Who do I still think I am??

This one's about competition, the long and hard way.

BCF PROMPT: "Are you competitive?"

'Sup y'all? Believe it or not (and contrary to what I'm about to say), I'm in a good mood. But I think that's all going to go away the longer I keep typing, unless I find myself at the end of this particular entry having made a point. See, I wanted to take the easy way out today and fluff up my words with bravado and bombastic sentiments, but I'm not feeling it.

First things first...am I competitive? Yes. Well...no. I used to be. I was really competitive, maybe even to a fault, when I was younger. I had to win, even if I had to make a game out of everything to prove that I could be better than anyone at anything. Even if it was only to prove something to myself. It could've been something so insignificant...you know how people who have a gambling problem will try to bet you <name your price> that you can't make par during a round of golf, or what color the next car that turns the corner will be, or that you're wrong about the band that sang that one song that reached number whatever on the Billboard Rock Chart forty years ago and was never heard from again? That was me and competition.

Like I said, it was because I felt like I always had something to prove. Why? I don't know. I can speculate 'til the our eyeballs roll toward the backs of our heads...maybe it was self-esteem issues, environment, or numerous other things. The point is, if there was a reason for me to try and beat you at something, I found it and I'd take you up on it.

And then, it didn't feel as important competing. Something snapped inside me, I suppose. I don't feel the need anymore to prove anything (and always feeling the need to prove myself in just about every situation is a story for another time). Maybe it's maturity or wisdom or something I'm not even aware of. At least I'd like to think so.

Or at least I'd like to think that my level of compete (ex-Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff used to like to use the word that way..."I really liked his compete on the ice today") wasn't compromised by some of the large corporations in this world that I've worked for in the past. I wonder if the massive amounts of figures and data that were manufactured and inflated to ensure competition between peers, stores, districts and other companies didn't warp my own sense of competition.

Some large chains set goals in a variety of categories that they expect stores and personnel to achieve. That's what you're measured against when it comes time to rate your performance, because numbers never lie (supposedly). Raw data, however, doesn't always paint the clearest picture. It's the equivalent of leaving out key details in a story versus lying in order to not sound guilty, if that makes sense (and it does in my head but I probably didn't word it right). For example, you can receive a printout that'll tell you your sales for the month of December are down x% from last year, but that printout won't tell you that your city received three times as much snow in the sales period this year when compared to the same time last year. Or, to go back to hockey again (or any sport for that matter), players and coaches are often judged by statistics: goals/points, wins and losses, etc. But the job of an analyst is to show you the things that are happening outside of measurable data. Between training and experience, they can paint you a more complete picture of a player, team, game or situation than the average person who's just tuning in with a newspaper and a can of beer in his hand will be able to tell you about.

Remember at the onset of this entry how I mentioned something about typing and making a point? Here's where things are about to get tricky. Take a look at the following picture.

(Image Courtesy of http://www.trendingbuffalo.com/life/digital-finds/holy-crap-wben/)

Buffalo had a great opportunity today to show the world what an awesome city it is when President Obama came around to give a speech about education. Instead, the city damn near shot itself in the foot by the ignorance and hatred that picture spawned. It's almost embarrassing to talk about, because I'm ashamed that in 2013 people anywhere (especially those from my hometown) can find reasons in even the most innocent (or even clichéd) occurrences to spread racially motivated and highly inappropriate and insensitive rhetoric.

A local radio station posted that picture on their Facebook page under the caption "This one should stir things up". It's worth noting that this same station used to be a widely respected pillar in the community of fair and balanced news reporting that was accurate and held not only high moral standards, but also a large cache of integrity. Unfortunately, and it's not just in the Buffalo market but all across America, as I'm sure you know, radio stations are just media pawns for huge corporations now, and everybody's fighting over one thing: the almighty dollar of advertising revenue.

I'm not going to get into what was said, and I'm hesitant to even promote this thread of the conversation any further. If you're willing to put your politics in your pocket for a minute though, go here https://www.facebook.com/WBEN930 and scroll down to the picture so you can see for yourself just how terrible some people can be. It's disgusting (and normally I'm the last person who says "Do this, it's terrible!" but trust me...) that this exists period, let alone in my old community.

Thankfully, I have yet to see this cute photo op/outrage/heinous grouping of verbal exchanges get picked up by any national media. And while it's a crazy and unfortunate situation, we can't underscore enough what's really at play in all of this: competition. A radio station with a large following of mostly conservative, Republican-leaning types takes a simple picture, slaps a few words over it that they know full well are going to incite people with nothing else to do but sing the refrain of the company line over and over, and it gets ugly fast. The liberals are all "aww, how cute", the conservatives start talking about everything under the sun Obama's done wrong and everything he should be doing except kissing a baby, and all of the sudden people are calling other people "Hitler" and "racist" and a great opportunity is tainted in the eyes of many by this incident. But that's not my point, which I've managed to stray away from (and isn't exactly news in itself either).

Everything nowadays runs on advertising. That's what pays the bills and takes care of the overhead. Every website known to man has advertising on it, and some (like WDC for example) will allow you to view their site without ads- for a fee, of course...because that lost advertising money has to be made up somehow. And corporations that are in the business of anything these days- name it- are in a race for one thing: money. Specifically, the money that's in our pockets. They're competing over every last penny...banks, bakers, automobiles, electronics, hell, even morticians, because someone's gotta make a profit off a corpse if there's a market for it.

And it pains me to say it, but racism is a competition as well. Scrolling through the comments regarding the Obama picture above, it's obvious that a lot of the same prejudices felt in the quote-unquote Civil Rights Movement era are still in practice today as well. Group A thinks Group B is notoriously lazy or a detriment to society, and Group B thinks Group C is inferior, and Group C says Group A doesn't know what it's talking about. What doesn't turn into a headline or an immediate profit turns into a chess match of "we're right, you're wrong, and here's why". And when discussion becomes an argument, (among many other things) out comes competition to show you who's boss, in many forms. In case you were wondering, most of them aren't pretty.

So there we are as a society in 2013. Backwards as ever. I came across something else, which I assume is in reference to the blow-up over the picture, that I find interesting...I'm not gonna quote it verbatim because I'm taking it only at face value and I'd be using it without permission, but I think it's worth noting. Only a very small fraction of people in America are actually that ignorant and insensitive enough to use racially motivated ideas and actions for what they perceive to be some kind of strange personal gain or benefit, but that minority is also the loudest. They have no problem conveying how much they hate something that isn't the same as what they believe (and that's true for both sides of the fence). All they're really doing is making more noise than the next guy. Chances are, what they're saying isn't necessarily right or wrong. They're just trying to win out.

That's why I usually just keep to myself (outside of what I've said in this entry) about politics and other topics that people carry such strong emotional opinions on. There's just no point in arguing or contesting points with some people because no matter why they may or may not be right, they're going to be louder because they think that bigger/bolder/flashier/nastier wins. And that's not always the case.

It may have taken me awhile and I may have went in a roundabout sort of way, but I think I actually accomplished what I set out to do.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

I'm sick of talking about competition.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

220: Comments visible (as of approximately 7:30pm) on WBEN's Facebook posting of Obama kissing the baby. More than a few that weren't of the racially insensitive kind were of the "The poor kid looks scared" or "This kid's gonna be scarred for life" variety. Unbelievable...yet it kinda is.

Any other time the POTUS drops by Buffalo and screws up the mayor's name, it'd be the biggest story of the day. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/22/obama-mixes-up-buffalos-mayor-congres...

And that's as good a place as any to wrap things up for the night. Peace, stop running a race that can't be won y'all, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!