Desperately searched for the video of this moment, but couldn’t find it.
*High school students from 340 teams, their robots, and a hodgepodge of mascots—a pirate, a hammerhead shark, what appeared to be a cross between a superhero and a tick—crowded into the Georgia Dome for the opening ceremonies to two full days of back-to-back robotic bouts. Or, as President George H. W. Bush put it to the several thousand people packed into the stands, an "event kind of like World Wrestling Federation, but for smart people."
FIRST has come a long way since President Bush witnessed its inaugural game in a New Hampshire high school gymnasium in 1992. But one thing hasn’t changed. Society still worships people who can throw a touchdown pass or a 95-mph fastball, he acknowledged, but what we really need are kids who “have a vision, work as hard and smart as [they] can to make it happen, and have fun along the way… kids like you all.” Then he gave a Presidential order no one there could resist: “Now go invent something.”*
I remember this moment in 2008. It wasn’t announced ahead of time. All of a sudden, dozens of secret service folks just started appearing out of nowhere in the dome. There was a buzz around the dome of people speculating what was happening, who was going to come on stage. Then word got around that former president Bush was there, and people started rushing toward that side of the dome to hear him speak. It was very cool.
This was my first Championship I attended. Hearing him speak so highly of the students, mentors, and teachers in the audience was very inspirational. It felt like he truly cared about the cause.
Thanks for making this thread, he did great things for our community and will be missed.
One of my favourite memories about that Championship was how impressed the Secret Service agents all seemed to be by the robots they saw. I distinctly remember one turning to his partner and saying “yeah, these are the kids we’ll be protecting in 30 years”.
I remember seeing the secret service folks walking around and wondered who was coming, we knew it couldn’t be the president because it was too easy to get into the dome.
We will all remember “It’s like WWE, but for smart people!” One of my favorite championship moments.
I was there too. I was a ref for FLL. We were sitting near the front of the stands, because after opening ceremonies we’d be moving our table onto and in front of Einstein. I was near the end of a row by the entrance to the arena floor. We could lean over and see him coming in.
Rather than delete all of my posts in this thread, I’ll leave this up and edit the message.
I completely failed to do the right thing here. I got defensive after doing a terrible job of trying to make a point and reacted badly.
I’ve received mountains of criticism for it – justifiably so – and regret what I’ve done.
This isn’t the right time or place for me to be participating on these forums, let alone moderating them. I’ve asked Brandon to remove my account.
I absolutely agree here, Dean has been way more insulting to actual athletes on numerous occasions. Not to mention how many times Dean insults blue collar and trade workers in America.
Let’s please keep this thread free of rude comments, this thread is not about who gets offended by what. We should be celebrating a man’s life who was a big advocate of FRC.
If you were only “choosing not to celebrate this” I wouldn’t be upset. What it looks like you are doing is choosing to insult a person in the middle of a thread memorializing them on the day of their death.
I only expressed my hope for a future wherein we decide not to demean others while celebrating ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less.
My first post had little to do with my feelings about Bush; I was rather struck, instead, by how that seemed to be his legacy among folks here – that people remembered and liked that he called other people dumb.
I just wish we wouldn’t do that. I wish we embraced a culture that celebrated everyone and that was about something more than replacing jocks with nerds at the top of the social ladder.
I’m sorry y’all are upset by what I had to say; I am not trying to piss people off, I promise. It’s been reported plenty of times and I’ll accept whatever consequence the other moderators think is appropriate, but it hurts my heart to see us celebrate someone who hurt so many others. There were no threads for them and no memorials.
If you want memorials for those people make them. Don’t tear down others.
You’re right, we get what we celebrate. By celebrating all the crap things a person did we are just going to get more of that. H.W. made decisions many disagree with, you can CHOOSE to focus on that or you can choose to focus on the positive things. People are complex and do many things in their lives… I’m sure you’ve done things that people don’t approve of. How would you feel if people defined you ONLY by that choice?