[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by lingomaniac88

People involved in FIRST today will pass the fundamentals of FIRST, such as gracious professionalism, to incoming members. They will pass them down to other people, and the cycle will continue.

Originally Posted by EricH

... Do you know how, say, Native American cultures were kept? They had storytellers, sages, and the like. They passed on their legends and culture to the next generation. So will we.

I really hope the vision of FIRST's future expressed above is proved correct in my great-great-grandchildren's time.

Lest we too-quickly condemn athletics, recall the old maxim that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. In their late 19th- and early 20th-century beginnings, athletic programs representing schools and colleges were aimed at developing core values we recognize in FIRST: sportsmanship, inspiration, commitment, perseverance. In their early years, athletic programs were intended to change the culture to one that honored those values, and in which opportunity would come to those who practiced them -- not just to the children of the upper classes. Those who pioneered athletics, whose names are now remembered mostly by the their connection to awards, surely did not envision a world in which young people would aspire to athletic careers as a means to riches and celebrity.