THE WARRIOR AND THE SCHOLAR

By Peter Vuono

   Recently at the California hosted Golden Globe awards, a well known actress expressed disapprobation over  the president- elect regarding his derision of a handicapped reporter. As a Special Ed. teacher of 36 years I couldn't agree with her more. However she completely negated her worthwhile message by saying"If you remove all the foreigners from the country you will be left with only football and MMA, and that's not art". Personally, I take great umbrage to this comment as martial arts have improved my son's self image and mine to a point where we believe in ourselves and aspire to achieve more in our lives. Moreover,. to say that martial arts is not an art is a gross mendacity!
   Martial arts as we know it, originated thousands of years ago in India. Through the transmission of Buddhism it moved to China and greatly influenced Shaolin Kungfu. From there it spread to Okinawa, Japan and later to America. This actress seemed to forget two basic things about martial arts; first, most of it's most famous practitioners are" foreigners"  who were never removed from this country at all.  Secondly, artists such as Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jean -Claude Van Damme, Bruce Lee and Donnie Yen who practice a  variety of MMA  have made literally hundreds of movies which have grossed billions for Hollywood.
   The number one box office hit at this writing is- "Star Wars- Rogue One"- This movie stars martial artist, Boston's own Donnie Yen. I would chance to say that this movie will gross more than any 5 of the best known movies that this factually unencumbered actress has made. Given the immense amount of movies and the billions in receipts, one can only ask,"How is this not art?" How many more people are familiar with Return of the Dragon over Sophie's Choice? People who have such an immense audience should measure their words more carefully. It sometimes reveals how much they really don't know. As Bruce Lee once said,"Empty heads have long tongues".


"The warrior and the scholar unite back to back. We defend our country. We have no weapons. We conceal our secrets and ask for forgiveness if we are forced to use them"- Kenpo Creed