Quote Originally Posted by ctbuchanan View Post
I have the utmost respect for your opinion and understand your point of view about mixing culture but I must disagree. Although I was born in the USA my mother was born in Scotland and my father in York. He served in the Royal Horse Artillery and then the Mounted Section of the Palestine Police from 1932 to 1949, leaving as Assistant Supt of Police in Jerusalem (equiv. to a colonel I believe).

The problem is that we don't wear the kilt as a costume attempting to be Scottish. The kilt, as has been illustrated in thousands of posts on this website, is a "living" garment and can (and in my opinion should) be adapted for use in any culture that those of us of Scots ancestry are found. To say that if we wear the kilt we must wear it according to the custom only of Scotland or the U.K. is, with all due respect, impossible. If a person earns their military credentials here in the USA he/she is perfectly proper in following our customs when wearing the kilt, I can discern no reason why they would be forced to wear them according to only British custom. The codes state that they can be worn with "proper" attire. In my humble opinion nothing could be more proper than the kilt.

Alright we are both speaking with the utmost of respect, that is good and I am glad.

It is the mixing of the two cultures that I have a problem with. The Scots kilted one and the US ex-serviceman wearing his decorations one. No one is attempting to force anyone to do anything. What I am suggesting is by wearing a Clan tartan kilt showing an interest and connection(by implication at least) to Scotland and of course wearing your countries decorations connects you to your homeland. All I am suggesting is that the two cultures do not happily mix. Take either in isolation and it works, put them together and I am not so sure.

Now wearing a USMC tartan kilt, for example, does add another dimension to the discussion and in truth, I have not really come up with satisfactory thoughts about that, but at least by wearing a Unit tartan does take a large chunk of "playing at being a Scot" thing away from the discussion.