Recently I received a friendly warning from a list moderator on
another list, requesting me to not use certain words. While I
disagree on principle, I agreed because he is, after all, the list
moderator.
But then I got to fussing around, and I wrote a friendly(I hope) note
back. Okay, a ramble. But I decided to post it here and see what
folks thought about the subject. I did remove the moderator's name,
but I left my vulgar words in place. So, if your delicate nature is
easily offended please exercise your Delete finger.
Carl Jarvis
*****
And a Good Friday Morning to you, Moderator.
I agree to play by the rules, and will keep my f--king opinions to myself.
But, as my mother was fond of saying, "Just between you and me and the
Gate Post", I find our American fear of certain words to be another
symptom of a bigger problem, that is our unwillingness to accept one
another, non judgmentally.
By my telling you that certain words are taboo, I am not communicating
with you, I am controlling you. When I write s--t, you know good and
well that I would have said "Shit" if we had been speaking face to
face. I wonder why we come to believe that f--k is not offensive, but
fuck, is?
I know, I know...I'm rambling, but the subject is interesting to me,
and I think better when I'm pecking along on my keyboard. Back when I
was young and very judgmental. and a womanizer born and bred, and a
snob, which means that I was a White Supremacist, and an elitist who
believed that we educated people were the rightful ones to run our
nation. I recall making fun of the bumbling speech of Black athletes.
Funny, these guys could do stuff my poor body could never do, and yet
I judged them by the words they spoke, and the manner in which they
fractured the language. It was years before I came to understand that
how they expressed themselves verbally, had nothing to do with their
skill level. But it had everything to do with the social climate in
which we were raised.
Most of us develop our verbal skills from our parents. My buddy would
drop by and get into deep conversation with my dad. My buddy was
certain he could convert my dad to understanding the conservatives
side of politics. But my buddy was no match for Dad, either in his
subject, or the way he presented it. He couldn't say more than a few
words without saying, "Shit!"(S--t!). My dad did not seem to notice,
but later told me that anyone who resorted to using vulgar words, was
verbally bankrupt. But I had been around my buddy's house when his
dad was home. He tossed out profanity like it was cotton candy. In
my home I can only recall Dad saying one vulgar phrase, he and a buddy
were singing, "You're in the Army now, not behind the plow. You'll
never get rich, you Son of a Bitch..." I stopped in my tracks and
stared at these two young men, singing at the top of their lungs. Did
my dad really sing, Son of a Bitch?
And one time in all my growing up did I ever hear my mother use
profanity. We were in the kitchen of our new house, looking out the
back window. "That neighbor's house is the color of baby Shit!"
mother told me. My jaw dropped. But mother could say words like
Beer, so they sounded like swearing. She was a woman who never lost
control, and believed that drinking alcohol would cause her to lose
control, so until she was in her 60's she never drank anything. Then,
very suddenly, she began drinking Blackberry Cordial and White
Cadillac's.
So this ramble is a long way around the point that vulgar words were
never in my language skill, but by the same time I never found them
offensive when others used them. Oh sure, when some large drunk got
in my face and shouted, "I'm gonna smash your fucking face!", I did
find such talk to be offensive...even frightening.
But still...I understand that some folks are offended by words. As if
words ever hurt them! For me, it's the actions of others that offend
me. Donald Trump oozing at the Navajos with the portrait of Old
Hickory behind. That spoke volumes about the level of contempt Donald
Trump held for American Indians. The one president whose picture I
would have turned to face the wall during such a meeting.
And it was not Donald Trump's use of the word Pussy that made an
impression on me, I've certainly been around lockers, bars and work
gangs enough to have heard every gross word ever designed, but it was
the way in which Donald Trump said it. If the word Pussy offends some
on the list, then I hope they are also even more offended by the
degrading manner in which it was delivered. There's another four
lettered word to describe Donald Trump, Scum! And poor, dumb, silly
little Billy Bush. His entire career went down the tube when he gave
that nasty little giggle. I hope he revisits that moment over and
over. His big hero, Donald Trump kicked him to the curb. Just locker
room talk? No! Donald Trump's manner was Degrading to every woman who
ever lived.
Donald Trump is the incarnation of everything ugly that ever came out
of our Great White, Corporate Empire. And we're going to focus on
"P---y"? I'm not trying to convert anyone, Just going off because
I am filled with rage over where these Slick, Fancy Pants are taking
the American working class. That would include you and me.
Although I still have tons to say, and although I still have two yummy
pieces of "C's" chocolates left, and although Cathy and her sister
have headed out to feed the horses and drive into Sequim to pick up
several bales of hay before the rain returns, I suspect that I should
come to an end.
Thanks for listening...if you're still reading this.
And hang in there, and keep an open mind. The world is changing so
fast that we have to work hard to stay up with it. I do feel some
sorry for those folk who are so set in cement that they are locked
away in some "Let's Pretend" world.
Carl Jarvis
***