The Right to Swear at Toilets
Americans have become foul-mouthed. Vulgarity, swearing, cursing . . . such talk is everywhere, and it’s getting out of hand.
Now, I’m not perfect, but I do try to keep my own such outbursts to a minimum. Besides, my mother was right: People who use profanity a lot tend to look stupid. When you replace the perfect word with the common vulgarity, you appear intellectually lazy, not bright enough to retrieve from memory and speak with the truly apt nouns and verbs and adjectives.
Yet, there’s a time and place for everything. I can forgive — indeed, almost laud — uses of profanity when the situation merits it.
Case in point: A woman in West Scranton, Pennsylvania, is facing a disorderly conduct charge for swearing at her toilet. She could go to jail for a whopping 90 days for this.
And all she did is curse her stopped-up toilet.
Unfortunately, her bathroom window was open, and her words hit her neighbor’s ears. Rather than offer to help her with her toilet, her neighbor complained, telling her to stop using profanity. She responded with gusto. Little did she know, however,a that the man was an off-duty cop. He filed a complaint.
Now I don’t want to defend someone’s use of bad language. But I wonder whether this woman isn’t the victim of one of those low-flush toilets mandated by Congress.
Justice may demand letting her go, and locking up Congress.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
