Riding the elevator up to my office this morning, I noticed that i was on the balls of my feet, with my feet about shoulder width apart. Otherwise I was relaxed and unimposing. So much so, that the small woman in the elevator with me smiled. When I'm in a bad mood, my wild beard and hair can be intimidating, but today I'm happy and caffeinated.

I felt connected to the metal box moving up the spine of 11835 W Olympic Blvd. I thought of all the wonderful things I learned while I was studying martial arts. I thought of the friends I made. And I just feel good.

But there are negative things that I took away from studying Tae Soo Do with Master Lee and most of them had to do with him.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and there was a piece about the School of the Americas and the protest that was going on this weekend. They discussed the human rights violations by graduates of the school and listed the nations that are now refusing to send anyone there for training.

So, what is the connection between Master Lee and the School of the Americas? It's simple and straight forward. The head of the school is a disciple of Master Lee's and Master Lee wrote and continues to update the hand to hand combat manual for the school. And that's the main reason I left West Coast Hwa Rang Do. I didn't want to be associated with someone that supports one of the most notorious terrorist training facilities in the world.