Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking my kids to Sesame Street Live at the La Crosse Center. I appreciated once again the educational direction Elmo, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie and the gang took the kids for the show. With great fanfare, Ernie introduced the letter of the day — the letter “F.” Of course, “F” is for friend because Bert is Ernie’s friend. Naturally, “friend” is a good word to teach 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds that begins with the letter “F.”

Fast forward 10 or 15 years. Their vocabulary has grown. But how has it grown? If your teen is throwing around words beginning with “F” like fastidious, fatuous, facade or fortitude, that’s great. Especially if those words are used in context.

There’s one word that teens and adults spew that begins with the letter “F” that has no place in civil discourse. A word from the same origin as fornicate, but with a more violent connotation.

Why is it that some people feel the need to use the f-word all the time? Just listen to people from their late teens on up. Listen to the younger people with whom you work. Some of them pepper their language with the f-word with seemingly every other word that comes out of their mouths.

Some protest groups have a hard time functioning without such inane language. Case in point: Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins was barraged with a chorus of “#$%& Fox News” when he tried to interview anti-war protesters in Denver last Sunday. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful.

If that weren’t bad enough. The f-bomb has popped up in visual form. Yeah, that word has been spray painted and written in stalls in public restrooms for years. But apparently some people have no shame when it comes to displaying it out in the open.

Perhaps you have seen this word on bumper stickers in reference to our current president or whatever the car’s driver may wish to denigrate. Do we really need to have such bumper stickers?

Granted, not everyone uses such offensive language. It’s the few who haven’t grown up who have let their foul language spill into their everyday speech. But still, why do people use the f-word instead of omitting it from their repertoire of speech?

Is it because of a lack of vocabulary education? I hope not. Is it because of mental laziness and a way to show off? I believe so.

There are other, more clean ways of showcasing one’s vocabulary than using a word that depicts violence against women. If you want to strengthen your vocabulary in a positive way, sign up for Word of the Day at www.Merriam-Webster.com. That way you can show how intelligent you are, not how ignorant others perceive you to be.

Columnist Tim Gray, a West Salem resident, can be reached at tim.gray.matter@gmail.com.