The city of Preston (35 miles or so north of Manchester) on December 9, 2008 launched their “Respect our City” campaign aimed at preventing people from such anti-social behaviour as swearing, vomiting on the sidewalk, and peeing in alleys. The goal is to promote good citizenship by empowering the police to hand out fines of £80 to offenders.
Critics of the campaign charge that their freedom of speech is being impeded particularly by the “no swearing” aspect. This is a slippery slope – what is considered foul language changes over time, so how can it accurately be described in legislation? What is tolerable speech changes for every listener.
While many people are bandying on about their rights, there fails to be much talk about responsibilities. Our generation is so attuned to what it is entitled to that the concept of treating other people as you would yourself, sharing, and respect is something that gets preached to children but not taken seriously by adults. The “no swearing” idea isn’t about limiting one person’s right to free speech, it is about promoting responsible language that is respectful to the rights and sensibilities of those around us.
When groups of individuals within a society fail to hold themselves to basic standards that would allow productive participation in society, it is up to those in charge to legislate such behaviour. If public drunkenness and fighting are becomming a problem in Preston, eventually the citizenry or the government will take steps to ostracize those involved to prevent and correct the behaviour.
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