Tejas Rob Jan 19, 2019

Well, I'm sure I'll be attacked for this because the outrage machine has already chosen sides, but in my opinion both sides here were wrong.

Mr. Phillips broke away from the march and approached these kids, he was wrong to do that but these kids were still very disrespectful.

In my opinion Mr Phillips was also wrong in his interview when he said "we didn't have walls", which is generally true but the tribes did have their own territory and other tribes were to respect that territory and not come onto it without permission. So we did have borders which we expected others to respect. You could pay a heavy price if you did not.

So Mr. Phillips should know this and understand why people expect their borders and territory to be respected. He should also know sometimes this territory was took by force by one tribe from another. None of us in all humankind are innocent when it comes to that.

But these kids should be taught that sometimes tribes shared land and allowed other tribes to pass when it involved feeding themselves or escaping to a safer place.

So while I think Mr Phillips is a good man and was trying to do something good, he went about it in the wrong way and instead forced a confrontation. He should have asked the people who were in charge of these kids if he could speak to them and try to have a conversation. I think he missed a chance to teach the younger generation or at least have them hear a respectful but different point of view.

And to be clear, I do not excuse what these young men did. I hope there can still be a learning moment for them from this.