A.m.a. Elvis

[Bill Lear]

I think the answer as to whether or not Elvis was in fact a legitimate Eighth Degree Black Belt is pretty simple if you look at it logically. He was, and Ed Parker promoted him.

This doesn't mean everyone has to like it. In the end there is only one person who knew why Elvis was promoted to Eighth Degree and that was Ed Parker himself. How can you get anymore legitimate than that? I mean... He was promoted to Eighth Degree in Ed Parker's organization by Ed Parker, right?

Now... whether Elvis could fight or not is a different story.

Interesting Quotes:

"Although the colors show, they are no proof of what you know."

"What you earn, you get."

"To hear is to doubt, to see is to be deceived, but to feel is to believe."

-- Ed Parker

I really like that last one. It embodies the biggest part of the problem here. The only references we have in regard to the abilities of both of these gentlemen are in stories and in some cases videotape. Both of these things are fallible. I would venture to say that nobody besides the people who knew them will ever know what it was like to get hit by them.

It's time to put this to rest. It's time to stop fighting over the validity of others and concentrate on who and what we are. In other words... It's more constructive to validate those who came before us by making ourselves the best martial artists we can be. "We" are Ed Parker's legacy and "we" are the validity of today's American Kenpo.

 

[Ronin Moose]

It's time to put this to rest. It's time to stop fighting over the validity of others and concentrate on who and what we are. In other words... It's more constructive to validate those who came before us by making ourselves the best martial artists we can be. "We" are Ed Parker's legacy and "we" are the validity of today's American Kenpo.

That has to be the best thing anyone has ever posted on this forum. Thank you, Mr. Lear, for saying what needed to be said. Salute.

-Garry