As a member of the team responsible for the passing out of American flags to each team, I feel obliged to respond.
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American $@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#
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First off, the title - please be more courteous - this type of language is not acceptable here.
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...constant references to American high schools and American students.
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FIRST was created as a response to a problem unique to the culture of the United States. We have one of the most technologically advanced societies on Earth, but we value those people doing the innovating and creating the technology less than, say, Japan or Germany. This is why it is still a priority of FIRST to still develop more teams in the US, as opposed to those in Canada, Europe, or South America.
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This year there was an amazing expansion of FIRST in Canada. It went from 3 teams last year to 26 teams and a new regional! Canadian teams went from 0 awards in all other years to 13 awards! .... Why wasn't any of this mentioned? This is some really amazing stuff!
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Mentioned where? Lots of teams have great stories to tell. So they tell them here, on the CD forums, or they tell them in a Chairman's award presentation, or they'll tell them to a Judge when he or she comes by to interview them about their efforts in the competition.
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...extra long national anthems...
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The Liberty Singers (I think that's their name) sing the US's national anthem a lot. The way they sing it is the way they always sing it. They are a patriotic American singing group. It's kind of what they do. And to put it in perspective, the NHL has been an international league for far longer than FIRST, and those things still feature fans who insist on booing at the Canadian National Anthem. FIRST fans at least show respect.
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...an obsession with the American flag.
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118 is responsible for much of this. We passed out two American flags to each team. We did consider the possibility of printing Canadian and Brazillian flags as well, but in the end, decided against it. Six hundred flags is enough. Does this make us overzealous patriots worthy of scorn? Most people actually kind of liked the flags.
Shouldn't this be spelled with a 'z'? I guess it's a grey area.
Bottom line, don't take everything so seriously. The people giving the speeches are taking time away from their day jobs, reading speeches written too quickly and with incomplete knowledge about the competiton. They are there because they think FIRST is a good idea, not to slight Canadians.