Dean Kamen, Manual Laborers, and You

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by gvarndell

Not to invalidate your feelings (nor anyone's feelings) about the statement.

I'm not a manual laborer -- I'm a teacher. (Ok, and a part-time beekeeper. Which is manual labor. But that doesn't really count.)

I'm also nearly impossible to offend.

The mentor I quoted, however, is a manual laborer, he chose to be a manual laborer, he loves what he does, and he (rightfully) thinks that his place in society should be valued.

Dean was talking *to* the kids, yes, but he was talking *about* the economy as a whole. He specifically said that we don't want the old jobs back (which is hard to hear when you know a lot of people who would really, really, REALLY like to have their old jobs back -- there's a lot more pride in swinging a hammer than being on welfare).

...and Dean was also talking to everyone watching the international broadcast, be it via NASA or the internet. His audience was a lot more than those kids.

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The bottom line of my issue here is that his comment very likely cost my small, rural team mentors and sponsors that they cannot afford to lose. Speeches being what they are, they shouldn't be negatively impacting teams.

Whether or not you agree with my gripe about the speech, I'm certain that I'm not the only person with the same take on it -- nor my mentors the only mentors, nor my sponsors the only sponsors.