When my grandma would hear words she thought to be inappropriate for the age of the speaker, she would always say, “They don’t suck that out of their thumbs.” To her it mattered not whether it was profanity, a racial slur or a lie, nor who said it.
Grandma wouldn’t like how many people talk today. She would be appalled that certain words have crossed age and gender lines. Risking being called a prude or dismissed as an old fuddy duddy, I agree with Grandma.
I’ve been around, spent time in men’s locker rooms and served in the Army. I admit never blinking when, at mess hall dining tables, I was asked to pass the effing salt. I’ve listened to and laughed at off-color jokes and plead guilty to telling a few. But today is different.
Perhaps things have changed because those we once saw as role models now speak profanely, disguise their racial slurs and lie without consequence.
We’ve come a long way from LBJ’s earthy but private conversations. Without the tapes we might have never known of Nixon’s antisemitism. Today, we only need to spend a few minutes watching TV to hear the current White House occupant’s vulgarities, racial comments and uncountable lies.
Perhaps social media and minimal face-to-face dialogue is another factor.
I believe that today’s thumb-suckers would do well to make greater use of pacifiers. We’ve come a long way … in my opinion, in the wrong direction.
Glenn Plummer
Unity