Opinion Forum

The What Word?

February 8th, 2010

Having walked this earth for a while, I’ve seen and experienced my share of life. I’m astonished at some of the nit-picky things that mark our current times. One of the most laughable is the attempt of some people to dictate what can or cannot be said in public. One of the silliest efforts is to mention only the first letter of the offending word.

The latest to join this growing list of taboo words is retarded. The “R” word, the “F” word, the “N” word, and others have become reminders that we aren’t always truly conscious of what we utter when our brain isn’t fully engaged. Evidently giving the offending word an abbreviated form makes it more politically correct, but everyone knows exactly what I’m talking about if I substitute the letter for the word. Sure, the use of hurtful and painful words should be avoided. However, trying to strike a word from our language and replacing it with an acceptable label seems pointless. Could it be that we are becoming a society over-sensitive crybabies?

After making my views known about overly sensitive people and the efforts made to not offend anyone, I tried to remember when these word games began.

My first experience happened long ago. Not yet in school myself but with three older cousins in elementary school, I was exposed to world of “nasty” talk early on. One fine day when my aunt and my cousins came to visit, my mom put all the kids out to play so she could talk to my aunt. During our play time we all had our attention drawn to an old rooster that was terrifying our young hens. He’d jump on their backs and then they’d both carry on something awful. My cousin Hubert, wanting to show how much he’d learned from the older kids at school, informed the rest of us that the old rooster was ****ing the hen. After saying that he was pretty quiet until they left to go home.

A week or so later the rooster was at it again. I hollered out to my little brother that the old rooster was ****ing that hen again. Next thing I knew, my mom came running off the back porch, leather belt in hand and real red in the face. I learned on that day to never ever use nasty words, at least not in her presence. From then on it was the “F” word except around mom, in which case you just didn’t talk bad, period.

Nowadays you never know what words will fall from grace

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: chicken, hen, obscenities, PC, rooster, words
Categories: Humor, Life, Politics | Comments (1) | Home