Published: November 05, 2007 04:08 pm            

Letter to the editor - Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007

What words will NCAA forbid?

I have heard it said: “Profanity is the attempt of a feeble mind to express itself forcibly.” As I heard the news about the NCAA’s new ruling to forbid “profanity” by its coaches, I wondered what words would be forbidden for use of their “feeble-minded” coaches?

Obviously, the list would have to be extensive to include anything offensive to the average citizen. After all, academia would be the last organization to discriminate against any one culture. So what criteria will be used to choose the forbidden words?

Can academia consider “thou shall not use the Lord thy God’s name in vain” without violating the separation of church and state? I must wonder what deity would make that list? Then the question becomes more obvious; have I ever heard any deity, other than God and Jesus Christ, used by the feeble-minded?

As I pondered these questions, I began to think about our culture in America. Why do the feeble-minded choose to use certain deities and not others? In my many years, I have never heard the evil one’s (Satan’s) name used in vain. For that matter, I can’t remember Buddha, Muhammed, Allah or even the Rev. Moon’s name used by the feeble-minded. Of course, those are not the deities referred to in the commandment ... curious.

I’ll be watching to see the list of forbidden words as defined by the scholarly NCAA. Perhaps they will be able to finally disclose who are really the feeble-minded.

Larry A. Ives

Kokomo

        

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