Civil debates and dissenting opinions

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by MrJohnston

* Some folks said that they agreed with my thoughts but feared stepping into the conversation. I sent them a note back, asking "why." The response: A fear of physical reprisal against their team. Really? I'm shocked. We spend a lot of long hours together and competing. We get tired. We make mistakes. Some conflict is simply going to happen: We are hall human. However, if we have mentors fearing a physical reprisal from another mentor, we have more serious issues.

I think I saw the thread most people are referencing, although I'm not 100% sure, a lot of them were talking about essentially the same topic over and over.

Either way, I think everyone was getting pretty defensive by the end of it and things obviously escalated to a level of disrespect that I don't anyone is really proud of today.

But, never even once have I thought about or feared any sort of physical confrontation between one mentor and another at a FIRST competition. Maybe within my own team, things could have gotten heated enough that something could have happened, but definitely not with another team.

Online disagreement or arguement...yes, a team being "black-listed" temporarily...maybe, fearing phyisical confrontation from another mentor...that seems pretty out there.

But, if that is the case then you are correct, there is a pretty serious issue that needs to be addressed.

It's interesting that some people are being called "FIRST Royalty" as something that is condesending, like they annointed themselves this title. I think I know some of them personally, and if anything they have been raised to these "cult" level statuses not by themselves but by all the people in the FIRST community that they have helped.

I'm pretty sure none of them are going to confront someone in a physical manner. But like I said, maybe I'm just not as well informed as I think I am.

-Adam