In August 1998, a Manistee woman spent four days in jail for making an anti-Hispanic slur outside of a Pepper Mill restaurant. The state Court of Appeals overturned her conviction this week, but did not rule the law she broke was unconstitutional.

This circle of events makes an interesting statement about tolerance and acceptance.

It says that members of the majority are less willing to allow ignorant and bigoted comments go by its ears without notice.

Ignorance and racism are not OK, and it is time people start understanding that.

While leaving the restaurant, Janice Barton overheard a man asking his wife a question in Spanish.

Barton, who does not speak Spanish, turned to her mother and allegedly as saying “I wish these (expletives) would learn to speak English.”

Barton, 47, was charged and convicted under Manistee law for engaging in insulting conduct in public.

Barton’s case is comparable to a 1999 case of a man who was arrested for swearing after falling out of a canoe into the Rifle River near West Branch.

Joseph Boomer of Arenac County, otherwise known as the “cussing canoeist,” was overheard by a mother and two children and found guilty of violating a 105-year-old Michigan law against “indecent, immoral, obscene, vulgar or insulting language.”

Boomer’s case stirred controversy and has since been deemed unconstitutional by violating First Amendment rights to free speech.

Boomer and Barton’s cases speak of an interesting and needed change of pace in our society. People are sick of accepting intolerable behavior as the norm.

While laws like Manistee’s might hinder free speech by being overbearing but vague, their message is clear.

The Court of Appeals might have the right in overturning Barton’s conviction; laws cannot acceptably hinder constitutional freedoms. But it cannot be forgotten that derogatory statements are never OK.

We hope state leaders continue to spread that message.