetrated by their product. His main conclusion at the end was that “a public health crisis needs
a public health solution”. In other words, we need more “Big Gulp” laws. Again, I disagree.

Dr. Sidney Burwell, Dean of Harvard Medical School from 1935 to 1949, had these words of advice to
incoming medical students –

Half of what we are going to teach you is wrong, and half of it is right.

The problem is that we don’t know which half is which.

Friends, nothing has changed. Scientific knowledge, including medicine, is a constantly moving target.
And that fact in and of itself is reason enough to put the kibosh on government interference in your
personal health decisions! But the issue goes even deeper than that.

It is popular around the world and in “woke” circles here at home to accuse Americans of being too fond
of freedom. However, the freedom this country was founded on is as integral to human nature as is our
need for love. The two are actually flip sides of the same coin; it being impossible for one to exist
without the other. In fact, we have a word for those who try to coerce love from another – we call it
“domestic abuse”. And civil coercion is just as abhorrent. Failure to grant others the grace to disagree
and to act in accordance with their own conviction dishonors all those who have fought, bled, and died
for that freedom – from the Revolutionary War to the current War in Afghanistan. And if you happen to
be one who purports to hold Judeo and Christian values dear, you bring great dishonor on your God as
well. *

Those who do so are inevitably those who suffer from “woke arrogance”, refusing to acknowledge the
intellectual integrity of anyone who dares to disagree with themselves. Intellectual arrogance is not
limited to the liberal left, but is equally prevalent on the conservative right, as well as with Muslims and
Christians, country mice and city mice, vegans and carnivores, conspiracists and traditionalists, the list is
endless – essentially including any and all who claim exclusive possession of facts, science, and truth. In
the hands of the press and politicians this arrogance is absolutely frightening!

So What Does Freedom Have To Do With Dental Health
Anyway?

Those of you who have been following me for a while will remember The Cross of Dental Health, and
that the anchor arm of that model is Systemic Health. Now here are some “dots” that need to be
connected.

1. The Choice Theory of cognitive psychology makes it abundantly clear that coercion in any form
only leads to mental stress and social discord.1

2. And new research out of the HeartMath Institute is starting to show that personal,
inter-personal, and even global incoherence has a profound effect on the health and wellbeing
of not only individuals but of our whole planet as well. 2

3. So it should come as no surprise to discover that research by Dr. Dean Ornish, the father of diet
and exercise for reversing and preventing heart disease, has convinced him that social
connectedness (i.e. LOVE, of which coercion is the antithesis) is actually the number one most
important lifestyle factor for health and longevity. 3

Get it? The stress of coercion, loss of freedom, can cost you your health, your life, and your teeth! 4

Independence Day Initiative

Now here’s the bottom line – none of us are perfect and we all have our own blind spots that bear
enlightenment. So, on this upcoming Independence Day, make it a point to celebrate and honor our
heroes by getting to know someone from “the other side”, whatever side that may be. And rather than
“cancelling” that person, celebrate together your mutual freedom to live as your conscience guides.
Then be a hero yourself and ask how you might help make their life just a little more free. Happy 4th !

1. Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom, William Glasser, MD
2. HeartMath.org
3. Love and Survival, Dean Ornish, MD
4. https://alihaggett.com/blog/2020/9/29/covid-19-the-colossal-health-and-social-costs-of-lockdo
wn-and-loss-of-liberty