The Un-Fair Special —
Martial Arts Training for a Better Life and Community
You Don’t Have to Be Aggressive and Looking to Fight to Get the Benefits of Martial Arts Training. In Fact, the Opposite Is True.
We will not have a booth or perform demonstrations at this year’s County Fair because of the elephant rides.
Image from Wikipedia.
Something tells us you’re just … well … more “peaceful” than many people looking to train in martial arts.
You’re not interested in “winning” fights — whether in a cage or on the street. You’re not looking for a magical silver bullet that involves no work, no time, and no sense.
You don’t have to be tremendously fit or coordinated to “get” this stuff. But you do have to care enough about being your highest self to make the commitment and succeed.
Introducing the Aikido’Ka Un-Fair Special
3-Months Unlimited Training to Create Positive Change
Here’s What You Get:
An incredible community of people training — not competing — with you to dramatically and quickly improve your life.
A respectful, systematic approach to the skills you will use to successfully resolve the most difficult situations — without hurting anyone.
Incredible strength and conditioning to quickly get you into the best shape of your life or lose unwanted pounds — without pain or fear.
Respect and Ethics Are Why You Are Getting This Great Special
A Message From Frank Bloksberg
Chief Instructor of Aikido’Ka
Frank Bloksberg Sensei
Chief Instructor of Aikido’Ka, Grass Valley, California
We’ve been having quite the controversy about the Nevada County Fair having elephant rides. The short story is this: We’ve had a booth, and performed demonstrations, at the Fair for the last 6 years. But not this year.
To me, treating elephants as carnival rides is wrong. Supporting the Fair would, therefore, be unethical for us. So we won’t be at this year’s Fair.
Since the Fair is a huge marketing opportunity for us — we meet many of our future members at the Fair — we have to do something to make up for the loss.
So, we’re offering you the amazing Un-Fair Special to get you to give our community a try. I’m sure you’ll love training with us.
Aikido’Ka is unique in Grass Valley and Nevada City. We are a martial arts school dedicated to peacefully resolving disputes and performing community service. For instance, we have raised over $13,000 and 6,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank. Part of everyone’s training (including mine) includes community service appropriate to their age and training level.
Aikido is the martial art of peace. As an Aikido’Ka student, you learn to resolve all disputes (physical or emotional) without becoming an attacker yourself. You move with an attack, blending your motions with the attacker. Your blending movements take the energy of the attack from the attacker, taking the fight out of the fighter. In this way, you work to inflict no harm. And your martial art is very effective: You can use Aikido to gently control an attacker through to devastatingly powerful responses.
Please imagine the following:
You’re a martial artist at Aikido’Ka. You don’t fight. You blend with conflict. In your training, you’re disciplined and train seriously. You also laugh and have fun. You’re physically fit. While self-defense and physical fitness are important to you, your greater purpose is developing the wisdom and energy to positively benefit society. You view conflict not really as a contest with others, but as an opportunity to improve yourself and overcome your true enemies – those within you.
And speaking of fitness, our strength and conditioning classes are incredible. You’ll use our “3-Nos rule” — no competition, no pain, no fear — to get into the best shape of your life faster than you dare imagine. And you’ll have great fun in the process, because our classes are filled with super-supportive people.
When you join Aikido’Ka during the Un-Fair Special, we’ll make a donation to one of two really good causes. If you get the Individual Special, we’ll make a $50 donation. If you get the Family Special, we’ll make a $100 donation. You chose that organization that gets the donation.
Your choices are Women of Worth and Performing Animals Welfare Society. These are both wonderful organizations doing tremendous work.
Women of Worth (WOW) is in Grass Valley. WOW assists families in crisis. They also help domestic violence victims increase their self-reliance and improve their quality of life by helping them rebuild their lives with dignity, hope and safety. WOW maintains a safe house for abused women and their children.
Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) rescues and provides appropriate, humane sanctuary for animals who have been victims of the exotic and performing animal trades. PAWS has 3 sanctuary locations in California. The closest to Grass Valley is in San Andreas, about 2 hours south of here on Highway 49.As you can see, these organizations do important work. You cannot go wrong sending the money to either.
