The Issue of a Loose Tongue

This past Saturday morning, just when I thought things were going to quiet down, a car turned upside down in our yard. In the interest of brevity, I'll refer you to my son's blog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/frustratedpilot . He covered the issue pretty well.

What I want to point out about the incident, aside from the fact that the gentleman involved suffered only some cuts and in fact was perfectly fine the next day -- and delivered the sermon yesterday in church.

But at the scene, I heard a snatch of conversation that hurt. The gist of it was that the speakers assumed that the driver was on drugs or drunk. These thoughts could have been kept internal. In a situation like that, you never know who will hear you, especially if you don't know the victim or the bystanders.

Whatever happened to discretion? To manners? To common sense?

When a man puts on the uniform of a public servant, he needs to watch his mouth as well as him actions. And private citizens need to watch what they say and do, too.

I remember many years ago when I was going to look in on my mother who was just out of very serious brain surgery and an doctor was telling another doctor that he had very little hope for his patient whose surgery had been delayed because other conditions needed to be stabilized. I knew right away -- because he named the conditions -- that he was referring to my mother. A conversation like that should not have been held in a hospital hallway, if at all.

Just because this is the Twenty-First Century, that doesn't mean there is no place for good old-fashioned manners!