Depending upon your age you may not be
familiar with the soap shown in the
photograph - it was a household staple,
a laundry soap and well-known for removing
all sorts of spots and stains. It was also
'famous' as a way to remove unwanted bad
language from the mouths of youngsters.
The threat was something to the effect
of "You better clean up your mouth or
I'll wash it out with Fels Naphtha!" It
was not an empty threat.
I suppose that would be considered child abuse
in today's politically correct world, but maybe
not, after all, toothpaste is soap just flavored
to be acceptable.
Usually the threat was enough, I don't recall
my grandmother actually washing my mouth out
with Fels Naphtha - and I do remember using
the offending words "holy scissors" which was
enough to get her ire up. Compare that to
what is used today. No, don't bother.
My dad and mother did not swear, at least not
in front of me. Nor did my grandparents (I only
had my dad's folks - I never knew my mother's
parents.) I knew other adults who swore, or as
grandmother would say, "took the Lord's name in
vain" but the vulgar, coarse language so common
today just wasn't done. It wasn't that we were
'upper class' or 'uppity' it was just that people
were raised to have manners and common courtesy
and vulgar, coarse 'street' language was not
acceptable. Not by ladies nor gentlemen. If
you weren't one or the other you simply didn't
count. . . for anything, anywhere, at any time.
It was THE expected behavior. Period.
Which bring us up to date.
I've received some email from folks concerned
about posts on other Internet sites commenting
about the "Demise of FAOL," others about "all
the people banned from FAOL" and one from a 16
year-old who suggested we "retire and look for
someone who is more accomodating [ibid] to members
for publisher and editor of faol. You would do us
all a favor, this is no fun." And finally 'tell
JC to lighten up'.
I could make this column much shorter by simply
saying practicing good manners and common
courtesy could have avoided the need for anyone
to remove posts from the bulletin board, or to
ban anyone from posting there. As a point of
information, in the past two months, four people
have been banned from the bulletin board. Yes,
I know there is a "board" which claims a whole
bunch of people have been banned, and they even
list the various reasons they have been banned.
Nice try, not true. Makes for a good story 'tho.
There was also a concerted effort to see how long
it would take before someone from 'another' board
would be kicked off FAOL. They thought it was
great fun. Very juvenile, and to say the least,
discourteous. Maybe these folks should get a life,
or sober up.
As for the so called 'demise' - also not true.
Our actual numbers are up about 20% from a year
ago, including the Bulletin Board. Again, nice
try. One of the ways you can tell is leader is
by the arrows in his back. Or by how many shots
the competition takes at them. If you can't beat
them any other way, take personal shots and tell
lies. Nothing new about that.
The truth is nothing has changed here. We continue
to produce a new issue, with good content each week.
We will not allow bad language, bad behavior, bad
manners, cheap shots, personal attacks, political
and commercial posts on our Bulletin Board. We do
expect people posting on our Bulletin Board to behave
like ladies and gentlemen - that doesn't mean we can't
joke around and have fun, just not at the intentional
costs to others.
There have been some other emails which I won't go
into here, but I will say this - if I could have doled
out doses of Fels Naphtha via email it would have been
done. I expect the attacks on the Bulletin Board
are over for now, but I assure you, when they start
up again, they will be handled quickly and removed.
What is acceptable "elsewhere," and in fact is deemed
as being really 'in', 'clever' or 'cool' is not
welcome here. What it really is IS a complete lack
of good manners and common courtesy.
And while I may not be able to do anything about
that in our society as a whole, I surely can here.
It is not acceptable, and will not be tolerated.
Got soap? ~ DLB
If you would like to comment on this or any other article please feel free to
post your views on the FAOL Bulletin Board!
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