This raises an interesting question about tae kwon do, a Korean martial
arts. I've always been leary of dojos that displayed their flag on the
wall, no matter what nationality .... the rising sun, the Korean flag or
even the US.
When I began to examine the dojos, I found pictures of the senior students
... primarily military officers. What I've read indicates that the KCIA are
also intertwined with Korean martial arts.
I find the art itself to be bent to American rules so that today's it's
attack karate. There are alternatives to this style of self defense and
there is likewise a spiritual path. Haven't met many martial arts that do
more than give lip service to the "spiritual" side of the martial arts and
even the Japanese martial arts I studied hark back to Shinto and were
primarily created by the military.
Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, trained the leading military men
who invaded China ... most of them were killed ... he supposedly withdrew
from teaching to live in the country and developed aikido as a means to
world peace. The martial arts in Japan are associated with the right wing
and the political Japanese I met there found incomprehensible that I would
study aikido. The yakusa study martial arts. Politics weren't discussed in
aikido except to stress universal harmony, the harmony of all things and
other unifying themes.
That some instructor squeaked through with politics from studying tae kwon
do (or it could have been an entirely different art) surprises me.
(Although I too cheer the fact that North and South Korea appear to be
ending their hostility and would like the troops home now!)
best, Don Monkerud
>
>On a better note, I found, as a student of Korean Martial Arts, and as a
>victim of McCarthyism during my school years and the Korean War, and a
>protestor of the use of atomic weapons and threatening our citizenry, THE
>NEWS THAT NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA HAVE COME TO SOME PEACE ACCORDS THAT
>SATISFY EACH OF THEM, WAS BLESSED GOOD NEWS TO MY EARS. Accordingly I
>want to thank my comrade-in-arms, Jewish internationalist of the highest
>order, Stefan Argent; my ex-husband Keith Glick, my old friend Faye
>Blake, and last but NOT LEAST AT ALL, our Korean instructor Bong Choi,
>for his friendship to his American students, his patience and his
>unwar-like teaching that bridged the gap between two cultures, that
>allowed us Americans to learn another culture. I consider it an honor
>that I was bestowed a Black Belt by Mr. Choi, and am sorry that he and my
>above friends are no longer with us, because they would celebrate this
>day with great happiness!
>
>Phyllis Mandel, Jewish internationalist, Woman for peace
>
>
>
>On Fri, 16 Jun 2000 10:46:33 -0700 William Mandel
><wmmmandel@earthlink.net> writes:
>> An Associated Press dispatch from Jerusalem today reads:
>> "The newspaper Ha'aretz said the United States has drawn up a
>> list of 27 countries it considers problematic destinations for
>> Israeli weapons, including China and India -- two major Israeli
>> clients."
>> The next-to-last paragraph of my autobiography, Saying No To
>> Power, published last year, reads:
>> "So a war [Kosovo] that began with the world looking
>> unipolar, Washington making all basic decisions, ended with the
>> beginnings of a new bloc to confront it, and nuclear wild cards
>> such as Cghina and India in a position to throw their weight to
>> one side or the other. Russia was free to side with the Asian
>> giants or Europe or seek to unite both against us."
>> Happy Father's Day! William Mandel
>> --
>> To be removed from list, e-mail "Opt Out."
>> You may find of interest website www.BillMandel.net
>
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