"Taekwondo Revival" January,
2000
(Huntsville, Alabama) A campaign
aimed at reviving
Taekwondo as a martial art, a
great task for Taekwondo
practitioners in
the United States, especially at a
time when the 21st century is just
around the corner, has been kicked
off, paving the way for creating a
"Moodowon" Foundation.
Six leading Taekwondo
practitioners in the United States
who had shared among themselves
the necessity to reestablish
Taekwondo
as a martial art and had held a
meeting to promote an organization
they
tentatively called the "American
Taekwondo Moodowon Foundation,"
held a
meeting towards the end of
November in Huntsville, Alabama to
discuss
the details of a General Meeting
they plan to hold in March in Las
Vegas to officially inaugurate the
foundation.
Those present at the meeting made
it known that they could
not allow themselves to do nothing
while Taekwondo goes off track and
said that they felt it necessary
to reestablish the status of
Taekwondo
as a martial art and promote it in
the United States.
Taekwondo as a martial art not
only sets standards for
modus vivendi and promotes health
for those practicing it but also
puts
stress on their
character-building. These features
of Taekwondo, they
said, should be taken as
principles absolutely necessary to
maintaining
order at home and in society in
the United States.
This being the case, they said,
they had agreed to exert
their best efforts to get
Taekwondo rightly understood and
spread in
all walks of life in the United
States. By doing so, they also
said
they would get the people's
respect for being very
instrumental in
helping order maintained at homes
and in communities throughout the
United States.
They further said that the
initial fund-raising target for
the creation of the foundation had
been met and the foundation's
legal
advisor attending the meeting said
that he had completed procedures
to
get the foundation registered with
the U.S. government as a
non-profit
organization.
When the foundation is
established and Taekwondo leaders
are united around it, they said
this would serve as a condition
favorable to revitalizing their
dojang (Taekwondo school or
institute)
business and to promoting their
status and interests as well.
Saying that the foundation, when
created, would open its
door to all the Taekwondo
practitioners regardless of their
denominations and regions, the
promoters said that they are
expecting
fellow practitioners'
encouragement and support for the
great cause
they are committed to, the
reestablishment of the status of
Taekwondo.
Those attending the meeting were:
Kang, Sok-Ho from West
Virginia; Kim, Il-Ho from Alabama;
Park, Chan-Hak from Virginia; Ahn,
Kyong-Won from Ohio; Oh, Myung-Kun
from Florida; and Lee, Moo-Yong
from
Connecticut.
It was decided at the meeting
that Kim (Grandmaster of
U.S. Chongdogwan) will serve as
acting Chairman, Park (Chairman,
Koreans Society, Norfolk,
Virginia) as Treasurer, and Lee as
Secretary
General.
"U.S. Taekwondo Moodowon
Established" July,
1999
(Tampa, Florida) "U.S. Taekwondo
Moo Do Won" is
established in Tampa and is
attracting a lot of attention from
the
Taekwondo society in the U.S. On
May 16th in Tampa, Florida, a few
leaders in the Taekwondo community
got together and established the
U.S. Taekwondo Moo Do Won to raise
better students.
They all agreed that these days,
too many students are
forgetting the basics of Taekwondo
and are concentrating on winning a
tournament or to show off. They
hope this will teach the very
basics of
Taekwondo, which are respect and
courtesy.
Without these two basic
necessities, students cannot learn
the real meaning behind Taekwondo.
They are waiting for those who
share the same interest to
join them, and they are hoping
that there are more of them out
there.
Those who participated in the
establishment ceremony are as
follows:
Sok Ho Kang, Chan Hak Park, Kyong
Won Ahn, Myung Kun Oh, and Moo
Yong
Lee.
