Another young man, a few years older than the first, took offense to the language on the shirt. He said his young children were in the restaurant with him and they can read. He added that he doesn't want his children exposed to the offensive language displayed on the T-shirt in question, and he didn't feel it was right for someone to be wearing such a T-shirt in a restaurant where families are.
The young man wouldn't leave, so the parent helped him out the door. One of the young man's companions said, "I told him not to wear that shirt."
My husband said, when the parent returned inside the restaurant, he was greeted by applause and cheers from the other patrons.
I find that I'm offended when I hear offensive language in public, but I always just duck my head and pretend I didn't hear it. I think the parent in the Van Alstyne restaurant has reminded me that I have rights, too, and one of those is not having to put up with offensive behavior or language.
I hope the next time I'm exposed to this, I'll be brave enough to speak up. Especially if there are children who are also being exposed.
Texoma comments ...
36 comment found!
I agree : 10/28/2009
Yes, I agree that, if you are a moral person, if you are a Christian (and I am by the way)You would not wear any offensive garment nor allow offensive words to be uttered from your mouth. HOWEVER, morals and Christianity, like govt run health care, and others opinions, should not be FORCED onto any one! God wants us to choose to follow Him---not be strong armed into doing so.
concerned
Why tolerate what's "wrong"? : 10/28/2009
Because there is no law against wearing a shirt with an offensive word on it in public. Sorry if it offends your sensibilities but the most you can do legally is let the person know it offends you. If they choose to honor that, good for them. I agree with the idea that I'd rather not have my kids exposed to that sort of thing, but part of having freedom means that people have the freedom to do some things you don't agree with. Freedom doesn't mean "stuff I like is acceptable and everything else isn't." As for the father, I believe a far more appropriate response would have been to use it as a teachable moment for his children, e.g., "You don't want to go out in public and look like a idiot like this guy" instead of "I don't like this and I'm a tough guy, so I'm going to strong arm him to get my way."
Paid attention in civics class
Love America... : 10/28/2009
You say "We should get angry at our politicians especially those liberal ones who have chipped away at our cherished traditions and trashed them." Are you talking about traditions like requiring a warrant before wiretapping someone? Perhaps you are talking about traditions like charging someone with a crime when they are being held, as opposed to holding them indefinitely without charges? Both of those are freedoms that were trampled upon by conservatives, not liberals. Did you raise a stink over the last 8 years when our civil rights were being eroded through the Patriot Act (which is anything BUT liberal)? This whole "blame the liberals for the downfall of society and our rights" is as laughable as it is misguided. It only serves to show who has had their head in the sand for most of the last decade. "The gubmint's gonna bankrupt us with this healtchare nonsense!" But all these wars we are waging must be free, I guess.
I can only shake my head
US a Mess : 10/24/2009
If you don't think our country is in trouble, what planet have you been living on these past 50 years? There was a time when respect for others was the order of the day. We have let Washington dumb us down, take our freedoms away slowly but surely and let's not forget the filth that comes out of Hollywood. This PC atmosphere is disgusting. We should get angry at our politicians especially those liberal ones who have chipped away at our cherished traditions and trashed them. God help my grandchildren.
Love America
As for disgusted in Tom Bean : 10/24/2009
As for disgusted in Tom Bean, all I say is what the old song says: You're Not From Texas are you, but we love you anyway. Well, maybe not love, but we tolerate you anyway...Youth.
Jeronimo Joe
Obsence T-Shirt : 10/24/2009
If this is true and I have no doubt it is, with todays times. It would not have been inappropriate to have pistol whipped the guy before throwing him out.
