Why I created Pleasant Isshinryu on Yahoo Groups.

  

Back around 1998 I joined the internet age and discovered various karate discussion groups on Yahoo.com. Among them the Cyberdojo, the Original Isshinryu list and others.

 

About the same time I met Joe Swift on the net and we began a vigorous dialogue between each other.

 

The fascinating thing was they had intense martial discussion to participate in. And I was interested in almost everything so join in I did.

Of course I was most interested in Isshinryu discussion.

 

One of the earliest discussions I remember was one Sunday morning reading a very heated discussion between Patrick McCarthy and Jim Keenan. I know of Patrick from his writings and books and nothing about Jim. They were having a very intense discussion about a translation from the Bubishi and it was about how accurate that translation was. It kept going back and forth on the original Isshinry list. Of course I had no idea who was right, but the longer it went on and the more heated the discussion grew I became more disturbed at both of them

 

Now for the most part I was on my own teaching Isshinryu. At that time my instructor Tom Lewis was long retired (I am most happy to say that did not remain that way) and Charlie Murray who also trained me was pursuing his career in the USAF. My friends in other arts resided long away from me in Pennsylvania. My decisions were my own.

 

What offended me was that senior martial arts (much senior to me) were having such disagreement in public for everyone to see.

 

So what I did being offended by their behavior was I jumped into the discussion. I told them  I (a unknown to them) was offended that two senior instructors should have such a contentious discussion in public. I explained that it put all seniors in a very bad light. They had no idea who I was and paid no attention to what I was saying, continuing with their diatribe.

 

Becoming more and incensed, I kept adding comments suggesting they take the discussion of line and continuing with private emails.

 

I also worked to inject humor into my discussion.

 

In time they noticed what I was saying and their discussion petered out.

 

Very shortly my phone started ringing and I answered it. It was from David Evseeff the Old Original List owner calling me from Florida where he was going to school at the Univ. of Fla.

 

He explained that while he had no idea who he was he was very impressed at how I responded to that discussion. Then we traded credentials a bit. I explained that I was a student of Tom Lewis. I remember him explaining who his instructor was and that he had trained with Jim Keenan. And that Jim trained around Pittsburgh in the early 1960’s, and that he was very experienced in many arts. On top of that Jim was a translator of Chinese and Japanese.

 

How that discussion started was how Jim translated that section of the Bubishi based on his experience and how Patrick was not a translator and relying on his wife skill. Very different meanings were described.

 

The outcome will eventually I heard from Jim Keenan including a drive he made to see me in NH as he lived in MA. That followed many visits over the years and friendship.

 

I also eventually heard from Patrick. I did some translations for him, wrote an introduction to his 2^nd Bubishi edition, and once had a phone discussion with him once when he was giving clinics in the states. Finally meeting him years later at a clinic weekend he was giving in Londonderry NH, quite near to where I lived.

 

The real point to the above is I had definite opinions about how senior martial arts should conduct themselves on the internet. And by extension how all martial artists should conduct themselves on the net too.

 

As time passed into 1990 I kept seeing more bad behavior on the nets.

 I cared most about Isshinryu and often jumped it to say something.

 

I remember two very senior Isshinryu instructors have a very heated discussion on an Isshinryu discussion list. Very heated, and I took real offense. Now I knew neither of them, nor they of me. I inserted myself to call them wrong to be having such a discussion in front of juniors, when they had every right to do so privately via email. I made such a case telling them off they ceased the discussion.

 

And as I spent more time on the various Isshinryu lists I discovered how deeply some Isshinryu groups felt about each other.

 

Time and again I would tell those bullying others because they had a different view of what Isshinryu should be. I always felt this was bad behavior, nor would I tolerate my own students acting this way on the net. (aside, my own students never, ever, had an interest in following any internet discussion. I imagine my keeping them busy had part of that. Nor did I ever share any of this with them.)

 

I began to notice a trend, not from any instructor, rather a group of an instructors students attempting to bully any other having another opinion.

 

Time and time again I would take offense at their actions. But very shortly is would begin to occur again.

 

The effect of such bullying is that I began to notice discussion was being stopped, why, because others did not want to be subjected to it.

 

This disturbed me greatly for I knew we all gained when we could participate in open discussion.

 

Finally after one very heated attempt to express other opinion on an Isshinryu topic, I had had enough.

 

So I decided to create my own Yahoo Groups Isshinryu group.  I sided not expect to get any members more a statement on what I saw was occurring,

 

I named the group Pleasant Isshinryu. For its photo I remembered that a member of the Original Isshinryu Group had created an Alfred E. Gami more as a pleasant icon on Isshinryu, No longer remembering who it was, I asked and received his permission to use it. IMO it kept with my statement that we should create a more pleasant Isshinryu.

 

Nest I created a statement for the group, to explain to everyone what I expected. After naming the group Pleasant Isshinryu my statement detailed what I was doing. I was looking for members who wanted a free discourse on Isshinryu and other topics, one that was to be conducted in a pleasant manner. I acknowledged at times we would disagree, but disagreement had to be conducted in a pleasant manner. And membership hinged on out ability to remain pleasant even when disagreeing. The only stipulation was that becoming unpleasant was immediate ground for dismissal.

 

As I recall I opened Pleasant Isshinryu back in 1990.

 

No one was more surprised when many joined the group. In fact I received more than 100 new members. All who wanted a more pleasant Isshinryu discussion.

 

The group also had a list where photos and other things could be shared with everyone.

 

And it went on from there for about a dozen years. There were member with rank, there were members who were new to Isshinryu and there were members from outside of Isshinryu.

 

We discussed everything, In the continuing discussions I know I always learned a great deal. I would like to thing everyone who participated was attempting to learn as well as improving their communication skills.

 

We had passed a decade and all members worked to remain pleanant.

 

Then he day came when a new member, one with little Isshinryu background, began a discussion that did not go well with many members. Two of the most senior members began ganging up on the youngster. Then he responded very harshly and the Senior members struck back ever more harshly.

 

As this was occurring I attempted to get all of them to turn the heat down.

 

That did  not happen and it became even more unpleasant. Very much so.

 

Having to think very quickly I realized those three individuals were in no way being pleasant, contrary to the statement about what the group was for.

 

I took action and banned them from the group. No one complained that I had done so.

 

So in over 10 years of the group I only had to dismiss 3 people for working to be intentionally unpleasant.

 

The list went on, but a few years later it began to slow down till no one was posting further. The list’s time had passed.

 

A while later I discovered there was something new Facebook and it was becoming the new place for Isshinryu discussion, as well as infinite other things.

 

A long while later most discussion groups on Yahoo Groups no longer were active. Then Yahoo Groups informed those who had groupt there that the sites were going to be deleted.

 

An important thing to recognize about the internet. How you use it was not a guarantee that it would exist in the future. Places to utilize when they are possible, and some distant date to be discarded.

 

Poof, now you see it, now you don’t.,

 

Back in 2008 following the advice given by Mario Mckenna I started a blog for my senior students (5 of them) called Isshin, Concentration the Art. To cover many details that I had experienced, things I worked on, and many other things I had studied. In all our decades of training I never had the time to share that with them and I wanted to have it available for them if they ever had an interest. I made the blog open to the public because I did not believe knowledge should be hidden.

 

Of course there were many things that were for them alone. I have communicated those things with them personally. Eventually creating a newsletter called Pleasant Isshinryu sent to them twice a week, There are currently 295 editions.