Improve lives — your own and others — starting now. Join Aikido’Ka during the Un-Fair Special with no risk, because you have a 10-day money back guarantee. Act now, because this offer expires Sunday, August 11, at midnight!
Aikido’Ka Un-Fair Special is a 90-day
Martial Arts, Strength and Conditioning Program.
Join our Peaceful Warrior Community and Make Significant, Positive Changes in Your Life.
Unlimited Access to All of Our Aikido Classes.
Unlimited Access to All of Our Open Strength and Conditioning Classes.
Unlimited Access to All of Our Sword Classes.
Also Score Instant Access to Our Private Student Website Which Includes Tons of Training Videos and Coaching.
Individual Program: $249 (Regular price $450)
Family Program: $499 (Regular price $900)
Plus, We Will Donate $50 (Individual Special) or $100 (Family Special) to the One of these Charities that You Choose:
Women of Worth(Protecting Abused Women and Children)
(Protecting Abused Exotic Animals)
10-Day 100% Money Back Guarantee!
This Special Offer Expires Sunday, August 11 at midnight!
What Some Members Have to Say About Aikido’Ka:
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Here’s the open letter to the community I published recently giving the full explanation behind our not being at this year’s Fair:
Aikido’Ka is different than other martial arts schools. We are dedicated to peacefully resolving disputes and performing community service. For instance, we have raised over $13,000 and 6,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank.
Aikido’Ka has been open for 6 years. We’ve had a booth at every County Fair since we’ve been open. The County Fair is a huge outreach opportunity for us. We meet a lot of our future students there. Deciding not having a booth is a really big deal for us.
Aikido is based upon respect – respect for our fellow students, teachers, our training space. The respect inherent in aikido is a deep, profound respect. Without the support, trust and willingness of our fellow practitioners, we cannot practice the art and improve ourselves in the ways that aikido provides.
By design, the respect that we learn spreads to the rest of our lives. And for that reason, I have to seriously consider the respect/ethical implications of supporting a Fair that offers elephant rides to entertain children.
Elephants are intelligent, wild and very dangerous animals. The only way to help ensure that they are reasonably safe in unpredictable public situations is to use training techniques that are extremely powerful. We know that the training techniques involve some pain and fear.
Whether the training techniques are brutal or abusive doesn’t matter. One may be able to argue in good faith that abusing a creature is ethical for an incredibly important purpose. Or one may be able to argue in good faith that causing pain and fear in a creature is ethical for a really good reason. I might disagree with these arguments, but one may be able to make the arguments in good faith.
In my personal view, the value of entertaining children with an elephant ride is trivial, at best. In other words, what a child receives from riding an elephant is not worth putting the elephant through anything at all. It certainly cannot justify taking elephant babies from their mothers or putting elephants in fear or pain. It certainly cannot justify the risks involved in moving elephants around the country and placing them in unpredictable public situations where they can hurt people.
To me, the only ways to conclude that elephant rides are appropriate is to consider the rides of far greater value than I do or to completely disregard the elephants’ interests. Please do not think that I am placing the elephants’ interests over human interests. I am saying that we must consider the elephants’ interests to ethically decide what to do. And, here, where the value received from elephant rides is so small in comparison to the harms inherent in offering elephant rides, I cannot ethically support the rides.
Now that I have concluded that offering elephant rides at the Fair is unethical, should Aikido’Ka have a booth or perform aikido demonstrations at the Fair? If respect means anything, acting respectfully must include acting ethically.
If Aikido’Ka supports the Fair by participating and paying our fees, then we directly and indirectly support the presence of the elephant rides. We would support the rides directly because HTWT will not be paying the Fair anything at all. So we would, in part, be paying for HTWT’s presence. We would support the rides indirectly by letting the Board know that we will support their decisions even if those decisions are unethical.
We could have a booth and place a banner saying that we don’t support the elephant rides. We cannot do that, because that seems hypocritical to me. We’d be supporting HTWT’s presence, while trying to convince everyone that we didn’t.
For these reasons, and others, we won’t have a booth at this year’s Fair.
Each year at the Fair, we offer a “Fair Special.” The Special is always really good. Since we won’t be at the Fair this year, we’ll be offering a really good “Un-Fair Special.” Please watch for it. We’ll announce it soon.
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