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By Mark Stinn
A Profane Statement: What can we really say?
Free speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, but you can’t say anything you want. Well, you can, it’s not a good idea most of the time. For example, it is illegal to say, “I want to kill the President of the United States of America.” It is illegal, you can get charged with making threats against the President, which depending on the law, may or may not be an act of terrorism.
Anyway, the right to say anything you want does not apply to threats. But what about words that some people consider harmless, while others think they are crude or obscene? Various arguments have been made, saying words are just words, to the use of them corrupting the youth. One of the most memorable and funny takes on this is George Carlin’s “The Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV” (warning: heavy swearing). It is dated, as you can say the word ‘fart’ on TV now, and show people and animals farting. Anyway, the rest of the list holds up well, and shows a limitation by the Government on free speech.
Our school system has a policy on swearing, and leaves the teacher up to the reporting and punishment of it. Some teachers don’t mind too much, others have a swear jar to put money in. The word used will probably affect the reaction from the teacher, and not all words are treated equally.
I just find it funny that the words we consider vulgar and rude are Germanic, not Italic (Latin). In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, King Harrod the II. William, being French (which is based off of Latin), introduced many new terms into the area, including beef, pork, and others. This lead to an interesting split: Higher classes referred to items by the Italic words while commoners used the Germanic words. These words included the infamous ‘four letter’ words this article is about. And even with that, most of the words considered vulgar aren’t four letters long.
History is a long and complex subject to discuss, and the way people talked reflects the standards the people had at the time. Harry Houdini, along with many other entertainers of the time, tried to change the restriction of a word. It was considered ‘inappropriate’ at the time. The word? Balderdash.
