When is an award not REALLY an award?

Today we had our 2nd annual managers meeting at work. This is where the GM shows us how our location finished with regards to the rest of our group. Then there was the awards portion of the event. My team was awarded the Palmetto Execution award. Sounds fancy doesn't it? I mean it's no Medal of Honor but it is a very nice crystal trophy to put on my desk. (yet another thing to clutter up my desk. I manage by piles, but that's not the point.) The root of this whole post is that not only did I win this award, so did 4 other people! Not that they weren't deserving, but it kind of takes the "special-ness" out of it. (Insert short-bus joke here) It would be one thing if it were 5 out of 80 people, but it was 5 out of 12! YAY! I am in the top half. You might say I am the cream of the crap. Since when do we reward mediocrity? This is America. The reason we don't watch the WINTER OLYMPICS is because we suck at it. If we aren't winning gold medals we aren't playing. Being the best and bieng proud of it is what separates us from all of the other countries. The French are perfectly happy talking with thier snooty little accents and looking down their nose at you while we are pounding their face in on the basketball court. Tiger Woods was once quoted as saying: "I don't care if we are playing golf or checkers, I not only want to beat you, I want to destroy you." (Ok so I am paraphrasing) Don't you think this might have something to do with him being so doggone good? So...Who decided that we need to give out participation trophies? Who decided we don't need to keep score at tee-ball. Keeping score is a fact of life. We are always comparing ourselves to those around us. If you think you are protecting these kids and "helping them have a positive self image" you're crazy. In life there are winners and losers. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. It's how you handle yourself in both victory and in defeat that show's your true character. If we start giving out warm-fuzzy participation trophies we will wind-up with a country full of whiney sore-losers. Oh wait, I guess we are already there.