When did an expletive help win an argument, political or otherwise? Using them may be understandable when the speaker is upset from fear, anger, frustration, or grief. But if you’re speaking publicly, it doesn’t help you make your case. It leads people to take all your other words less seriously, because if you are spouting expletives in public, say, a public meeting, you are demonstrating a lack of self-control, a poor grasp of your audience, or both.

When you write or talk, know your audience. This is one reason former president Trump remains relevant to local and national politics. His words, like those of any politician in any party, buoy and reinforce his supporters’ views. For example, if he said, non-sarcasticly, that face masks don’t take your freedom, COVID-19 does, some people at his rallies might look at the person next to them and say, “Huh? Did you hear what I heard?”

And have you noticed, it’s hard to listen to someone when they’re yelling their argument? Talk like they can hear you, because they can.

Selectboards, school boards and other town bodies expect and, for several reasons, need, decorum. If you raise your voice at a selectmen’s meeting or use expletives at a school board meeting, including a board where some people share your views and make some of the same points, and others see matters differently based on their own reasoning, that raised voice or expletive does not move the conversation forward, it stalls it out, like an engine quitting; there is little left for anyone to say because productive dialogue cannot proceed when the stress level has been upped and respect is in question. Walls go up.

Your views and concerns for your children and fellow residents may be right on the money, or not. To you, they are. And that has value, whether a vote goes that way or not. Do not devalue your argument with an expletive or voice level that undercuts it. Talking at conversation level and keeping the words G-rated might even help you prevail in some instances, or at least get more people agreeing with you or understanding your points, that can stay with them.

Boards I’ve noticed are pretty tolerant to a point, and it can only be to a point, else the process ends.

It can be hard enough for towns and school districts to get people to run for office or take a job with public pay these days. Let’s hope it doesn’t get even harder.

Week’s positive parting thought: Well done, Wiscasset Parks and Recreation, for, according to Director Duane Goud’s latest report, another record month for revenue, and considering adding to it with child care.