DNM5P
shirt : 10/23/2009
Look folks, where does it end? What one considers profane, another does not. It is all a matter of violation or non-violation of the LAW! Anything else is one person's opinion vs another person's. Dont get me wrong, I abhor profanity worn in public or private, however, wearing such in public is NOT AGAINST THE LAW. Accosting, and basically assaulting someone IS. To make matters worse is the age difference between the adult and the teen. Depending on the span of difference in ages could be, yet another, VIOLATION of the LAW. If you dont like it then work to change the LAW where wearing that type profanity is against the law. Otherwise, move to a place where your kids and you cannot see the shirt, or place yourself between, the offender and your kids with your back to him, or distract the kiddos with a game focused on the tabletop not the front until the offender leaves. But DO NOT accost and put your hands on anyone who is not physically attacking your person or YOU HAVE BROKEN THE LAW!
concerned
To: Teen Support : 10/22/2009
Teen Support, I have no doubt that your whiny, narcissistic butt would have cried and whined and would have indeed sued this guy for standing up for decency! You are typical of today's society that is all about "me, me, me" and to he77 with everyone else's rights or respect for others. You might even consider organizing a march - they seem to do so much good around here - NOT! If you consider a shirt with profanity on it just "the latest style", then I don't know where you are shopping unless it's Spencers! If you are so concerned about your freedom, let me sit next to you and YOUR family the next time you go out and eat. I will drink, smoke, get loud, pass gas, and whatever I feel like doing - I mean c'mon, I have the right to don't I??
Disgusted With Liberals
Back in the day : 10/21/2009
"Your rights end where my nose begins."(or eyes, ears...) Regardless of the sensory organ interpreting the stupidity. People shouldn't have to put up with the smelly, oafish, offensive behaviors of others. Especially, when there are youngsters involved. He(?) (child prodigy no doubt) has freedom of expression. But, the father with the children apparently was a little better at expressing himself. Thus, he won the debate. The legal system, education system, government system, needs to just back off of all of the micro-managing, politically corrective, feel good, legislation and let things settle for awhile. Myself? I am a rarity, a gun toting democrat. But, I still feel that if you are man enough to wear stupid stuff then you had better be prepared for someone to try and take it off of you. The shame is that someone wants this precious butterfly to sue someone. Or, better yet, black fingernail polish wearing, pierced, saggy pant wearing, crack showing, 140 pound zit boy should have stood up in a "privately owned restaurant" and asserted his cause. Remember! Just because you are in public doesn't mean that you are not actually in private. I keep a sawed off 12 gauge behind the counter and a Glock 27 on my waist for those special occasions when someone asserts their rights to stupidity.
dollar down dollar a week
Disgusted In Tom Bean : 10/21/2009
You would have been a lot better off if you had finished the last 6 grades after the first 6. Learn how to write and to spell before you get back on.
Try Again
Free Speech : 10/21/2009
If it was my child and was removed by just another customer and the manager did not step in, I'd see that my family,business assoc, and friends do not frequent this establishment.If he put his hands on him,I'd be seeking a lawsuit.First of all we STILL have free speech(to everyone)Second, hes probally just a young man wearing the latest style!Do you not take your children in the stores that supply these shirts,the malls,etc..?Why didnt the man just remove his family to another location?In a few years lets see how he feels(future teenagers)lol
Teen Supporter
To: Disgusted in Tom Bean : 10/20/2009
As a 50+ year native of Tom Bean, I felt the need to comment that this idiot "disgusted in Tom Bean" does not share the views of the majority of the people in Tom Bean. Most of us in TB do not feel that it is OK to wear profanity in public and particularly in front of young kids! If you are so disgusted with this, you should probably move and raise your kids in California! Most of us around here pride ourselves on good old-fashioned manners and respect for others and their children. There, now I have excercised my freedom of speech!
