Halls Of Fame

[GouRonin]

Joe Foster, despite anything he might have done for the martial arts community was convicted of a sexual crime against minors.

I don't care if he brought hundreds of thousands of people into the art he was teaching and broadened the art and made it accessable for everyone. By doing what he did he sent a good friend of mine into therapy for years and ruined many good releationships he could have had. My friend wasn't the only one. By your reasoning, if he did good to the many it's ok to screw over the few. I don't buy that.
:argue:

So yeah, if that is the case I don't give a flying %$#@ if he created the ultimate martial art and brought it to the masses. He was wrong. He did wrong. he screwed up and he needs to face the consequences. Even in the face of armageddon I will not compromise on that.
:soapbox:

...and I'll say that to anyone's face.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Gou
As far as this Foster guy goes I think he should be in the hall of flame n some dark prison . On the other hand in some societies such things are accepted as normal. I do not think they are, but I was brought up where such things are cosidered perverse.
Now the guestion was raised how do we judge who goes in and who stays out. I don't know thats why I opened his thread to get ideas on what type of person someone would want to see in such a place.
I do think that we should have some place to honor those who made the arts what they are today. ( yes I know we do its where we study)

 

[Chiduce]

Originally posted by Jay Bell

Hi Kirk,

A Hall of Fame scenario in martial arts brings out some sort of competition between people. Budo isn't about competition. It's about building character and developing one's self.

Over and again I've seen people that end up in "Hall's of Fame" that later turn out to be crooked and dishonest human beings. What holds true for someone that ends up in a Hall of Fame? Well, simply put...that they have an audience. So did David Koresh.

I don't want you to think that I feel everyone in the Hall of Fames are has-beens or run cults....but there is no way to define how a person is based on their students. I myself have been taken in by martial art instructors in the past...that at the time I thought were the best thing since sliced bread.

Hall of Fame ideas in my opinion, do nothing more but add to the already shattered ideas of Asian martial arts...and do even more to adapt those arts and artists to our lazy and "short cut" ideals.

I'm not sure if anyone caught it, but a few years ago I watched a martial arts "masters" program on tv. How many of these people were legitimately traditional martial artists worth their weight in dung? Two or three tops. The rest were self proclaimed masters and grandmasters of concepts that stemmed from four yellow belts. These typically end up being the people "elected" into Hall of Fames. As a side note, they also gave Westley Snipes a Godan. A Godan in WHAT? No idea...they never said. Who were these people to give him a godan? Self proclaimed masters. These types of things don't sit well with me.

It sickens me that someone can snap their fingers and end up in Hall of Fames, Masters, Grandmasters or what have you. The master instructors in the art that I study have experianced more pain, blood and sacrifice then many people care to even realize. What do they get for that? Self riteous people that proclaim themselves that good in 1/20th of the time based on their dire persuit of glory and fame ($$).

Sorry if I went on a bit of a tangent there...but this type of thing really strikes a chord in me.

Be well all,

Jay

Sir, Snipes was awarded a 5th Dan in Goshin Do. Sincerely, In Humility; Chiduce!

 

[fist of fury]

Originally posted by Jay Bell



In Black Belt Magazine, in their Hall of Fame, Stephen Hayes was voted the Instructor of the Year in 1985. In 1986, Masaaki Hatsumi (our Soke of 9 schools) was voted the "Co-instructor of the Year".

Does anyone else see a problem with that?

Co- instructor

 

[Klondike93]

Interesting reading so far.

I agree with Gou, some one like that regardless of what they have done have no buisness in a hall of fame. In hockey they took a convicted felon out of the hall of fame. The black belt magazine hall of fame is ok but it's a voted on process isn't it?
If Oyama was a drunk, maybe who knows. But if he was a sexual predator, no way.

One thing I haven't noticed is if there was an offical martial arts hall of fame, where would it be? Hockey has one in Canada, makes sense, baseball, upstate New York, don't know why and so on. Any ideas on that?


:asian: