Really are they that scared!

[Jock Scot]

MacFhearchair.

Anyone from ANY country is welcome to wear the kilt and should they choose to wear it around their arm pits or around their ankles is entirely their choice. I am delighted that those from ANYWHERE from around the world wish to wear the kilt to functions, or just because and if they wish to own umpteen dozen kilts, then so be it.

You ask why I am here. Well I suppose the long and short of it is because it pleases me. It also pleases me to help others who ask about aspects of kilt wearing that I may be able to assist with and if I might make so bold, I think that one or two here have benefited from my guidance. If people choose not to agree with me, well that is their choice. However if they choose to disagree in print on this website then it is preferable all round if the discussion is at least civil.

What I am not prepared to agree to is this. I will never agree to another Nation, ANY Nation, or persons from those nations, with or without Scots ancestry, claiming Scots National Attire as their own.

[Singlemalt]

The only observation I choose to make on the turn this thread has taken is to take a moment to pat myself on the back for having aquired the experience and wisdom not to get involved this time.

[Jock Scot]

The only observation I choose to make on the turn this thread has taken is to take a moment to pat myself on the back for having aquired the experience and wisdom not to get involved this time.

I could not agree with you more. But sometimes appeasement has to stop and someone has to stand up and be counted.

[Father Bill]

I could not agree with you more. But sometimes appeasement has to stop and someone has to stand up and be counted.

And, old friend, sometimes we need to just sit down and shake our heads. We've all been through this nonsense more than once.

[Jock Scot]

That we have. There are some things that I can sit back and hold my tongue, but this subject is not one of them! The problem is that if this is let go, the problem just grows and before long misconceptions become facts. This way, even if no one ends up agreeing, those involved are aware that another point of view exists, and on this website through no fault of any one's the Scots(most Scots I venture to suggest) view is inevitably a minority opinion, but no less valid because of it.

[Father Bill]

Aye. True democracy, they say, is not that the majority gets its way; that would always happen. Democracy and freedom, if they mean anything, mean that the minority has its say too, and is protected.

[neloon]

"the problem just grows and before long misconceptions become facts. "

Exactly so, Jock. Thanks for sticking your head above the parapet on behalf of the minority.

Alan

[llyd]

Bleh...My national dress is cut off levis with a NASCAR teeshirt and flip flops. Bugger THAT. I don't identify myself as a Scot...that would be ridiculous...but when I think of my heritage (every day) The names George, Hamilton, Harrison, and Keith pop up first...and I am familiar enough with the generalities to know that I am realated not too distantly to some of the notable scoundrels who left Scotland...most times right ahead of the law. I'm pretty proud of that. LOL!
But I am still American first...even though, more often it makes me grind my teeth...

[MacFhearchair]

Well, if you're fine with other nation's members wearing the kilt, then great. I apologize if I've misinterpreted your attitude about it here and on other threads on this forum that surround similar subject matter.

Your position about who does and does not get to claim a right to wear the kilt seems a bit pedantic to me, obviously, but I think we've firmly established a mutual disinterest in what the other person believes about this.

I did not mean to claim you haven't been helpful around the forum, and I'm sorry if that's the impression I gave. I feel like I've seen you express proprietary feelings WRT the kilt in the past, on other threads, and got the impression that the enthusiasm of the diaspora was a source of irritation for you, but maybe I've got it all wrong. These are, after all, only words on a screen.

[Jock Scot]

MacFhearchair.

Well to be fair my natural inclination is to be more possessive over the kilt and I have made a point of pointing out to many here on this website, on more than one occasion, that there are those in Scotland with distinctly more possessive views over the kilt than mine. And I have mainly done it after a member here has encountered these views and were perplexed that these views even existed. A prime example of this is in post 112 "the kilt cops " thread that is a "sticky" in "General Kilt Talk". However I think I can possibly say that Scotland can almost speak with one voice over whose National attire the kilt is! Make no mistake, if I could put the clock back and had I had any influence over where and how the kilt should be worn then I would have put all my efforts into doing so. Rather like the Scotch whisky trade. But its no good being dog in the manger over this and things have moved on in leaps and bounds and the horse has well and truly bolted, so realism arrived, to a point. So all I can do now is try and assist in advising those that ask how to wear the kilt, from wherever they come from, to best advantage.

I and many Scots do, however, fail to understand this fascination with hanging on to your roots in such a tenuous way and there have been a couple of very long threads where both sides have tried to explain their respective points of view, but sadly I think no one from their respective position changed an inch from when the threads started! Other than and I think this is important, at least we are all aware that these opinions exist and I think there were many outwith Scotland that were totally unaware and shocked that views that run contrary to theirs, exist in Scotland.