Respect

The University of Loma Linda was known in 1957 as The College of Medical Evangelists. The physical therapy school was a two year course, and there were thirty students in my class. Ages of the students ranged from twenty to about fifty years old. One of the students was a medical doctor, and the rest of us held lesser degrees. We came from many states, and one black fellow came from Africa. We were required to study religion, and all the teachers were Seventh Day Adventists. Several non Adventist students attended in order for the college to receive government grants.

I became friends with a stocky young Japanese man from Hawaii who was a non Adventist like me. He was Buddhist. He told me about his Japanese karate master in Hawaii. I knew nothing of karate, so he showed me an excellent book with pictures of people doing karate exercises. He said karate was not a fighting sport. He said it was an important tool to gain self confidence and control of one’s own body and mind. I was mildly interested. Ted was five feet ten inches tall and weighed 180 pounds. He had large soft looking muscles, his face was round, and he seemed studious with the black horned rim glasses, heavy dark eyebrows and a studious disposition. He looked like a Japanese Clark Kent, and he was always dressed neatly. Ted kept to himself and was a quiet guy who stayed out of trouble.

One day in our senior year, we came back to our classroom from lunch. As I was about to sit toward the back of the room, I heard a thud. It was one of the male students landing on the floor flat on his back in the front of the classroom. Ted was standing over and looking down at the 25 year old white man. The teacher came into the room and asked Ted what had happened, and Ted answered, “This guy has been pushing and shoving me for no reason for over a year. I got tired of it. Today, when he shoved me, I couldn’t hold back anymore. So, I decked him.” The young physical therapy teacher was a wimp in my opinion. But he was satisfied with Ted’s answer and nothing else happened. The felled student got off the floor and sat in his seat. We didn’t hear a peep out of him.

Several weeks passed. Then the class elected Ted to be president of our class. Most of the students had never heard of karate. Ted did not need karate this time. His punch was strictly American style, but it did help him get respect.