Today was the grand opening of the light rail extension. We spent the afternoon riding the train to the MOA: walked over to the downtown station; rode out; waited in line for the return; rode back; walked home. Took about 3 hours.
The train outbound was PACKED with people riding to the mall. Young families; older couples exploring; teens getting a free ride. One thing that (prudishly) annoyed me: with all these young kids (the 10-and-under set) aboard, neither the teens who got on at Lake Street nor the middle-aged group of sport-fan-looking guys had any problem using the f-bomb as every part of speech, in every sentence.
Now, I love to swear, I honestly do. But I try to control myself. First, it really annoys B. Second, in a public place, it's really rude to expose other people's kids to that unwarranted crudeness. Fine for a bar, or hanging out at home with your friends, but not in public. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but it seems on a par with the rest of the decline in standards of what's acceptable in public - dress, behavior, dealing with others. When I talk about litigation in my course, I explain that the ONE place left in America in which you have to dress appropriately, sit and be quiet, pretend to pay attention, and manage to exist without food or drink for the duration, is US courtrooms. It's like stepping back in time.
But then again, writers have been cursing declining standards for several millennia. Plus ca change...
Posted by otto0114 at December 4, 2004 05:15 PMIt's not that swearing annoys me or that your swearing in particular bothers me, but if it becomes part of one's general vocabulary, instead of an important "punctuation" used for effect under special circumstances, then one runs the risk of NOT being able to CHOOSE when it use it. We have all heard, "so then we went to the f-cking place and saw those f-cking guys who had kust been f-cking around at their f-cking dorm room, when who the f-ck should walk in but that f-ckin' chick!"
I find this crude and unrefined in a way that just tells the world you are incapable of being part of civilized society. And I swear (haha) that many of my undergrads are not able to "turn off" this level of gutter talk, even when they know it is wrong.
Then again, maybe I'm just a prude!
Posted by: The Infamous B at December 4, 2004 05:23 PMMy sweetie and I also rode to MOA and back (from the 38th St. Station), and were similarly annoyed with the language and behavior of many of our fellow riders. We also are not prudes, and have been known to have filthy mouths, ourselves. But we were especially annoyed by a gaggle of teenage girls who giggled, sang, and swore loudly during the entire journey, and who located themselves near the door of the train car so as to deliberately make it hard for people to enter or exit the train. Incredibly rude behavior.
On the trip back, though, we stood next to some south suburbanites on their way downtown for Holidazzle who had not taken the LRT before. They were very favorably impressed, which struck me (super rail booster) as a good sign.
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