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From The President...

by Bryan Hawkins, President, UKS  

Any of you Kenpoists who attended this year’s 9^th Annual UKS Invitational Training Camp held on September 21^st and 22^nd will have observed a new Kenpo symbol displayed on camp merchandise and camp certificates. If you did not notice this new logo, you probably should not admit it because of course that would be evidence that your environmental awareness is not what it should be. The new logo consists of three Chinese characters which are enveloped by a Latin phrase. The Chinese characters in the center translate to “The Way of the Scholar-Warrior”. The Latin phrase encircling these characters translates to “Whosoever desires peace prepares for war.”

I designed this logo to help remind and confirm in all of us some of the most important philosophical precepts that we as Kenpoists live by. The idea of every Kenpoist striving to be and live both as a scholar and a warrior on the most basic level tells us that we must balance our training on both a physical (warrior) and non-physical (scholar) level. We not only should be able to physically find solutions to violent situations but must be able to first try and find a solution to potentially violent situations by way of non-physical means.

The Latin phrase “Whosoever desires peace prepares for war” predates the prominent Chinese philosophers and is attributed to a Roman general in approximately 350 BC. Years ago, once of my black belt students, Marty Malinow, had made for me a large wooden Ed Parker Crest inscribed with this Latin phrase. I think it states as plainly as can be the idea that we as Kenpoists never desire violence but, should violence come our way, we most certainly will deal with the situation. But even more to the point, the very act of training in the arts is the best deterrent for would-be aggressors. One possible explanation for this is that the confidence that a competent Kenpoist acquires and then naturally carries with them creates a certain aura and makes them a much less inviting target for human predators. This logo will come to symbolize and be synonymous with our annual UKS Training Camp and those Kenpoists who come to train.

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