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Being a black belt is similar to being considered a “good” person. You are considered a good person for only as long as you do good.

In 2007, a local television station had a young up-and-coming reporter, Tolly Carr, working for them. He appeared to be a clear-cut all-American guy who had a bright future ahead of him in broadcasting. Then late one night, after drinking too much, he drove his pickup truck around a barricade on a street that was closed for repairs. After reaching 50 mph on a normally 35 mph street, he lost control of the truck, jumped the curb, jumped a wall, and careered into a young man getting ready to enter his home, killing the man. From the very start, Carr was repentant. He refused bail and accepted without argument anything that the justice system did to him. At trial, he plead guilty and said he would accept any sentence awarded him without appeal. Even thought his whole life was in shambles, he said he was wrong, that he caused a man to die, and that he accepted full responsibility for the death. Here is a good man who made a terrible decision to drive one night, but who is willing to do the honorable thing and take his punishment, How many of today's black belts do you think would to the honorable thing in this case, and how many do you think would try to use every legal, or even illegal, loophole possible to avoid taking responsibility for their bad decisions?

Instead of strengthening, the status of the black belt has been weakening for decades. It is now just something you get by just training in the martial arts. If we, as black belts, do not tighten black belt requirements and enforce them, the weakening will continue until the status of the black belt will be meaningless.

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