Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
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.
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I'd like to second what Richard says here.
For FIRST to continue inspiring as it does, we need to be ever vigilant of FIRSTs core values.
We need to keep tabs on our own competitiveness, because we (by nature) are a competitive species, and we like to win. This is a competition and the goal of a competition is to win, but it is what we do to achieve that goal that defines the person and that is where we need to be vigilant.