From the WIST File

Larry Mathys of Murphy wrote an excellent letter to the editor recently. Here are some thoughts extracted from it:

"My family has enjoyed going to watch the Texas Rangers or Dallas Cowboys. However,  it is becoming more and more difficult to do so without exposing  our kids to a constant barrage of the most vulgar profanity. I'm starting to think that 20-somethings cannot put a 12-word sentence together without at least seven F-words. Perhaps our school districts might consider lessons on public etiquette and situational vocabulary. Better yet, how about you 20-somethings start to take pride in yourselves . . ."

I highly recommend Larry's entire letter to Darrin Larson of McKinney. Darrin recently wrote an op-ed piece about his teenage daughter. He says she cusses like a sailor, but he overlooks her potty mouth. He said he just responds to her questions in this manner:

• Daughter: "Where the *?@!*+% did I put my earphones?"
• Father: "Did you check the pocket of the jeans you wore last   night?"
• Daughter: "Yeah, twice. *?@!*+%, where could they be. Can you help me look?"

He says she began spewing this filth in the seventh grade. He asked her to quit cussing. That was mistake number one -- you don't "ask" a know-it-all disrespectful 12-year-old to do anything. You tell them. Her response to his request was, "Why? It's how I talk."

So he doesn't worry about it now. He says at least they're "connecting." Too bad they didn't "connect" when he asked her to stop the foul language. If I'd been her parent, we would have connected -- right on the seat of her pants. Maybe if more parents were doing that instead of shirking their child-rearing responsibilities by accepting such disrespectful garbage, Mr. Mathys would have had no need to write his letter.

"The other air pollution." The Dallas Morning News; May 24, 2014; p. 24A.
"Cussing's fine if we're connecting." The Dallas Morning News; May 3, 2014; p. 19A.