Some will recall that Raghu Mathur, whilst President of IVC, routinely employed the ludicrous methods and concepts of Helice “Sparky” Bridges, founder of “Who I Am Makes A Difference”® and IGNITE WHAT’S RIGHT™.
Nope, I’m not making this up (see Raghu’s Wildfires of Inanity). Raghu really does have a thick “New Age” streak running down his back, right between his narcissism and his piety. No doubt such fuzzybrainedness was encouraged during his years acquiring his Ed.D. degree from a Cracker Jack box he found in Florida.
And now we learn that Saddleback College’s Tod Burnett is the “Education Editor” of Legends and Legacies Magazine, a publication evidently guided by some seriously flaky martial arts gurus, namely, Frank Dux and Gordon Richiusa.
According to Wikipedia,
Frank W. Dux (pronounced "dukes") is a martial artist and fight choreographer. Dux established his own school of Ninjutsu in 1975, called "Dux Ryu Ninjutsu". He was the inspiration for the 1988 film Bloodsport starring Jean-Claude Van Damme [which featured exciting adventures in Southeast Asia]….According to the LA Times,
Military records show that Dux never ventured closer to Southeast Asia than San Diego. His only known war injury occurred when he fell off a truck he was painting in the motor pool.
Dux's trophy from the Bahamas event was at least partially made in the San Fernando Valley, the trophy maker said. The ceremonial sword he won in the fights was sold, Dux said, in a failed attempt to buy freedom for the Philippine orphans.
Dux argues that his claims are difficult to prove or disprove because of the secrecy surrounding both his military record and the clandestine tournament. He said his life story can be verified by a few witnesses who say they saw the blood-gushing fight in the Bahamas and received top secret messages from him while he was in the military.
The real story of Frank Dux, say many who know him, is one of a bright but undistinguished young man who, using cleverness and chutzpah, re-created himself as a super-hero a decade ago, painstakingly authenticating his new persona with military medals, trophies and newspaper clippings of questionable origins.
Through the years, his story has flourished amid the hazy braggadocio of the American martial arts industry, a field peculiarly vulnerable to fakery, according to several experts.
He’s an odd one. In a badly written (odd punctuation errors) essay entitled Why English?, Richiusa seems to suggest that English is somehow the best language in the world. He also seems to suggest that second generation members of immigrant communities ought to forget their native tongues in favor of the supreme language, English:
U.S. citizen, Jhoon Rhee, listed as one of the 203 greatest immigrants in United States history, … writes in his autobiographical/philosophy book TRUTOPIA that most of his own 21 Miraculous Achievements are directly or indirectly related to his desire to proficiently speak, read and write English…
. . .
To those who are native English speakers we have this advice: Consider how lucky you are to have been blessed with learning English as your first language! There are indeed many freedoms and blessings of living in the United States. Speaking English is just one that most of our forbearers … knew the value of achieving. Many immigrants in the past (and most today) know that the first order of family business when migrating to the U.S. is to assimilate the language of English….
My grandparents, and my wife’s grandparents were Italian immigrants and, like many others from the Old Country, did not allow their children to speak Italian. This is true of many of the older generations of immigrant Americans. However, many of my generation feel that something was lost in the translation. We must be careful not turn our back on those values that produced a successful assimilation! Discipline, respect for others (especially elders) and the belief that the good of the “family” was greater than the good of the individual, are all pointed to as things that we may have lost (or are in danger of losing) by focusing solely on our base, individual survival needs.
Remember, Jhoon Rhee’s originally wrote his book and promoted it in English (his second language), in the United States (his adopted country). He later translated his inspirational text back into his first language, but conceived his entire book in English, where he created the following Trutopian Pledge: When I am truthful, my heart is beautiful. When my heart is beautiful, people love me. When people love me, I am happy.
