I wanted to take a moment and express to you my pleasure in having recently seen two different articles relating to the martial arts in the Bangor Daily News.

The first article appeared in the Jan. 9 edition and pertained to women’s self-defense. The second was more recent and pertained to the Chinese style, Tai Chi. As a former student of Kempo Karate and various other systems and styles over the last 10 or so years, I’ve discovered many benefits relating to the study of the martial arts. Almost anyone can benefit from martial arts study and the age of the student is virtually unimportant.

Unfortunately, as with so many things in this world, there are frauds and phonies. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to check the credentials of your prospective instructor. In the Greater Bangor area, we are lucky to have a number of excellent schools and instructors.

Again I applaud the Bangor Daily News for these two excellent and informative articles. Keep up the good work. Chris Greely Bangor