Your comment made me grin. Your choice of words are exactly what I
hear whenever Cathy becomes super frustrated. I told her that it was
the Seattle Police Department that corrupted her, since she never used
such language when we were dating. Hmm...maybe that had something to
do with it, too.
I agree with you regarding Amy Goodman. If you're quoting someone,
then by cracky, quote them.
But I do swear far more than my parents did. And my grandparents
never, never spoke a naughty word, unless they did it when only the
two of them were alone. But times have changed. When I was young we
were scolded if we said, "Jeez!" Might as well have said, "Crap".
Mother kept a bar of Ivory soap for cleaning the dirty words out of
our sweet little mouths. But anyway, thanks for giving me something
to smile about...thinking of you all alone, banging your fist on the
table and shouting, "Fuck it!" It doesn't seem to be the same person
I've come to know through our email. Just goes to show you.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/1/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I do think that this emphasis on deleting certain words from our language is
ill advised. What absolutely drives me crazy is when Amy Goodman is quoting
a racist cop, but substitutes the phrase, "the N word", for the word,
"nigger", which is what the cop actually said. It's one thing to agree that
using such a word in relation to another person is unforgiveable, but it's
quite another to remove the word from the language entirely, when one is
quoting another person. This came to mind that day when I heard one of Paul
Robeson's renditions of Old Man River on Flashpoints in which the word,
"nigger", appears. Robeson sang the song as it was apparently, originally
written. And that did not diminish Paul Robeson in any way. Because I use
the words "fuck" and "fucking" to myself here in the privacy of my home
every time I am massively frustrated by something or other, I certainly
can't make judgments about anyone else's use of those words or others, that
are equally emotionally expressive.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2017 12:52 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Which speak louder, words or actions?
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
***