Few people today probably think the 1897 Michigan law against cursing in front of women and children was worth being enforced. When it was declared unconstitutional three months ago, there weren’t many people who had a dirty word to say.

But that hasn’t stopped other states from trying to enforce similar laws. Cases of unlawful cussing have popped up in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The problem with laws like this is that they dictate morality without regard to the freedoms we’re given as U.S. citizens. It is not our local constable’s job to police manners.

The rules of basic courtesy dictate some kind of control over our mouths and the way we act. Enforcing those rules need to be left up to each separate individual, not the government.

It’s our responsibility to be civil around one another and that includes watching our language around children.

But there shouldn’t be a law mandating it.

Laws such as Michigan’s cussing ban also fail to recognize the importance of people to be able to use some foul language to express their feelings about real issues.

Sometimes a swear word is the one that best represents a feeling or best portrays a dissident cause.

These laws also are nearly impossible to enforce effectively - police can’t crawl through every public place all the time, eavesdropping on conversations to make sure folks keep their mouths clean.

It’s neither time nor cost-effective and police have better things to do.

Instead of relying on a 105-year-old bar-of-soap law, people instead should learn to communicate better with one another. It’s surprisingly effective what a simple request to stop using rude language will do.

After all, no law is going to be able to really prevent people from mouthing off.

But even if it did, it would be the wrong law to make, as no law should have the power to dictate the direction of our moral compass.

Each person should bear the responsibility of choosing whether or not to use vulgarity, and where and when it’s usage would be appropriate. And, it is also is perfectly reasonable for any individual to feel as though they can request that another person refrain from using such language in their presence, or in the presence of children.

But if such normal and standard behavioral manners are too difficult to handle, perhaps vulgarity is not the big problem at hand.