To curse or not to curse!!

In regard to the use of profanity.........I have a difficult time tolerating it on message boards.......I'm not into censorship, but there should be a bit of grace applied when sending messages to many people whom you've never met.

First, such language shows a lack of class. However, the complete disregard for the feelings of others, the sensitivities of children, etc., shows a lack of class in anyone who uses profanity in public. Second, it shows an inability to express oneself by using the English language. Expletives are a lazy way of substituting gutter language for the adjectives and adverbs that make our language colorful and powerful. Young people, realize this. It is not cool to cuss, and it shows no power. The only thing that is revealed by your use of profanity is ignorance!

"Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one"

Although many are unwilling to recognize it, the use of profanity is a big deal. "Swearing" imposes both personal and societal penalties. For the individual user, it endangers relationships, discloses a lack of character, reflects ignorance as well as immaturity, and creates an overall bad impression. It often turns discussions into arguments and can lead to violence. Our reluctance to restrain our impulses and to make the effort to be polite is contributing to a coarser, less civil society."

It does not present a good impression for visitors, and I don't care to have to wade through some of it either. It is so common that many people do not realize how it reflects upon them.

Profanity is never necessary. It is a matter of not thinking in those words, and phrases. The use of profanity makes me cringe ......

Phrases such as........

The bitch is coming into heat (dog breeder lingo).

Get your ass out of my garden, it's eating my corn. (if you own a jackass that got into the neighbor's property).

Proper and fine when used in the right context, but context is everything.

Profanity is a crutch that people with a poor grasp of the English language and a lack of creativity use to make themselves feel better. The lengths that some go to to include implied profanity in message board posts makes one wonder why they don't spend that time & energy expanding their vocabulary. Laziness I guess.

Not that I'm guiltless of it but I do try to keep it to a minimum. There are enough descriptive words in the English language which will still get your point across.

Continued use of profanity on a public message board, could cause fence sitting members to shy away or simply unsubscribe, which would hurt our cause by making us appear to be the 'uneducated uncouth rednecks with a gun' image. With the political climate being what it is more effort is needed to polish the image of intelligent responsible citizens discussing the issues of our age.

Try to show a little class in your posts. Who wants to make someone look bad to their grandmother by making it sound like they're hanging out with a bunch of uneducated lowlifes? Or anyone else. Not me. Carefully chosen phrases can keep some of the lurkers here long enough to expand their knowledge base from some of the more knowledgable members.

"Profanity is the effort of a feeble mind trying to express itself forcefully" Like anything else, there is a time and place for everything. Cursing is simply a nasty habit.

Now, you will say to me "The First Amendment gives us the freedom of speech, but it only limits it to politics and creative arts. There are no real ways of determining whether a word is vulgar, because each person might not take offense to the same word or words.

Cursing is more of a moral issue. It’s actually annoying to hear profanity.

I felt as though it would be a good reminder to any of us who have felt this way in life. "No one is as good as all of us"! None of us are alone in this world and we all have something of value to give everyone. We as people are so much more and who we are does not necessarily define who we are.
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A speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In
the room of 200 he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands
started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of
you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the $20
dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands
were up in the air.

Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the
ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He
picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?"
Still the hands went into the air. Waving the bill he said, "My
friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what
I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease
in value. It was still worth $20."

'Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into
the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our
way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has
happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty
or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to
those who LOVE you. You are special - Don't EVER forget it." Count
your blessings, not your problems. And remember: amateurs built the
ark, professionals built the Titanic.

If God brings you to it , He will bring you through it.

Zero Tolerance for bashing or flaming of others.

It's simply unnecessary and uncalled for. Someplace in my many writings, I've said, that if you don't have something good to say, then maybe you shouldn't say it. I can guarantee that no one wants to hear it and I'm mostly referring to being hateful to other human beings. It simply does not say anything good about you if you slam others publicly. I would have no interest in being friends with someone who acts this way, or I would be cautious with them. I try to be fair to each and everyone to give them a chance to finally say something nice but sometimes it never happens. As they say, enough is enough.

We all have to consider the source and realize that one's persons actions do not reflect how the rest of us are. I hope that any of you who ever considered leaving a group because of one persons immaturity, will simply realize that these things will and do happen, and to please reconsider that groups, for the most part have alot of super people as members. You have no idea how many fires I have had to put out in the past. It's just a thing and we will move forward and continue to meet wonderful people and share many more fun times!! :-) Think about it, age range 25-55, there are alot of different stages of life that you've gone through during these times in your life and if you're younger, you will hopefully have many more years of maturing. I still continue to learn and grow and I'm a young 42. So please reconsider and hang in there with me and the rest of us.

