I think it is great that I have received a lot of interaction regarding the posts I have made related to Potty Mouths and the $20 fine that the police chief in Middleborough, Massachusetts is looking at imposing, a law that is already on the books apparently.  I have received a lot of traffic about this on twitter, some on Facebook and some in person.
For those of us that live in the Great State of Texas, the Texas penal code, Sec. 42.01. DISORDERLY CONDUCT. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly: (1) uses abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace; it continues to cover other aspects. That is pretty plain and simple to me. Just the use of language in a public place. To some extent I can see this argued in many ways. Does it mean that I can go out in the public and say something vulgar when no one is around and that is an offense? If you want to read it again, the answer would technically be yes. The law does not say anyone has to be there, it does not say that someone has to be offended. It just describes the language used by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the public peace.
You may say well it does not breach my peace. You may have an argument. The law attempts to protect society as a whole and maybe sometimes it is at the expense of someone else as some may say, “It does not offend me”.
The circle of influence that I maintain does not want to listen to other people talk with potty mouths and in my dealings with the public as I have for the past 28 years, I feel that the vast majority do not want to have that flood their ears and mind. Â I have a greater issue that I attempt to stand by and that is that speech of this manner does not glorify God, therefore I do not wish to talk in that manner nor do I wish to listen to others.
Similarly, if I were sharing my faith with someone and they asked me to stop as they found it offensive, I would not continue to “pound them over the head” with what I wanted to say or share.
Thank you so the great interaction. Please let me know what you think about these issues.
Picture courtesy of blog.extensis.com
could not have said it better myself/.