Something unbelievable happened on July 13^th in Carrollton, TX.  A 19 year old construction worker fell down a 55 foot hole at Good Elementary School and survived. The hole was only 33 inches across, barely wide enough for the man’s shoulders to fit in.  Firefighters from both Carrollton and Coppell rushed to the scene and promptly devised a plan to bring the man back up to the surface. (more…)

We have gotten top MMA talent in our corner to help combat bullying.  The guys are doing commercials on their own dime, and really reaching out so we can actually stop this bullying nonsense.  I don’t want to detract one iota from what they are doing for us.  I do, however, want to explore some other viewpoints–and one I found particularly interesting was that of the Ninja.  To get the ninja perspective, we first must look at what bullying really is.  I got a lot of my information from “Mind Fist, The Asian Art of Ninja Masters., Citadel Press 2006, Dr. HaHa Lung”

The great philosopher Babbitt (You know they were cool if they go by only one name) said “he who by causing pain to others wishes to obtain happiness for himself, he, entangled in the bonds of hatred, will never be free from hatred.”

Did you know bullies created kung fu?  They did.  Rewind all the way to 6th century A.D. The peaceful monks at the Shaolin temple in Hunan province, China, were constantly being bullied–beat up and money taken–every time they ventured out of the temple.  The bandits and highwaymen were there and took their peaceful demeanor as weakness.  Totally exploited it.  The more the monks tried to reason with them, the more violent they became. Initially, Kung fu meant “perfect” and “hard work.”  It implied that one was master of his craft–so you’d say “That Stan is a Kung fu plumber, man!”  It came to define a wonderful fighting art.

Well, as it were, a monk master from India paid them a visit–name of Bodhidharma (another one-namer.)  They called him Tamo for short.  Tamo came from a military background before turning in his sword for the ways of the peaceful monks begging bowl.  The cat was no stranger to violence.

So Tamo teaches the monks all these “yoga-like exercises” designed to strengthen them for their many hours of meditation.  Shocker:  The peaceful “yoga-like” stuff happened to also work as hard core kung-fu moves that were totally sick fighting techniques.  Next thing you hear the marauding bandits howling in pain and running for cover.  Then the monks were free to go back to being peaceful–because no fool was about to try and jack them.

I say all that for a reason.  The monks were in need of a way to solve a huge problem.  Bullies.  Their bullies.  Making them miserable.  They did something about it–these Shaolin brothers–and offered the appropriate response.  Bullies always pick the weakest looking targets.  There is no difference between the bullies prowling the dirty Hunan streets and the ones we deal with today.

We run into bully’s everyday–from the playground to the workplace–and sometimes we are the bully.  We want things to go our way and are willing to manipulate sometimes to get it.  We all push the envelope.  Bullies, as you know, push the envelope and stomp it, smash it and destroy the envelope.  It’s their way.

There’s a myth that all bullies are cowards.  Not so.  They pick their prey–and it’s usually the weaker one in the room–they size up the ones least likely to to resist.  They are opportunistic predators waiting for their prey to make a mistake so they can more easily separate them from the herd.

You know, it’s hard for some to equate what they see as “harmless” bullying on the kindergarten playground with some vicious street thug forcefully conning granny out of her pin number or with your horny boss trying to cop a feel every time he catches you at the copier.  But the truth is it’s all bullying.

Bullying is all about invading another’s personal space–from snatching your lunch money with a sucker punch to the gut, to coughing up a degrading, off color racist or sexist punch line every time you happen to walk by–to pouncing on you at the ATM.  (Mind Fist, p. 9)

We see that bullying varies in its level of sophistication–from grabbing your pigtails to grabbing your behind–but it’s all about personal space.

Bullies feed on fear and hesitation, my friend–for every time you walk away or back down from trouble, trouble takes two giant steps into your personal space.

Dom Nation is the MMA World’s answer to bullying. There is an epidemic that is destroying good kids-and it’s directly related to our business, combat. There are some serious punks out there making life miserable for kids either because they’re different or because the bully can’t handle people around him (or her) being happy. The answers involve strength in numbers and making it socially uncool to be a bully. We know this is a huge mountain to climb, and we realize the problem CAN be solved and WILL BE solved. We enlisted some of the best talent in the MMA and were amazed how they “Got it” and jumped onboard. We are excited to be developing the DOM Nation and can’t wait get this bird in the air.