Please eliminate these words from your vocabulary.

Start of rant.

This might come as a surprise to some because I’ve never spoken up before, but I despise the “n” word.  I don’t use it, I don’t want to hear it, and I most certainly don’t want it staring back at me from the sidewalk at my neighborhood bus stop.

Why, WHY, in this day and age is it used?  I don’t care if you heard somewhere that some African-Americans like to call each other the “n” word freely as a term of endearment, it doesn’t give you license to use it.   And to spray paint that on a sidewalk in close proximity to a high school?  Shameful.

Oh, and the “r” word?  Yeah.  Don’t use that either.  It’s old-fashioned and outdated and just plain rude to those who are developmentally challenged – just as the “n” word is.

That also goes for the generalized “those M—ns” phrase I hear so much around Colorado, too.  (And I’m not talking about Mormons, either.  They’d rather you call them LDS, for what it’s worth, though.)  I ache for the children of a woman I highly respect as a former co-worker and as a friend.  They must endure that generalized term at school and around town with some people never giving them the chance to show what nice and smart kids they are.

End of rant.