Just a request to the rest of you who may have commented in response to negative posts with other negative or what may be perceived as a "bashing or flaming" post. Just remember that what you type back might reflect about you as a person as well. There are several words that we can choose which can get a message across without bashing back. Ask yourself this question...."How is this gonna sound and what will it tell the others about me?" The way I see it most of the time, they're lookin for a fight and some posts simply fuel the fire and encourage them. In the future, I just ask that you try to stay neutral and not give them any cause to be defensive. This individual most likely does not know me or any of you. Sometimes in life, you just have to let certain comments slide and bite your tongue. I personally don't care what someone may have thought of me as a person or anyone else for that matter. As they say "each to his own" and most likely they were here for the wrong reasons anyway, but I try to be diplomatic and give everyone a chance to show their good side. I personally am here to make friends and if someone is going to be so short sighted and simple minded, I don't believe they should be a part of the groups that I operate. When they bash over and over again, they certainly proved that many times.

There are several different personalites among us, but please refrain from making the situation worse. There's no need for it. All it does is causes hate and discontent and those feelings are simply NEGATIVE!!! I understand and respect that some of us feel as though we just can't sit by and ignore certain comments, but I like said, you have to consider the source and just bite your tongue. Please... for the good of the groups cause. Remember, just because you don't like a post or it offends you, it does not give you the permission to publicly bash back.

Warning to those who meet new people online... Just be careful.

I operate a couple of singles groups in my local area and needed to remind everyone, females especially, that just because someone says "I'm a member of such and such group", doesn't mean that it's safe to visit them at their home or alone anyplace.

I can't stress enough, that even though you might think you have
"screened" or we have screened members in regard to requiring personal information about themselves in their profiles, doesn't mean that they are safe to be around or that they are even being honest. Remember, that we're dealing with the internet and anyone can put anything in their profiles, but it truly doesn't tell you about their character or who they really are or what their history is. It doesn't tell you about their past, their preferences, their "real" marital status. Nor, does it let you know if "the member" has a history of date rape, alcohol abuse, drug abuse or whatever you deem as unsafe or undesirable. Sexual predators are not welcome in my groups and the females in these groups are not here for their entertainment.

I created my groups as a safe place to make friendships, have some good clean fun and if something positive as far as a relationship comes from it, then that's great, but I know there are alot of predators out there and believe me when I say, they will not step forward and tell you about their past or present desires if it is of a dangerous nature or something which might make you feel uncomfortable. You need to protect yourself and not allow anyone to endanger you or anyone you care about.

If you are approached by someone online, you should still always maintain a bit of caution and use your better judgement. I truly believe that in any kind of relationship, you're better off to get to know them in a friendship setting, gain them as friends first. People always show their true colors over a period of time. If you are unsure about the type of person you are contemplating meeting in person, feel free to see if any of the other members know or have met this person and we might have more information about them as to if they've ever even attended a gathering. People like to use the groups as a tool to gain entry into other peoples lives, making the other person have a false level of comfort and security. Don't fall victim to this type of come on.

Many people are members, but they don't post (lurking is fine in most cases and understandable until they feel comfortable with the nature of the group), but alot of times, you find lurkers who literally do not have good intentions. The ones who are simply here looking for sex!! Remember that this is not our number one priority and I can't stress enough how important it is when meeting people via the internet that you need to be extremely cautious.

I've made some great friendships and I look forward to making many more.

Being in the airline business, I found this post to be so poetic and true.....

It doesn't pay to be negative........

This is something to think about when negative people are doing their best to rain on your parade. So remember this story the next time someone who knows nothing and cares less makes your life miserable.

A woman was at her hairdresser's getting her hair styled for a trip
to Rome with her boyfriend. She mentioned the trip to the hairdresser, who responded, "Rome? Why would anyone want to go there? It's crowded and dirty and full of Italians. You're crazy to go to Rome. So, how are you getting there?"

"We're taking Continental," was the reply. "We got a great rate!"

"Continental?" exclaimed the hairdresser. "That's a terrible airline. Their planes are old, their flight attendants are ugly, and they're always late. So, where are you staying in Rome?"

"We'll be at this exclusive little place over on Rome's Tiber River called Teste."

"Don't go any further." I know that place. "Everybody thinks its gonna be something special and exclusive, but it's really a dump, the worst hotel in the city! The rooms are small, the service is surly and they're overpriced. So, whatcha doing when you get there?"

"We're going to go to see the Vatican and we hope to see the Pope."

"That's rich," laughed the hairdresser. "You and a million other people trying to see him. He'll look the size of an ant. Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You're going to need it!"

A month later, the woman again came in for a hairdo. The hairdresser asked her about her trip to Rome.

"It was wonderful," explained the woman, "not only were we on time in one of Continental's brand new planes, but it was overbooked and they bumped us up to first class. The food and wine were wonderful, and I had a handsome 28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot.

And the hotel was great! They'd just finished a $5 million remodeling job and now it's a jewel, the finest hotel in the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologized and gave us their owner's suite at no extra charge!"

"Well," muttered the hairdresser, "That's all well and good, but I know you didn't get to see the Pope."

"Actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder and explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors. He asked if I'd be so kind as to step into his private room and wait, the Pope would personally greet me.

Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and shook my hand! I knelt down and he spoke a few words to me."

"Oh, really! What'd he say?"

He said, "Where'd you get the shitty hairdo?"