Poison is What Comes Out of Your Mouth

One thing parents hold in universal contempt is public swearing within earshot of children–especially young ones. So how lucky was I this past Saturday to be subject to not one but two such episodes?

The first was just a bizarre episode near downtown Ann Arbor. Driving north on Division Street (a one way street), several groups of pedestrians were crossing east-west across the traffic, even though the flowing traffic had the green light. This itself wouldn’t surprise any Ann Arbor resident. What was strange was a group of three young women, apparently college age, stepping into the traffic, and then deciding to walk in the street in the direction of the traffic,

in my lane, i.e., not moving to cross the street. I slowed down to a crawl behind them, waiting to see what they would do. They were oblivious. I honked the horn, and two of them jitter-jumped to the left. (The third one must have been so stoned to have not even twitched.) As I moved to pass, I expressed my frustration: “[I have a] green light, ladies!” To which I was met with an easily understood “A**hole.” My three daughters were in the car with me.

Later that evening, we were in downtown Brighton for dinner. Near the river walk, there is an awesome playground structure, with a pavilion and public restroom adjacent. Two of my daughters were in the restroom while I waited outside with the third. The place was overrun with high-schoolers hanging out with nothing better to do. Obviously bored, this was the best that was going on in Brighton that night. Oblivious to my young daughter standing with me, a teenage girl shouted out the same epithet noted above in conversation with her friend. She then suddenly noticed my daughter and me. A momentary stunned look was quickly followed by an insincere “Sor-ry!” As if. I said nothing but stared icily at her and her friend for about 30 seconds. She couldn’t help but notice my stare.

Not long ago I had a discussion with my two oldest about swearing. Try having a conversation about swearing without actually swearing–go on, it can be done! Among the several things we discussed was how swearing reflects on the person spewing such poison out of his mouth. If my children must be subjected to public swearing by such uncivil persons, and they have no reaction, and they have the presence to not follow up with me about the matter, I can only hope they are forming the proper (and welcome) opinions about the offending boors.