Posted by KC Elbows on February 19, 2003 at 19:34:03:
In Reply to: Re: I knew CD posted by ?? on February 19, 2003 at 16:07:35:
'Answer this KC.'
Okay.
'What do you even know about Chris?'
Chris is an Instructor of Oom Yung Doe. Chris was once Tom's student. Chris bears the reputation of his teachers. On the one hand, Chris' presence supports a system that puts forward a certain picture of Kim. On the other hand, Chris' past affiliations means he has already been exposed to knowledge that undermines that picture. I have spoken with enough of your brothers to know that you all knew, at some level, what was going on. I was close enough to the old days to know how some of the stories actually went. Back then, we didn't really hide it much, did we? Not really. Why pretend like it was hidden?
Here's the facts: if Chris Dining ran with Tom's crew during the time period we're talking about, then he knew, because I wasn't far from knowing before the Zekman stuff, and, as ex pointed out, Chris was even earlier. And I was close enough to notice the envelopes, and to put it together later. If Chris Dining was Tom's student, close under Tom, at the point where Tom didn't have to begin learning restraint, and Chris wasn't part of the rough bunch, then Tom mustn't have thought much of Chris.
However, I can't say that. I've looked at a couple of Chris' pics. Chris appears to be serious enough in his practice, as far as his focus. Tom liked that. He liked warrior spirit. No, Tom would have trained him to the best of his ability. And Chris would have run with the rough bunch.
When things got bad, I'd imagine Chris dug in to weather it. And when Tom McGee decided not to return? And when John Kim allowed the public perception to be that Tom McGee and a group of other instructors failed him? Despite all the evidence to the contrary? Did Chris rise up in utter outrage for another human being, a flawed man who had, nonetheless, believed in training Chris, and who failed no one but his students and himself, a flawed man being used as a stepping stone for a man guilty of the exact same thing, did Chris raise his voice then? And where is it now? Where is Chris' outrage? Is it the cut of the stripes on his uniform, is that where his outrage is? How about the patches, or the signs he walks by in school, the ones that relate how his grandmaster teaches to be a better person? Is that his outrage he bows to at the beginning of every class?
I know that Chris knows enough to open his eyes. I know that plenty of the rest of Tom's guys have. I hope that Tom has. I know that Chris is just another good man trying to make Kim a messiah, but no matter how many good men push it, Kim is still just a trick of the light. Chris is old enough to be expected to understand that this fantasy of John Kim's he is pushing forward, this world of us and them, is a dangerous thing to push onto young men. He is old enough to tell John Kim that it should stop. Tell me, has he?
'What has he done to you directly that gives you the right to speak of him in this manner?'
He is, essentially, a classmate of mine from years ago, and he has stood on the back of other instructors because that is easier than defying his master. And he has done that simply by giving Kim the prestige of having a good man for a follower. Which answers:
'What has he done to others that you know as fact?'
Taught them that John Kim can make them something that John Kim cannot make himself. Caring. Patient. Good. All with the minimum of contact with Kim. That is the irony. Chris Dining can probably show his students how to be caring, patient, and good. When he was just a student, his classmates probably learned about those things just by being around him. Too bad he is too willing to let his own positive attributes become ascribed to a convoluted series of physical movements and trite philosophies.
However, I will grant that I was overly rough in my previous posts. Of the pics I've seen on the sight, Chris' actually impress me the most, not because he is as overtly athletic as Jerry, or has a mullet to rival certain other instructors, but because he has the air of a man who has weathered life, and I can respect such men. However, there must be a point at which one such person decides things have gone far enough long enough, and plays Rommel to Kim's Hitler, if in a less life and death arena.