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Whoa Steve!
Steve,
I regret any implications that you, I or we are mere techs serving the needs of what Dwight Eisenhower termed, “The military industrial Complex”. I’d like to think we are making the world a better place to live.
I too served my country…but not in the armed forces. Rather I taught 8 years in the ghettos of the Caribbean arguably one of the most socially and economically deprived communities under the American Flag…and one of the most violent. Violence born of anger and frustration.
One might think working in the tropics is not so much of a sacrifice…and I will happily admit these were the very best years of my life…But the environment, communities and schools I worked in offered both the most enriching and rewarding experiences and the most violent. It was for all practical purposes a war zone…and I carried a pen, not a gun.
Interestingly enough Steve…the US Military stopped all RR on the Island for many years because they were loosing too many soldiers to the local population of bad guys…the kids I worked with. I find that Ironic…but certainly not in any satisfying way.
With respect to the comments that you termed lies and exaggerations…that was not my intent. Obviously I was not as clear as I needed to be, and I touched upon some sensitivities of yours. My point was really a little one. It was about making commitments and accepting consequences…it was about taking risks in an effort to ensure that the larger mission (in this case a robot game) be successful.
Ironically what I was addressing was the fact that every time FIRST authors a game, a game they try very hard to make what people say they want, there are always people who have a problem with it..read the forums…In fact I used to be the biggest offender…All I was suggesting was that what needs to be done to insure the success of the game and therefore the program, was to UNDERSTAND and ACCEPT the rules and play the game for all the right reasons….and since this game has a “Rugged Element”..and since you can’t use your robot again next year…then if any teams WANT to…they can reengineer the robot and come and play a game of BattleBots IQ…it was an invitation…that’s all.
Steve, I was blessed to have had a FIRST team of outstanding students and parents for many years…I was merely a conduit for any awards or accolades that came our way. We all worked tirelessly to promote FIRST…and we still promote FIRST….See Steve…FIRST and BattleBots can be functions in the same expression…they are in fact subsets of a larger order of “Numbers”…do the math Steve. It’s the people, not the game.
I do maintain that there are ironies in this strange and wonderful world we live in…always have been, always will be…and ignoring them won’t make things any better…dealing with the realities of a robot game was all I was trying to talk about…any robot game Steve…Because it’s not the game, it’s the people. There is some important symbolism here, and thinking about it, and talking about it in an effort to understand it will help all of us…Labeling people liars will kinda get in the way of working things out…it sorta puts a damper on things…Getting angry does too…
A robot game is not inherently good or evil…right or wrong, just because you play one game, and someone else plays another kind of game…that does not make you “Better” and them “Worse”.. There are millions of people in the world who do not “Like” the “game” we play Steve…this “game” we call America…and there are people who accept the responsibility and the consequences of ensuring that the “Game” continues. I don’t think any of us would want to demean that in any way…I certainly don’t.
Look…Steve…I’m not looking to change your view, or anyone else’s view of anything…I’m a defender of the right to have opinions…to communicate (without anger or ideologies getting in the way of sensible discussion) ideas so that in the end…everyone can make up their own minds…
Again…I am so sorry for your anger, and for any part I may have had in causing it. Please know, I have no agenda…people here know I respect them, and what they are doing…more than you might imagine. In a way that you cannot yet understand, I am “On your side”….it’s just that I play a different game…but for the same reasons Steve.
I wish you the very best in your efforts to show kids how to do and be something special.
Mike
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