Remembering Martin Luther King

According to History.com, "Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986."

Featured below is a video of the "I Have A Dream" speech King spoke on a march on Washington in 1963.  In my opinion, this is one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever heard.

Some ask, well why would a karate school be talking about Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

Well, it's simple for me really.

Understanding history and the mistakes of our past is just GOOD self defense!

Practicing kindness and compassion for our fellow man is GOOD self defense!




Martin Luther King had incredible courage to speak out for injustice, even making the ultimate sacrifice for the cause he believed in so strong.

Let us never forget the legacy of what he did!



Sensei Chris Feldt
Samurai Karate Studio 
2000 Clemson Road
Suite # 9
 Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425
samuraikaratestudio@gmail.com

Accusations of Bullying After Death of Teenager

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times


Keith Cummings said bullying “definitely played a major role” in his niece’s death.


By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: January 3, 2012

Amanda Cummings was not shy about her interests: animals and poetry, shopping and Katy Perry music, summer afternoons by the swimming pool and excursions to Manhattan, where she hoped to live some day.

Amanda Cummings, 15, died six days after a witness saw her jump in front of a bus.


But in the days and weeks before her death, her family said, Amanda, 15, often concealed what some friends seemed to know: she was being bullied, in person and on Facebook, by peers from her Staten Island high school.


Amanda died Monday at Staten Island University Hospital, six days after being struck by a southbound Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus on Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills, Staten Island. A witness saw her jump in front of the bus around 7:30 p.m., and she was carrying a suicide note in her pocket, the police said.


“It definitely played a major role in it,” Keith Cummings, Amanda’s uncle, said of the bullying. “There’s only so much kids can take.”


Deirdre DeAngelis, the principal of Amanda’s school, New Dorp High School, declined to discuss specifics, but warned against drawing hasty conclusions. “Don’t believe everything you read,” she said.


Mr. Cummings made similar comments in The Staten Island Advance on Tuesday.

You can read the rest of this sad article at The New York Times.

If you, or someone you know is having problems dealing with a bully, please give me a call or email me and I will devote some personal time to helping you learn non violent ways of defeating the bully.

And if you can't afford it.....I will do it for free!

Sensei Chris Feldt

Samurai Karate Studio

Columbia, SC 29229

803-462-9425@gmail.com