You gotta fight...for your right...to beeee equal

The first week of the new year is over, and the results of the competition have been announced.  Alas, I did not win...in fact someone else with the last name Robbins won, which essentially means that the "wrong" Robbins won.  But, I want to take a minute to thank all the people who voted for me, who told their friends and families to vote, and who voted with multiple email addresses.  Even though the contest people disqualified me for 5 days (before I got them to reinstate me into the competition) because they believed that there was an "unnatural number of votes for my entry in a very short period of time" (thus, in their minds, *necessarily* constituting voter fraud, since, G-d forbid, people actually like my blog at the same time), I ended up with 1124 votes, when all was said and done (and after they took away 100+ votes of mine).  By the numbers, it looks like I ended up in 3rd place, but there's no way to know for sure about the validity of the votes received by the two people with higher numbers than mine.

At first, I was disappointed -- who wouldn't have loved winning tens of thousands of dollars' worth of travel?  Hell, that's what I spend my money on anyway, so why not just cut out the middle man?  But then, upon further reflection, I realized that the competition was the very antithesis of its intended purpose.  If the purpose was to allow someone the $70,000+ opportunity to travel to 8 different destinations and blog about it, what the contest people essentially did was further polarize the blogger from the "bloggees."  The average person doesn't have the opportunity to do what the grand prize allows this contest's winner to do.  And it is very unlikely that the people whom the winner will encounter on each of these trips will have had a similar opportunity.  Thus, the true winners -- I believe -- are the people who make this grand prize happen for themselves.  16 trip packages (8 trips for 1 +guest) do not just fall into one's lap with no strings attached.



Am I bitter that I didn't win?  No -- a little disappointed, but not bitter.  Would I like to have won? Of course.  Do I hold a grudge against the "other" Robbins?  No.  Since she won the competition, she should get the grand prize.  I don't know if I'll check back to see her blogs or not whenever she ends up taking her trips, but I do know that the perspectives of someone who receives $70,000+ worth of opportunities on one winter day in January are going to be vastly different from someone who works for those same opportunities every day of his/her life.  That doesn't make one viewpoint any "better" than another, but I think it needs to be acknowledged that every day, people fight to survive and to make life better for themselves and their families, and it's *those* people who deserve a wealth of opportunities.

So, although I stand on the 3rd place step of the podium, perhaps it's not so bad...after all, I'm the closest to the ground or, in other words, closer to the people.  And therein emerges a new interpersonal relationship in looking into the eyes of the person in front of you, rather than looking down on them.  (Note: I'm only 5'5", so even though I'd be on that 3rd place step, I'd still be looking into the eyes of the people in front of me, if not up at them.)

Thanks again to all of you for all of your help. You have given me new insight that will only continue to fuel my drive.  Now let's raise our glasses and toast to the creation of an extended community of hard workers and equality fighters...but since equality doesn't fight for itself, put those glasses down and let's get back to work.