Kid receives 60,000 death threats for his “no-cursing” club

By Misandry Review | Source | February 26, 2010

In line with the theme of standing one’s ground, I want to draw attention to a kid who was filmed today here in my city, Sacramento (California’s state capitol), talking about how he took a stand at his school against the foul language all around him. McKay Hatch, a teen from southern California, recalls that when he was in elementary school, he never remembered cursing being a major factor in the dialog between his fellow classmates. But upon reaching junior high, he noticed a sudden spike in it, and it bothered him. He felt so infused by it, and noticed how so many friends cursed so excessively that they didn’t seem to even realize it, that he challenged them to stop. Before long, and with the encouragement of some of those who accepted Hatch’s challenge, he created a no-cursing club at his school. He set up a Web site at NoCussing.com and quickly gained a national following. He has now made a number of appearances on national media outlets, and it was there that he told the world of the dark side of standing up for what he believed in.

Watch the video below, and also visit Hatch’s Web site and watch more videos of his media appearances. Hatch says that when he started his club, at first there was a major backlash in the form of people coming up to him and insulting him, cursing him out on purpose. But on January 4, 2009, he received a deluge of e-mails — approximately 60,000 — most of which turned out to be threatening messages — including death threats — which led to local police deploying a squad car in front of his house just to protect him and his family. But other forms of non-violent harassment, nevertheless damaging, continued; I watched one video on Hatch’s Web site where a Fox news morning show interviews him and he describes an incident where some detractors ordered thousands of dollars in pizza to be delivered to his house, a financial burden for which his family is still contending with responsibility to pay.

Here’s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECRZOpW8Kb4

I know that this has nothing directly to do with men’s rights, but it might have something to do with setting an example for children, and that’s a worthy goal of our movement, which seeks to promote intact and healthy families. Somewhere on Hatch’s Web site, I read a quote from a woman who had been cursing in front of her child, once even directly toward her child (resulting in the child breaking down in tears), and how she took Hatch’s no-cursing challenge to heart out of concern for the example that she was setting.

Not only do I take inspiration from Hatch in terms of his courage, but I also appreciate that reigning in one’s use of profanity — especially in debates with opponents — elevates one’s command of respect and perceived sense of dignity. Why shouldn’t our issues be articulated in this way? For that matter, everything that we are and stand for should rarely if never have to depend on cursing to punctuate our position.

But most of all, I just look at the backlash that this kid was facing, and how he didn’t back down. His life had been threatened, and he didn’t back down — and this was about cursing. In our discussions about bigotry, misandry and sexism — not to mention confronting statutory and legal injustices — we could derive a lot of inspiration from Hatch’s example.

John Dias