Yes, I swear on occasion

by David Grand
November 18, 2004

I freely admit doing it (mostly, but not always under my breath) to express my anger, contempt or disgust with someone or something. But don't most people, if only when they're lying awake with a crushing headache brought on by anxieties? And if I got a penny for each time the Lord's name was spoken in vain every day of the year in violation of the 3rd Commandment I easily make Forbes list of the richest 400 Americans.        

Plus, I also tend to agree with what Peter Finley Dunn's fictional character Mr. Dooley said about swearing: Th' best thing about a little judidyous swearin' is that it keeps th' temper, and 'twas intinded as a compromise between runnin' away and fightin'."      

What brought this subject to mind was Sinclair Broadcasting-consisting of 64 stations nationwide and more than 20 ABC affiliates-saying it would not air "Saving Private Ryan" last Thursday because repeated use of the F-word in the film, albeit that Oscar-winning movie had been aired on ABC in 2001 and 2002. Horse feathers! And if I weren't a gentleman, I'd tell them what Dick Cheney told Sen. Leahy to do on the floor of the Senate.      

Their overreaction to the possibility of the FCC bogeyman sanctioning Sinclair for showing the film again was no doubt due in large part that it was still reeling from the tempest in the teapot they created for directing its affiliates last month to air a controversial, so-called documentary on Kerry, which led to its stock dropping like a lead balloon and a slug of law suits before they waved the white flag.       

In their defense, its general counsel indicated, that while they wanted to broadcast the movie on Veterans Day as a tribute to the soldiers who served the country in WW 11, they were not willing to run the risk of violating FCC guidelines (vague as they are), since that agency has taken a more aggressive stance on obscenity and profanity after Janet Jackson exposed a breast during the Super Bowl half-time  and rock star Bono later uttering an expletive in NBC's 2003 Golden Globe Awards.       

In response, the FCC stated that it does not "monitor television broadcasts but only responds to complaints, and that they'd received only one complaint after that film was first broadcast in 2001, which was denied." So much for that straw man they were paranoid about.       

I only regret it wasn't shown on Veterans Day, as surely do the rapidly dwindling number of WW 11 veterans (the approximate 5000 per day for whom the bugler blows taps at their gravesides), for it's the most graphic and accurate portrayal of that war I've ever seen, with the obscenities spoken during the heat of battle only adding to its realism.      

But as puritanical as this country is becoming in some quarters, it wouldn't surprise me if a movement was started to amend the Constitution to incorporate the Manual of Discipline of that ancient Jewish religious brotherhood called the Essenes, organized on a communal basis and practicing strict asceticism. Among its important features were the rigid observance of the Sabbath and prohibiting swearing. To its credit, it was the first society to condemn slavery as a violation of human fellowship. No wonder it died out by the 2nd century AD.      

Incidentally, you might consider buying the video tape of that movie as I did that serves as a vivid reminder of the horrors of war, and how still unattainable as ever is the dream of the Bible (as written in Isaiah): "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; and a nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."