Some of my friends are snapping at one another. Taking pot shots and cracking low blows. For some it's all in the social media game: a heated exchange of ideas. For others, I don't know for sure.

It's not just online. I was riding the elevator yesterday and these thirty-somethings let off some stylized cursing, leaving a few people ready to bounce them out. For them, it likely was just normal speech; or maybe they were hoping to get a rise out of someone.

I've seen a lot of rude speech all over the place in the past few weeks. Everyone seems to be riding on each other, losing patience, taking their feelings out on each other. Sure, it's good to vent, but can't all just get along, to quote Rodney King, a man who was beaten up, slapped around and called some terrible names. Social media allows us to flip open the phone and just spew in short, staccato sentences. Or we can open the phone and just rattle off on a recording machine, letting out our angst and tossing in some zingers for emphasis. I'm not certain I'm in favor of just cursing and fighting and calling names in public. Maybe I have missed some memo?

Yesterday at work, Judge Jackie Glass halted the District Attorney before he could play a voicemail left by OJ Simpson in November to his bail bondsman Miguel Pereira. She had read the transcript. The tape was barely understandable, except the crude language punctuating Mr. Simpson's sentences that broiled out from ear-to-ear. Pereira said he thought it was just Simpson venting and didn't take it too seriously. The prosecutor said it was a threat directed at a co-defendant.

"Hey Miguel, It's me ___________. I just want, want CJ to know that the whole thing all the time he was tellin' me that (expletive), ya know, I hope he was telling me the truth. Don't be trying to change the (expletive) now (expletive) I’m tired of this (expletive). Fed up with [expletive] changing what they told me. All right?"

Our words and our choices in using those words can come back to haunt us. It cost Mr. Simpson five days in jail. For some of the people I know and love, I hope their short tempers doesn't mean they've lost a friend. That would be the sort of lockup that would take some healing. Remember our words resonate. Let's work on making sure they resonate in perfect timbre.