Respectful Speech

Winter Dafffodil @ Norfolk Botanical Gardens.  Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned

that I should know how to speak a word in season…

Isaiah 50:4a

Today the Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments in a case involving the standards of decency on television during “prime-time hours” prior to 10:00 p.m. when families and children make up a large part of the viewing audience.  The case involves celebrities using expletives on Fox Network’s Billboard Music Awards show, and ABC’s use of images of partial nudity during the evening broadcast hours.

At the heart of the case is the Federal Communication Commission’s current broadcast indecency policy and whether it violates the First Amendment of the constitution.  These rules allow the FCC to levy high-priced fines against the networks that violate these decency standards.  The government agency believes that there should be a distinct different between what can be said/seen during family viewing hours and what is allowable during late night adult broadcasting.  The networks argue that the policy is arbitrary and “…puts a chill on broadcast speech.”

During my formative years, parents taught their children that there was a time and a place for everything, and that included what words were allowed to come out of your mouth.  In today’s culture, however, many terms that were vulgarities when I was growing up are now a common part of everyday language, particularly of the young adult population.  This does not mean, however, that one can say anything one likes anywhere one happens to be.  Such words are not allowed in our schools, one does not drop them into conversation at the office or our place of business, nor do we hear them in the doctor’s office, the church or in a court of law. 

Watching what you say and where you say it is a matter of respect - for yourself and for those around you.  If Cher and Nicole Ritchie are used to using expletives in their private, everyday speech, that is their business.  But for the very few moments that they appear on live, prime-time television in front of an audience that includes children, they ought to have respect for the families who are watching and voluntarily clean up their act.  A little class goes a long way.