Olivia’s Adoption Diary
Friday March 17, 2006
Sorry not sorry.
This post requires some context. Let me explain…
Way back in 2006 when we were in China adopting our daughter Olivia I began having trouble accessing our travel diary website and was unable to make updates. After some investigation it became pretty clear that China’s country-level firewall had somehow flagged our site and was blocking access to it from within the borders of China. “Well,” I thought, “screw that.” So I went about trying to circumvent this unwarranted censorship and regain access to our website.
Long story short, I figured it out and managed — from the confines of my hotel room in China — to poke a hole in the Great Firewall of China and regain access to my site. I felt pretty proud about that for a number of reasons. Chest thumping ensued. Which was probably both stupid and over-the-top. But hey, if you’ve read our adoption diaries to this point, you can see that that’s pretty much my modus operandi.
I woke up the next day to several panicked e-mails from our adoption agency telling me how “unseemly” I was for daring to post comments critical of the hubris associated with a bureaucratic attempt to lockdown the internet. I was also told that other adoptive families back in the US had complained to the agency that I was being racist against the Chinese people by daring to criticize their government. Frankly I was shocked and wounded. We were in the process of adopting our third child from China and I was being accused of being a racist against my own children‘s nationality.
Basically being threatened by our adoption agency to backtrack on my polemical description of recent events I decided to take the path of least resistance and remove the offending passage from the previous day’s entry and issue an apology (seen below).
This decision never sat right with me, and now, years later, I withdraw — without reservation — the following apology (yet leave it in place for reference). And to any and all of the people who were offended by my original post, I can only say this: go suck eggs. But not Chinese ones. Because that would be unseemly.
Thanks,
Mark
I humbly apologize.
Apparently some recent comments that I had posted to this site have offended some people. For that I apologize. Before I get into the meat of my apology I need to make one thing crystal clear: all stupidity on this site is the responsibility of one person and one person alone — me. Dorothy did not agree with, nor endorse, any of my prior, offensive comments and in fact told me that I should not publish them. I ignored my wife’s sound advice which is reason #592 why it is a miracle that Dorothy stays married to me. Should anyone wish to direct their anger or disgust somewhere, please aim at me an give Dorothy a clear berth. She is everything that is right in this family as I skulk in the shadows shouting rude comments.
With that said: I am sorry. I write for myself and often lose sight of the sensitive nature of the subject I am addressing and revert to crude sarcasm and unfiltered stream of consciousness in my posts. As a guest here in China, I became the obnoxious American — something I despise — and shouted my condescension from these pages. Very uncool. it will not happen again.
I will let the fact that Dorothy and I are adopting our third child from this country testify to my love of both the country of China and the Chinese people. One thing that I would hope that comes through my veil of (ill)humor and sarcasm is what an amazing place I find China to be and how much I respect and care for the Chinese people.
Finally, let me reiterate how little stock people should put in the seriousness of my writings. Humor is subjective and my personal brand is probably more esoteric than most, but it is humor nonetheless. I am sorry if some people take me more serious than I intend to be and I will in the future try to be more cognizant that there are those reading what I write with a more delicate constitution that I tend to write for.
If anyone feels that they need to address any comments or concerns to me directly I would be be more than happy to answer any questions personally. Please either e-mail me here or use the “Contact” form on the site’s home page. I have no problem answering for my stupidity…
Not intending to offend…