Old Beaner
No Decency Anymore : 10/20/2009
I am appalled at the comments on here mostly defending some idiot who wears a profane t-shirt into a cafe where kids are present! I will agree that the man probably should not have physically thrown the other guy out, but, nonetheless, the guy had no business wearing this t-shirt in a public place. If we, as a country, are so big on "freedom of speech", then why in the he77 do we support this crap but then curl up and cheer when Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton (the "reverends"....ha, yeah, right) go after someone like Rush Limbaugh for alleged racial comments? I am not a racist in anyway, but if you support wearing and displaying profanity in public in the name of "freedom of speech", then what's the difference? Please explain because I do not understand? Also, why is the Obama administratino going after the Fox news channel? Because they expose the truth? Where is their "freedom of speech"? The bottom line: the liberals wholly support freedom of speech as long as they agree with it. When they don't, then the "freedom" is out the door!!
Freedom for ALL!!
Wow, nez : 10/19/2009
I suppose guys in black helicopters made the whole thing disappear. A drunk mole writing the story? Really? Really, that passes for legitimate debate? Idiot drunk mole reading comments and passing judgment. Blleeeechhh! That was the sound of me vomiting to the thought of this discourse continuing with this kind of blather.
'an elitist'
Rights, Responsibility and Consequences : 10/19/2009
I believe in freedom of speech. I believe that we all have the responsibility to hold the line of decency whenever possible. I also believe you can say anything you want as long as you understand that there are consequences. You had better be willing to fight for your rights. The problem with the vulgar kid is that he evidently doesn't have a loving father to tell him right from wrong. The problem with society at large are the people who have forgotten that that where your rights rub up against mine there is going to be friction. I applaud the father who stood up for his kids. If I was there, he would not have acted alone.
rjjrjjr
free? speech : 10/19/2009
Freedom of speech isn't only a right, it's a privilege. One that should be exercised with wisdom. It was never free, but rather paid for through the sacrifice and determination of those before us, and shouldn't be abused or taken for granted in a selfish indulgence. Just because you have a right, doesn't mean you should exercise it.
k
freedom of speech : 10/19/2009
I think the whole thing is made up. there was no shirt, there was no "teenager",and there was no golden hearted father that played superhero for his kids and truth justice and the american way.yeah right. in todays society most people aren't that dumb and the ones that are learn really quick not to be. and with todays lawsuit crazy american ready to clog the flow of our justice system the resturant owner would have stopped any yahoos trying to cause a ruckus. and finally let's not forget cellphones everyone has them and everyone is very trigger happy to use the 911 so cops would have been called and charges would have been pressed so I say never happened who every wrote this is a drunk mole blindly typing away at the keyboard full of hope that this will be the story that gets them the front page of the newspaper no longer handed out by youth on bikes but homeless and on street corners
nez
Offensive : 10/19/2009
I wish someone would do something to the protester I saw at Planned Parenthood. She was holding up pictures of a destroyed fetus. I believe in freedom of speech but do we all have to suffer other peoples opinions or religious beliefs. Go ahead with signs but keep them to words not pictures. I ask the woman to take it down I have grandchildren with me, she said I should not have driven them by. If they can't go to a movie with these kind of pictures without my permission then what makes it ok for them to hold up pictures like that?
CEH
A Freedom : 10/19/2009
You know I read the comments on here and some of them ae not very smart at all.The one about the bikers was so uncalled for.They are some of the best people you could ever meet.Teach your kids right from wrong in the beginning and you wont have to throw anyone around. Susie Upchurch
Z8KQW
25 words or less : 10/19/2009
Good Lord. There are two sides to every coin and a lot of the people posting on here think they own a double headed nickle. If you are gonna post, keep it short and sweet, don't ramble. Try to sum it up 25 words or less, oops, I just went over my limit!
