[Gabriel]

Here's a question for you guys - Under the Constitution, the Federal Government has very limited power. So, in 1964, what Federal power did Congress use to establish the Civil Rights Act that helped ensure African Americans could vote, desegregated the south and prevented employment discrimination?

Why the power of Congress to regulate Interstate Commerce!

Apparently, when they had to solve a desperate problem a bunch of lawyers got together and came up with a clever solution and they managed to help solve an enormous social problem despite massive opposition. Not too shabby.

I think a lot of engineers involved in FIRST have to deflate their professional egos a little. Its not what you do for a living that matters but who you are as a person. There are plenty of wonderful engineers out there and plenty of bad ones (Usama Bin Laden for example), just as there are plenty of good lawyers out there and plenty of bad ones.

Alright, you guys are going to flame me for this one, but I'm going to say it anyway:

I hate to say it but I think that there is a fundamental flaw in the FIRST philosophy and that is that many leaders in FIRST choose to promote engineering as a contrast to something they say is bad, like law or entertainment. There's nothing WRONG with wanting to be an entertainer, and I can't believe the number of people who roll their eyes every time Dean says he's rescuing American youth from dreaming about being rockstars. Engineering is a wonderful profession, but we should be inspiring people by being positive about science and math and technology rather than being negative about what other people do.

I think that it is the height of hypocrisy for Dean Kamen to talk about the problems with our media-oriented culture when he refuses to learn anything about or participate in any way in that culture! I think that it is the height of hypocrisy for him to run a business that relies on influencing legislation (the legislative affairs people at Segway were so powerful they actually ran the sales department at one time) and then turn around and pretend that lawyers are the scum of the earth.

The world needs lawyers, and it needs engineers and entertainers and scientists, but it mostly needs good people who are passionate about what they believe in whatever field they go into.