Hats off to the city of South Pasadena, Calif. The little town on the fringes of Los Angeles has built a tiny sea wall to stem the rising tide. We're not talking water, but words. The city sets aside a week each March where cursing is not only discouraged, it's a cause for public shaming.
The notion is the brain child of, well, a brainy child named McKay Hatch, age 14. He founded the South Pasadena High School "No Cussing Club." Now his city has come on board to make a stand against the onslaught of blasphemy, vulgarity and obscenity. It will probably mean a week without movies, television and maybe even casual conversation for many residents. But they're willing to sacrifice.
Language is fluid — like the tide we mentioned. Words that were common among former generations (slang terms for ethnic and disabled people, for example) are verboten today. But some of the real zingers with sexual and eschatological references that oldsters would never use on a bet have become common among teens and young adults.
Coarseness is never cool, of course. But "insensitive" language has now replaced the "crude" and "lewd" as language on the outs.
We wonder, why not put the kibosh on all of it?
South Pasadena is trying — for at least a week a year. Free speech laws will keep the locals from getting too harsh, but the city fathers (and mothers) hope a few stern glares and a verbal caution about civility may be enough to embarrass the swearing set into thinking twice before cutting loose.
Right now, the effort looks like a drop in the bucket. But then giant sequoias come from tiny seeds. Maybe in time, all of Pasadena will take a week away from cursing. Then all of Southern California. Already McKay Hatch says his club boasts 10,000 members. And even if it's a dream, the city of South Pasadena has already gotten some sterling publicity from the deal, along with a burnished image of a place that wouldn't be bad to get to know.
And if there's revenue to be made from a ban on profanity, other towns will be jumping on the bandwagon.
Sometimes, it seems, even self-interest can have a silver lining.