Cletus
shirt : 10/19/2009
I read the article several times, leaning toward the adult then toward the teen. It finally hit me the two main words were adult and teen. While I would find it very offensive to have the teen wear the shirt in front of my kids, I do understand that the teen has the right to wear whatever he pleased as long as it falls under the law. Though I might ask him to be abit more considerate of his fellow man, to accost him and force him outside IS a violation of the law! I have had the same problem with my teen son wearing shirts which I find offensive, however, no grown adult had better put a hand on him or he will have to teach his kids how to visit him at the jailhouse! If the adult wishes to talk to my son and voice his opinion that the shirt is offensive--ok, even if he wishes to call parents and complain--ok, even if he wishes to call police and complain--ok those are his rights, but his rights end where my son's, or the teen's, begin and that means "hands-off". I, personally, find shirts supporting Obama offensive. Am I going to accost every person I run across wearing one??--not
concerned
Just a thought... : 10/19/2009
It seems to me you all have missed the big picture. An idiots choice of clothing is an easy distraction. Our world is in utter turmoil on a grand scale and we're all blindly wondering about congratulating ourselves for silly things like village parenting and you morons who play devils advocate just to belittle someone for expressing their fatigue with ignorance slapping them in the face at every turn just perpitrate more ignorance. Everyone should wake up. In this land of the soon to be less and less free you still don't get it do you? Either we all get together and get back to God or let the sickness spread. Has it not spread far enough already? www.endtime.com
Be Blessed
Nothing to write about huh? : 10/18/2009
I agree, sounds like some conservative whacko with his head in the clouds and a he's holier than thou attitude. Same scenario w/ all the current conservatives trying to scare the rest of us by telling us the world's going to end b/c of our new president. I'm sure his kids were eating and having a merry old time, NOT looking at a kid's shirt. What they saw was the force the man used against a COMPLETE STRANGER'S KID! If it was my kid, I would definitely have a problem w/ it for sure. Whatever this man's name is, he needs to mind his own business! People always wanting to blame others when they should simply keep their noses and opinions to themselves, police their own kids. Yes, I'd rather keep to myself than get stabbed or shot any day! Yup!
Mind your own business!
Freedom of Speech : 10/18/2009
I'm not at all sure that a T-Shirt has anything to do with freedom of speech, and I do know that we have obscenity laws in this country. I am a firm believer in freedom of speech...and I'm also among those who prefer that a kid, before he steps out of the house, put on a pair of pants that covers his unmentionables...but this argument, balanced against freedom of speech, seems ludicrous. T-shirts, more often than not, express an advertisement-whether the artist or the wearers--and therefore cannot be expressed as simple freedom of speech. As a grandmother, I would have waited for my grandchildren's reaction, and then acted accordingly with my them. Escorting the young man out of the restaurant should have been left to management, though it is commendable that the young father did this when no one else would. This is not about freedom of speech...our laws also include a clause that states that your rights not encroach upon anothers.
Granny with some sense
Assult and Battery : 10/18/2009
I read this article earlier today and found myself so discusted by it I felt it necessay to make a comment which will have no impact on the total fool that wrote it or the one that caused it. We have something in this country called freedom of speech. It really does not matter if all people like it or not it is a part of that thing we call equality for all. To assult someone is a criminal act. The man that Joyce Goodwin is writing about should have been arrested and charged with assult and battery and hauled away in handcuffs. Now that is what his children should have seen! It wasnt his children reading it was this fool and it was his idiocy that led him to physically attack someone. This is the same behavior we see from various types of criminals. One good example would be the man that stalked and killed a doctor outside an abortion clinic....DEATH IN THE NAME OF LIFE! this is hardly differant as it takes the same mindset "he didnt agree with it", women are raped because a similar man wants to and "he doesnt like the word no" and I could sit here and go on and on. This is 2009 we have not lost our rights because some fool doesnt like it...this event should have never happened in 2009 we still have the right to express ourselves whether the next person likes it or not. The resterant itself should feel lucky as should the ape that assulted that boy that it was not me or my son because he would be in jail and his children would have learned something good from that event and the resterant would be facing a lawsuit for allowing the event and discrimination. I hope the parents of this teenager reads this comment and acts so that I may also applaud.....I think that tolerance is what makes this country work not violence. I for one will say what I please, where what I want and I dont ask for your approval.
