Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

On Jul 12, 2011, at 4:53 AM, Phil D. wrote:

Mr Lowry,

I'm writing to you as a poster on the Bullshido.net martial arts
website. If you're not aware of the site, Bullshido is a forum
composed mainly of volunteers, for the purposes of consumer protection
within the martial arts. It deals with investigating dubious rank
claims, the use of fake rank certificates, unsafe teaching practices,
that sort of thing - and exposing such when it is found...

The reason I'm contacting you now is that your name has recently been
mentioned in a thread on the site's investigations section and I
thought that I should make you aware of it and invite you to the
forum.

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthr ... 651&page=1

This thread was initiated by Mark Tripp, whom I believe that you know
(or at least know of). He came to the site yesterday with some
concerns about a Judo rank (8th dan) that he states was awarded to you
by the USJA. This is not a 'demand for your presence' or anything like
that - I'm just flagging up Mr. Tripp's allegations in the event that
you wish to respond.

Thank you very much for your time.

Regards,
Phil Deacon.




Dear Phil --thank you for the invite -- i have tried several times to register and get logged into Bulshido to respond but have not succeeded yet -- some technical glitch it seems -- perhaps you will be so kind as to relay the following to the thread:

Hi Y'all --
Nick Lowry here. To be Perfectly clear-- I personally do not consider myself an 8th dan -- though there are indeed some organizations that have ranked me as such -- the USJA judo rank in question here is attributable to the actions and recommendations of my former Sensei (who had his own reasons for pushing it through) and whomever he negotiated it with in the USJA administration--

I never sought it, never asked for it, nor ever paid a nickel for it -- it was simply bestowed upon me as a done deal.

Through out my time studying judo-- from 1982 to now- - i have had only a few peripheral ties to USJA --it has never seemed like an attractive outfit to me -- and my support for it over the years has been minimal and always at the behest of my teachers.

My own focus is on the the technical judo of the 1950's pre weight class era, particularly lines of development from Osawa and Kotani, and I am not really interested in modern sport judo and personally don't care much about rank or ranking, period.

I am far more interested in the values of competency and education in martial arts. Where rank upholds and furthers such values i think it has some meaning and usefulness, but too often i find rank being substituted for these values by the ranking organizations.
In my own small organization, rank is not a commercial product and is treated as a matter between a student and their teacher -- not a student and their ranking organization.


To my Fault, I acknowledge that had i been willing to sever ties to my Sensei at the time, i could have rejected the 8th dan promotion from him up front (though how one gets the USJA to "unrank " me is a interesting question -- someone more familiar with that organization can perhaps speak to it-- if they choose to pursue such a course, they will get no fight from me). At the time, the promotion, though it seemed ludicrous, hardly seemed worth flushing 25 odd years of student /teacher relationship over. My departure from him arose over other more serious issues two years later.

Today , when folks ask me about my rank i usually just say simply that i am a black belt who has been studying judo for 29 years-- only if they ask for specific detail --as was the case with Mr. Tripp -- do i go into the curious case of my high USJA ranking.

Since i am having technical difficulty getting logged into the Bulshido forum to respond , please feel free to contact me at nick@windsongdojo.com if i can help clarify this matter any further.

Always happy to answer questions.

Also if you wish to check out examples of my educational work comprising some 730 or so free aikido and judo videos, they are organized for your convenience here: http://www.kazeutabudokai.com/phpBB3/

sincerely, Nick Lowry

whoa! you're bigtime now, nick! what do i have to do to get them to investigate me?

all i had to do was mention my usja rank -- the rest took on a life of its own -- funny thing is i never took usja ranking seriously and had not ever imagined that there were folks out there that did -- my mistake

Well, so far as the usja knows, I'm an orange belt, and have been so for about 20 years now. You suppose they can make an international scandal out of that one?

As a casual observer, I unfortunately waisted my time and read through most of the Bulshido thread as well as the linked thread started approximately one year ago. The only observation that I will make is that there are a lot of very insecure people out there with too much time and anger on their hands. I believe that Mr. Lowry's response was excellent and is all that is needed. I would strongly encourage people to avoid engaging these individuals any further. This is the type of situation where there really are no winners and in the end they will consume themselves with their own petty insecurity and rage.
Regards
Charles Watts

indeed...

Interesting development... The bulshido guys are now starting to publish a long list of Usja promotions records from 2006....

You probably did the honorable thing. My mentor and I fought like cats and dogs over this. He was a personal friend of Sensei Porter. At the beginning of the Porter era He (my Sensei) was 20+ years without promotion. He accepted a USJA promotion, which we thought was way past due.
But then contributors started getting promoted. People started getting those "all worthy attendees will be promoted" invitations. I argued that this was not honorable, and that the practice devalued us all. He stuck by Porter. It became a real bone of contention between us. He has been gone many years now. Personally I regret fighting him over this. It served no purpose, and made no difference. In retrospect I believe I was correct, but doubt I was rite.

David Schrock

Wikipedia:

The term honorary degree is a slight misnomer: honoris causa degrees, being awarded by a university under the terms of its charter, may be considered to have technically the same standing, and to grant the same privileges and style of address as their substantive counterparts, except where explicitly stated to the contrary. In practice, however, such degrees tend to be popularly considered not to be of the same standing as substantive degrees, except perhaps where the recipient has demonstrated an appropriate level of academic scholarship that would ordinarily qualify them for the award of a substantive degree.

Recipients of an honorary doctorate may if they wish adopt the title of "doctor". In many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, it is now a matter of personal preference should an honorary doctor use the formal title of "doctor", regardless of the background circumstances for the award. Written communications where an honorary doctorate has been awarded may include the letters h.c. after the award to indicate the status.

Notable people using the honorary prefix include:

* Benjamin Franklin, who received an honorary master's degree from The College of William and Mary in 1756, and doctorates from the University of St. Andrews in 1759 and the University of Oxford in 1762 for his scientific accomplishments. He thereafter referred to himself as "Doctor Franklin." [3]
* Billy Graham is regularly addressed as Dr. Graham, though his highest earned degree is a BA in anthropology from Wheaton College.[5] He holds 20 honorary doctorates and has turned down nearly twice as many.[citation needed]
* Maya Angelou who calls herself and is referred to by many as Dr. Angelou despite holding no undergraduate or advanced (non-honorary) degree.[6]
* Booker T. Washington is often referred to as "Dr. Washington" after receiving an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College.
* Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and creator of Gonzo Journalism, received an honorary doctorate from the Universal Life Church in the late 1960s.[11] Thompson often insisted on the title, as did his alter ego Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas who claimed to be a "Doctor of Journalism".
* Stephen Colbert received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Knox College in 2006. Since then, the credits of The Colbert Report jokingly refer to him as "Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A." (which uses both the title "Dr." and a postnominal, which is improper). The same title is used in a recurring segment on the show, in which Colbert dispenses dubious medical advice despite his degree being Doctor of Fine Arts.
* In the United Kingdom the author and lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson, who had some years earlier been unable (due to financial considerations) to complete his undergraduate studies at Pembroke College, Oxford, was awarded the degree of Master of Arts by diploma in 1755, in recognition of his scholarly achievements. In 1765, Trinity College, Dublin awarded him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in 1775 Oxford bestowed upon him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law by diploma.

Jack Bieler
Judo Yondan Honoris Causa