An Ice Cream Parlor Failure and Foul Language


A very popular ice cream shop on Cap Cod tried to re-open this weekend using pre-ordering, social distancing, curbside service and a can-do attitude.  It had to close.   A second, discreet, re-opening was done without one of their staff.  Why?  Because their overwhelmingly white, affluent and—apparently—intellectually challenged clientele were so verbally abusive to the teen-age girls trying to serve them, that one of them quit.  Evidently, she did not like being called the C-word because her customer couldn’t get his ice cream in jig time.  Every worker at that ice cream parlor had been berated for the slower service required by the modified COVID rules.  The “f” word, was thrown at them routinely.  The owner described the crowd as acting like uncaged animals.  I think he was being generous.
           
            All of this puts me in mind of the shortest job tenure I know of.  That position belongs to fledgling local news anchor, A. J. Clemente.  He was fired after his first-ever words on Bismarck, North Dakota’s NBC affiliate, KFYR, were, “f---ing sh-t.”  Those are his exact words, minus the hyphens and including the vowel sounds.  Clemente was immediately suspended and later fired. 
Clemente’s meager defense seems to be that he didn’t know his microphone was on.  Do they not teach these journalistic wannabes that all microphones are presumed to be on?  I can see why his appropriate market share couldn’t even live up to Bismarck’s demographic.  But this mental midget didn’t even realize that the real issue was not the microphone, it was his foul mouth and limited vocabulary. 
Did it ever occur to Clemente, or the clients at the ice cream shop, that worthy people never say things like that?  Not in public.  Not aloud.  Not ever!  For those of you not part of the baby boom, this may come as fresh knowledge. 
There was a time when people were expected to show emotional extremity, or righteous indignation, or even quasi-humorous reference through the studied use of vocabulary, nor profanity.  What was wrong with that?  It required intelligence, discipline and restraint.  Those are all good things. 
I saw this problem coming decades ago when the collective “we” of this land decided that the right of the academically challenged to use vulgar language was more important that the right of the rest of us to not have to listen to oral garbage.   Quite frankly, when I hear total strangers substitute vulgarities for vocabulary, I assume they are too lazy or too stupid to engage in serious discourse.  I treat them accordingly.
The use of disgusting language is a form of bullying.  You can’t win your argument with logic, reason and intelligence so you try to cow your opponent with filthy language.  When you try that with me you will lose by default because I know you can’t reason with a pig.  Therefore, I refuse to participate.  Instead, I will treat you and your ideas for exactly what they are—emesis.    
I am so (SO!!!) tired of people using the f-word like it is a mark of punctuation!  I don’t allow the N-word to be used around me--ever.  No woman allows the C-bomb to be used in her presence.  So why should anyone think that I, or the young girl serving you ice cream, would want to be exposed to their vulgar, unthinking, and insulting use of the F-word.  I categorically (or incontrovertibly, or unreservedly…you get my point, there are better words out there) hate that language. 
Reject baseness; embrace quality; keep the faith.

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