Disgusted in Tom Bean
A good way... : 10/18/2009
..to get yourself killed for no reason whatsoever. Besides, what a person considers offensive varies from person to person. I consider Confederate flags offensive, but I'm not dumb enough to attack someone for wearing one. I'm sure this "parent" wouldn't have been so bold if it were some 300 lb. piece of biker trash wearing the shirt. He was just pushing around a dumb kid. Morality has nothing to do with it. He needs to teach his kids not to be self-righteous jerks like their pop.
Scalawag
Not so nice going... : 10/18/2009
All the father did was teach his children to use force when people don't do what they want. Bullies in the making.
Free Speaker
Because your wrong is not my wrong. : 10/18/2009
Why tolerate what is wrong? Because we live in a diverse culture, your wrong is not necessarily my wrong and subsequently what is 'wrong' is decided by laws--and one of those laws is free speech. If the restaurant refused to serve the patron, that is their decision and I believe, protected under law. And the young man has a right to peaceably approach the t-shirt wearer and state his OPINION that the t-shirt is inappropriate, but to forcibly escort the patron from the premises is wrong. If you believe this is appropriate than I should be allowed to forcibly remove the obese from the buffet line, forcibly confiscate SUVs with one occupant, forcibly remove trash privileges from the wasteful--all behaviors I feel are offensive. Now if there is a LAW prohibiting such 'offensive language', then the police should have been summoned. (Police are paid to enforce LAWS). Lastly, I am more offended by cruelty, senseless slaughter, bigotry, and greed than by a word on a t-shirt.
okie_gadfly
Teach them! : 10/18/2009
Many young and older peole these days seem to think anything they do ,say or wear os "ok" I come from an older generation and I am a Military Veteran. Marine Corps to be exact. I think what the young man did was outstanding and should be done more often. I Have done this same thing several times over the years with mixed results. Zero tolerance does not work and that has been proven. BUT, there is and should be a line that you as an American Citizen do not cross. You want profanity? keep it to your self. Your "rite" to freedom of speach is about speaking out against the government without retaliation from the government. Not cursing in public or acting lewed or wearing offinsive t-shirts. Grow up and Do It NOW!
Cpl. Dan Smith. U.S.M.C.
B3XFM : 10/18/2009
I agree with B3XFM. The man was well within his rights to ask the teen to step outside. It's understandable, though I heartily disagree with it. However, when the teen refused, using force was crossing the line. At that point, he should have taught his kids the valuable lesson that you can't always get what you want from other people.
Joss
relly? : 10/17/2009
So, its not ok to wear an offensive shirt in front of your children, I get that, but using physical force on another human being to get what YOU want is NOT ok! You are only showing your children to use force when if they don't get their way!
B3XFM
Not Tolerating What is Wrong : 10/16/2009
This man also taught his children a valuable lesson. To stand up for your rights and to have standards. You are always going to be in danger from lunatics. You only have to drive down the road or sit in your own home to be shot at, cursed, given rude gestures, or attacked in other ways. To never say anything is why they are so bold now. They have instilled the fear in too many of us just like school yard bullies over the weak. When do we say enough or sit cowering in submission? I admit I am not particularly brave but I do reach a boiling point at times and have to react also. I just have never done it so bravely and determinedly as this was done. I, too, applaud his refusal to accept this.
SMR
Three Words : 10/16/2009
Freedom of Speech
ntxmom
Sad State of Affairs : 10/16/2009
It is a sad commentary on the state of the United States today when there are two comments on this article and one of them is "So What, They Probably Do It Too" and the other expresses the need to be afraid in the United States today to stand up and speak up for what is right.
Never Give UP
run and hide : 10/16/2009
Instead of preparing your child for "life", shield them from it! I bet that guy's kids cuss up a storm when they are with friends.
mr. real
Careful now : 10/16/2009
That's a great way to find yourself in a serious altercation. People are nuts these days! Your personal safety isn't worth it!
Eastsider
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