My time has come... (Score 1)

Finally!

Recently, I was involved in an online "fight-to-the-death" with a young fellow, freshman in college, nice guy too. It was on a different discussion site, for my real passion in life, drag racing. A big event was being planned, a "shoot-out" where a bunch of us get together and race each other. Its loads of fun. Anyhow, this fellow stated that he couldn't show up because his "rents" were coming to town. I pondered this for several minutes before realizing that he meant his PARENTS!! Being a (grand)parent myself, I basically unloaded both barrels on this guy.

My argument was that the guy in question was being disrespectful in a major way. He was either too lazy or too much of a punk to even spell out parents, and by doing that he was throwing a dis at his mom and dad, who are putting him through college. The more I thought about it, the more angry I became.

Then a sort of civil war broke out, me with my faction of older, more proper types, and him with the younger, more cavalier types. The feuding went on for days.

Eventually, the moderator threatened physical violence toward both of us unless we knock off our grudge, and return to more civil ways.

In the end, it was nothing more than a difference of opinion. My opinion was he should have shown the proper respect for his parents by prefixing Pa to his rents statement. His opinion was that he could omit the Pa and still be showing proper respect. While I strongly disagree with his thought process, it was none of my business to contradict and correct, or attempt to correct his behavior. I was within my rights to call him out and disagree, but it should have ended there. I got emotionally involved because I imagined what my personal feelings would be if I had found out my own children were calling me a RENT, and how I'd amend my will to make sure they got a set of towels or maybe the couch that's in my garage, while the non-RENT children would get my house, cars, the AV center, the computers, etc... Respect is a 2 ways street.

I guess the point I'm belaboring is... Spelling and Grammar count. Maybe not to you, but it counts to someone. If you're trying to say something important, why muck up the message with typo's and blatantly obvious grammatical errors. People will notice, and will associate you with people too lazy to do things correctly. Even if it takes twice as long to write something, more people will read it. When I encounter a "problem" document, I give the writer 3 chances. If three blatant mistakes are found, I stop reading and move on to the next document. It's prudent to allow someone to have a mis-key, or a brain fart. But a trend is a sign that this person doesn't care what I think of them, so I assume they're full of crap. They can gain acceptance somewhere else, where mistakes are welcome, where ever that is.

I also have heard and understand "second language" problems. But in my experience, second language posters are very careful to check their spelling and grammar, so they are assured the correct point gets across. Why is it that first language posters feel they can skip the proof read and live with the errors? Beats me.