A Warriors Code?


With my trip to NYC, I was unable to Stumble onto any new sites. A guy on my alma mater's message board may have a potential source, but I'll need to look into it more deeply.

But an incident earlier this week makes me wonder if even though I'm opposed to war and empire, if I'm somehow applying a warriors code of honor to my actions.

Allow me to explain. Among my many interests; sports, web design, anti-imperialism, etc, is an interest in the martial arts. I studied Kenpo Karate in New Hampshire while I was on an internship there, and have been an on and off student of Aikido as my financies keep changing.

One of the students who comes in from Washington DC to train on occasion also runs an interfaith peace and justice center. A few weeks ago, he popped up at the dojo. After the class, I sent him an e-mail asking if at some point in time my buddies from Food Not Bombs could show up at the center for a seminar and maybe some volunteer work, and if I could link his site to this 'blog. He gave me information about the reservation process and told me that he didn't like the idea of his site being linked to any sort of ideolgical site. Hey--it's his yard, his rules.

But why'd I even ask. Would he have ever found out? I don't know whether I was acting out of friendship, fear that there could be ramification in the dojo, or if I was somehow acting on a kind of "personal bushido".

It's not the first time I've done this. About a year ago, I received word indirectly that a student of the dojo who had been shipped out to Iraq had been in a close call. He was awoke one morning by an RPG exploding over his head. As I had his e-mail address, I asked him for the story.

The story was basically a confirmation of everything I had read about what was really happening over there. Underequipped troops(no heavy machine guns, little night vision), lack of support forces (they were pinned in a hotel for two days), and of course the populance.

This was a bit different, I believe. As I considered him a friend, maybe I saw the e-mail as more of a personal correspondence. Maybe it was refusal to wish to report on troop casualities or attacks. Or I was once again afraid of ramifications.

But maybe one of my fellow students gave me the best answer in response to my saying that as I'm studying arts based on the Samauri maybe I'm trying to conduct myself with some sense of honor.

"Or are you showing a bit of restraint".