Have we put a curse on our kids?

Not only have we saddled the next several generations with crippling debt, I think we have unknowingly left a ticking time bomb that may have far-reaching consequences we can’t even fathom.

Remember growing up when we were shocked — SHOCKED — when we would hear someone cuss? Remember what would happen to you if you cussed?

So how is it that we have robbed our youth and their youths from the right of having a really good cuss word? By the way, I don’t mean a mumbled curse like when you forget something.

I’m talking about the kind of cuss word that erupts from your mouth and comes out with such punctuation that traffic stops, babies start crying for miles around and for a brief moment the Earth stops revolving around the sun.

That kind of cuss word.

You remember those words? George Carlin made a song out of the best of them. “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” was part of Carlin’s TV show back in 1972. I was 10 then and I remember test driving a few of those words just to see what kind of reaction I would get.

Oh, I got a reaction all right.

I am a word guy and I don’t cuss a lot. In fact, I am usually surprised when a person uses an expletive when a perfectly good non-cuss word be just as effective.

So why is the classic cuss word endangered? Let me give you a couple of @*#%ing reasons. See, even though I covered up a few letters, you knew the word I was alluding to. Sad, isn’t it?

What brings this to mind is the fact that the F word, or F bomb if you will, is in the name of the title and comprises 95 percent of the lyrics in a song nominated for a Grammy award this year. In fact, it was performed at the event by a man who was wearing a feathery chicken suit and was surrounded by muppets.

“Forget You” is the clean radio version title of the song. The real song is anything but forgettable mainly because the song has a fun, upbeat feeling. I nearly fell out of my seat several months ago when I heard the real lyrics when I was listening to my son’s iPod.

And since when are there “explicit” versions of songs? I remember a few of us changing words to songs as they played on the cassette deck or radio when I was growing up. But to have two separate version of songs strikes me as clandestine.

Did John Denver, The Carpenters or even AC/DC or Foreigner have “explicit” versions of their songs? Is there an explicit version of the national anthem that I don’t know about?

Even edgier bands stuck to one version of a song back in the day and some of those pushed the taste envelope. “My Sharona”, anyone?

Cuss words, or what I used to call cuss words, have seriously crept into everyday conversation. That is part of the reason I think the cuss words of today are going to be extinct.

Where is the next good cuss word going to come from?

For example, I have never liked the word sucked or screwed. In almost any usage, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. Today these words are part of the everyday vernacular and are ubiquitous.

My 10-year-old daughter will toss these gems into our conversations and I stop her.

“That’s not a cussword,” she will say.

“Would you say it in class?” I retort.

She says she can but doesn’t. Hmmmm.

All a person has to do is listen to any TV show — especially on cable — and every cuss word imaginable is bantered about. I know the writers do it for shock value, but if every other word is a cuss word I think the value of diminishing returns kicks in after the third time the word is used in the same sentence or homicide scene.

I firmly believe that we have done the future of civilization a disservice by making these cuss words commonplace. We have cut the future of cussing off at the knees and have stifled any kind of creativity.

And if you think I am wrong, well, forget you.

David Keyes is publisher of the Bonner County Daily Bee.