I had a few hours to kill waiting for one of my daughters’ commitments to finish, so I grabbed a coffee and went for a long walk on a sunny day.

As I ambled through downtown, I ended up on a residential street. There stood two older yet well-kept homes, next to one another.

In the front lawn of the first was clearly a source of pride, a colorful sign depicting that a high school graduate from a local school lives there.

The other home, which boasted a pair of flags, was no more than five steps away.

The first flag, nearly double the size of the graduate’s sign, said “(Bleep) Biden” in big, white letters, and, in smaller type, “And the (bleeping) idiots who voted for him.” The second flag, also aggressive but much less vulgar, stated: “Trump 2024. Make votes count again.”

I was struck in this yard by what else was there. A couple of smiling lawn ornaments. A pair of nice cars. A crisp American flag. Without the F-word blaring at me and everyone else like a neon sign, I would have considered that a quaint, tidy near-downtown house, much like the one I spent my elementary years in.

I walked down the street some more and came across a shiny Harley-Davidson motorcycle. I inspected as I walked by and noticed a decal affixed to it. It was of a skeleton-like creature sticking out his middle finger at me, as if I’d somehow cut off this idle bike while walking down the sidewalk.

On the five-minute ride home at lunch the next day, I noticed a car in front of me with a big sign featuring a bold, sexually-charged slur. I couldn’t miss it as I sat at a downtown intersection waiting for my light to turn green.

I’m a big fan of personality and the recognition that we’re all unique through our clothes, paint colors in our homes, or what stickers we slap on the back of our vehicles.

Expression is a good thing, but I’m growing increasingly disenchanted with the vulgarity that is now ingrained into our society.

Call me a prude, but I still cringe a little every time I hear curse words in the open, especially when they are said in front of children or our elders. I’m not sure when the “F-word” or others became so cool, but it clouds my enjoyment of popular shows and movies, even if I may love the premise and characters. It almost seems like the use of bad language is a given — in many shows, even hearing minors curse is a given, and humor is often built from it.

I recognize my disdain for salty language as a personal preference, but I have to ask, is this really the world we want our kids to grow up in?

I believe that a huge reason for the aggressive posture of many these days is that they feel misheard, or are disenchanted from something happening in their world. It’s similar to a toddler throwing a temper tantrum — I don’t like the way something is happening, so I’m going to react in a way that makes everybody around me take note.

There’s also a touch of the selfishness we find in every corner of our world. “If you don’t like it, just turn your head. This is my property!”

Except the problem is that we share public roads, public sidewalks, and, in my opinion, we should share public decency.

I have tried to give up writing about politics as my New Year’s resolution, but I’ll backslide for a second. Do people think flying a big, vulgar flag will cause more to vote for their candidate? If anything, I think seeing a double F-word banner steps from a school bus stop makes people realize this is far from their ethics.

Since when did we forget about classiness, humbleness, and concern about how one’s actions might affect impressionable minds?

Sign. Sign. Everywhere a sign.

What we see in this frustrating world of ours certainly is a sign of the times, isn’t it?

Alpena native Jeremy Speer is the publisher of The Courier in Findlay, Ohio, the Sandusky (Ohio) Register, The Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin, Ohio, the Norwalk (Ohio) Reflector, and Review Times in Fostoria, Ohio. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.