This is why I'm hot

Kayle Leogrande was my friend once. I have t-shirts he gave me with his tattoo designs on him. I made him CDs because we shared taste in music. One of his paintings hangs a wall in my condo.

Then he failed an A sample.

I called him out for it to his face, telling him if he tested positive I don't know would upset me more, that he was a doper, or that Steve Tilford would have ended up the amateur national crit champion. Kayle pretty much never spoke to me again after that, even though I continued to give him the benefit of the doubt; for a while anyway. Kayle's B sample was negative, but eventually it was pretty clear what was going on. You don't climb like a motorbike when you're built like a motorbike unless you're actually on a motorbike.

Kayle told one of my teammates he didn't like me because I was self-righteous. Some people apparently can't tell the difference between righteousness and self-righteousness. When you're clean on principle, and you've consciously given up a certain level of success and income by staying clean and staying true to your principles, that's righteousness. Walking the walk is righteousness. I can put my money where my mouth is, and have a personal pride dopers can never have, no matter how they justify what they do.

"X on my hand, now take the oath, to positive youth, to positive growth." I may enjoy beer in my old age, but the moral code and principles of straight edge, the reasons you choose that path in the first place if it's sincere and not out of fashion, those principles guide you for the rest of your life. "True 'till death." You leave the self-righteous part behind, learn that life isn't black and white, understand that the concept of "if you're not now you never were" is fascism, and stay with the righteous part, the good for it's own sake part.

Anyway, I'm drifting off into a rant about straight edge now, which was not my intention, even though the issues are related for me. Kayle got off on that first A sample positive at crit nats when his B sample was negative, but you know the rest of the story. If I call out a doper for being a doper who turns out to be a doper, then my righteousness is justified.

Watch (or listen) to this while you can, because I'm sure it won't be up for long:

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