I do believe that everyone should voluntarily be responsible when kids are present. And if I ever do have children, I certainly won't encourage them to say "fuck" and "shit", and although I'm not infalible, I will definitely make every effort to keep my p's and q's in check when any children are present. [No, I don't believe in the "wash your mouth out with soap" mentality.]However, you can't shut your kids off from the world. They will be exposed to PG-13 and up situations as they go through childhood. That's practically guaranteed. It's natural and human to react like the canoeist did when you encounter a least-expected incident. Hitting your thumb with a hammer, tripping and hurting yourself, wiping out on a surfboard or scateboard, or dropping a stack of printed countinuous feed paper on the floor [I've done that!] WILL get a couple of shits and/or fucks out of the average Joe. Other events can really put you into a rage and get the adrenaline coursing through. Such as coming home to discover that you've been burglarized ["Burgled" is not a common term here in the States.], or that your car has been hit and the asshole took off without leaving his name and phone. That happened to me when I had that Tempo, and I let out a spew of shits, fucks, goddams, and whatever else I could think of. I was beyond caring who heard me.
That rural Michigan community sounds like an area where local "law enforcement" is notorious for writing tickets, and inventing reasons to issue citations. But isn't worth a damn when a burglary or other SERIOUS felony takes place. The town coffers must have been low that day. Or the doughnut shop fund. But the point is that guy's momentary lapse in judgment was taken advangage of, and the mayor, the chief and his cronies are a few hundred $$ richer.
In closing, no level of government has any business penalizing you for the way you talk, as long as you are not verbally abusing or threatening somebody. But again out of courtesy you should voluntarily refrain from George Carlin's list of dirty words when you are in mixed company.
MWB.
