apologies

Recieved an email from a friend who called me out.......no problem admitting when i am wrong.  His email is located below my apology, which deals with the kcsandbagger blogs and some of the comments i made in response to a post about me and some comments made to me.  i figured i would post it here as a blanket apology to anyone who was offended by some off-color and angry words.




mark,

your point is well taken.  no, you were not lecturing too much.  with your email i began to reflect on some of my 'choice' words.  i do admit to the 'v' word, i dont remember any disparaging comments about homosexuals, but that doesn't mean my inappropriate rear-end didn't make any, and i am sure i used other inappropriate words.  so if you could forward this to anybody who you might feel like I may have insulted, i would appreciate it.  unfortunately, i did not take the initial post about me and the 2 previous guys who were called out as a joke.  i have and still do have a hard time taking 'grief' from someone i dont know or an anonymous person.  whatever.....no excuses.  yes, the blog has turned, at times, very insulting and mean spirited.  for the last few days i have stayed out of it, and those are my intentions.  i think i have made my feelings known(for good or bad):). and yes i believe i added fuel to their fire and obviously played into some peoples hands.  live and learn i guess. i gave them basically what they wanted and that pisses me off as well.  i am the only one to blame for that.  like i said, i have no intention of adding more fuel to their fire.  there are gonna be 'taylor haters' out there.  nothing i can do about it.  all that is important are the people i consider friends ad their opinions of me.  if those friends and family included are good with me, then i have nothing to worry about.  

i appreciate the email and the 'wake-up' call, mark.

so here goes....to anybody i have offended or insulted by my rash and immature words in responding to a 'tongue in cheek' blog, i sincerely apologize.  my sexist and insensitive comments were said out of anger and were out of line.  i hope the offended can forgive me, especially those i dont know well.  this is not the light i wanted to portray the Slimen or the Local cycling teams in, and for that i am truly sorry as well.

I am sorry for all the b.s. , mark and teresa.

again...please forward to all localcycling racers or anyone else you think needs to here my apology.

sincerely, 

josh taylor 

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From: mark@localcycling.com
To: byknfyr@hotmail.com
Subject: sandbaggerkc
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:33:23 -0600

Josh,

Just got back from Europe and got to check out the SandbaggerKC drama. My initial reaction to the site (we saw the first couple of postings while we were in Belgium), was that it was kind of funny. The writing at first wasn’t bad for parody. BUT I think it devolved pretty quickly and got a lot more mean spirited. I think it was still intended to be tongue-in-cheek, just poorly executed.

I think most people are quite aware that you’re not a ‘sandbagger’. However, you really played into the hands of the site’s writer with your reaction. So did quite a few others. He (or more likely, they) poked you, got a reaction and ran with it. It kind of became a situation as if you had written in to Saturday Night Live about a sketch that beat up on some one you liked. Or wrote a letter to National Lampoon after they skewered something.  National Lampoon used to post ‘real’ letters from people they pissed off. It added to the comedy.

Parody isn’t real, and it’s usually better to ignore it if you don’t like it

The bottom line is that ‘Jackass’ style humor is popular for very short runs. You probably added 15 more minutes to the site’s life.

I originally was going to give the site a mention (not necessarily positive) on localcycling.com, but I’m probably going to hold off. I’m not squeamish, but I try to keep things semi-family friendly, and Sandbagger is rated ‘R’.

Another issue I’d like to mention is the rhetoric and language that gets tossed about.

Cycling has lots of ‘boys’ in the population. And sometimes our language (mine included) can be taken the wrong way by others.

A lot of folks toss out words like ‘gay’ and ‘pussy’ to bag on somebody. The problem is that there are some pretty cool folks around us ‘boys’ that might find that banter offensive. The Slimenundgrossen side of the team is made up of mostly males, but the localcycling.com squad has a more diverse makeup. There are straight and gay members of our team, women and men. We also have a Supporters Club that understands the ties between our two teams, and are planning on being more involved at races this next year.

We have members of the team that are gay and others that have vaginas. They probably agree with you that the blog author is an asshole. So maybe that’s a better choice?

I’m of the Charles Barkley camp that athletes aren’t role models, but at the same time, I think it benefits all to think about what kind of respect we earn/give as individuals.

I also know you’re a very good hearted individual and your choice of words probably reflects cultural insensitivity, not Josh’s insensitivity.

Hope that wasn’t too much lecture. I’m ready for some base miles, a little running and a good road season this year. My back is much improved. I’ve got some cool plans for the Wed. Hill Ride.

Regards,

Mark

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