Congressional Robotics Caucus

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by dlavery

The message was loud and clear: why in the world are you crawling to Washington to kiss the behind of some twit politician that never got better than a "C" in high school science? Just to beg for financial table scraps from the government? Why don't you think about the organizations that benefit the very most from the research you do - the corporations, the ones that make products (and therefore money) from your research output? Why don't you ask THEM to fund basic research? They are the greatest benefactors, should they not be the greatest contributors? You are attacking an easy source just because it is easy, rather than because it is appropriate. Shame on you.

So what changed Dean's mind? This makes his opinion on politicians (and we all know the official FIRST position on lawyers ) pretty clear. Why have we spent the past several seasons inviting our representation (Senators, Representatives, Governors, etc) to our events?

I'm well aware that FIRST does a fantastic job of recruiting corporations to our cause. I'm just interested as to why FIRST went after the government, especially given these sentiments.

Originally Posted by Dave's Summary of Dean's Words Revised Slightly

why in the world are you is FIRST crawling to Washington to kiss the behind of some twit politician that never got better than a "C" in high school science? Just to beg for financial table scraps from the government? Why don't you think about the organizations that benefit the very most from the research you do students we inspire - the corporations, the ones that make products employ (and therefore make money) from your research output inspired students?