The Kilt Kops

[Taygrd]

When I was a child my Grandmother had a family friend come over to do minor repairs about the house. The man was not big in stature, however his presence always scared me. He was gruff, never smiled, rarely spoke, and carried a permenant scowl upon his face. When I asked my Grandmother about him she said not to worry he was "just from Wick." I did not understand this until I was a little older and my Grandmother explained to me the Scot's temperament. Another Scot, Mr. Morrison, described it as this:
"the thistle ....has a number of characteristics that are reminiscent of the Scottish temperament. It is prickly, persistent, wanders far afield, quietly moves in and takes over, and is considered by many to be a bloody nuisance. Yet, hidden behind its gruff exterior, is a kinder heart. "
This temperament has served the Scottish people well over the centuries and is still very much present today, it even shows up on this forum now and then. If we cannot accept each other for what we are, then all the smiley face icons and "geez you're a swell guy" is just fluff.

[Chirs]

Thanks for your post Steve.
To be honest, I have not visited the forum very much the last couple of months due to the "if you don't feel the same way wear a kilt the "proper" way" comments that seem to pop up in almost every thread.
Glad to see there are others who find such comments tiresome and possibly devisive to the over all goals of the forum.

Doc! Good to hear from you again. It has been a while. Although I've not seen a great many postings from you, what I have seen tends to resonate with my own views. Will you be hanging about for a bit?

[Chirs]

Further to my "bingo" above, I'm in a grumpy enough mood right now to tell the truth and say what's on my mind without being diplomatic or pastoral, so here it comes; hold onto your pith helmet!

I'm more than just a bit annoyed, hurt, and disgusted to see the frequently implied message that I should never wear a kilt. No it isn't a "heritage thing" for me. No, I'm not a highlander. But I have studied, loved, and written about it for a lifetime. Now that I'm ordained I bought a clergy tartan kilt. If somebody doesn't like that, I'll gladly stuff it down their throats, all nine yards (I'm fat) plus buckles.

I've had it with the frequent implication that I'm second class here. This is a forum for folks who RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY love owning and wearing kilts. I wear it respectfully. I wear it infrequently. I wear it traditionally. I wear it knowledgeably, which is probably more than many who have the self-granted "right" to wear it can do (see some other threads) but by Jimminy, I'm going to wear it, and this forum is not someplace to be sneered at for that. It's too good a forum to go down the tubes based on self-righteous nose-in-the-air self-granted superiority. Grow up and stop being hurtful!

Told you I was grumpy today!

Ouch! You tell 'em, Father! That's right. Don't mess with the man who has been trained in the use of "fire and brimstone"!

[Jock Scot]

Further to my "bingo" above, I'm in a grumpy enough mood right now to tell the truth and say what's on my mind without being diplomatic or pastoral, so here it comes; hold onto your pith helmet!

I'm more than just a bit annoyed, hurt, and disgusted to see the frequently implied message that I should never wear a kilt. No it isn't a "heritage thing" for me. No, I'm not a highlander. But I have studied, loved, and written about it for a lifetime. Now that I'm ordained I bought a clergy tartan kilt. If somebody doesn't like that, I'll gladly stuff it down their throats, all nine yards (I'm fat) plus buckles.

I've had it with the frequent implication that I'm second class here. This is a forum for folks who RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY love owning and wearing kilts. I wear it respectfully. I wear it infrequently. I wear it traditionally. I wear it knowledgeably, which is probably more than many who have the self-granted "right" to wear it can do (see some other threads) but by Jimminy, I'm going to wear it, and this forum is not someplace to be sneered at for that. It's too good a forum to go down the tubes based on self-righteous nose-in-the-air self-granted superiority. Grow up and stop being hurtful!

Told you I was grumpy today!

Now then Bill, in this state of high and intense agitation of yours, just you make sure that you put your kilt on the right way round----THE PLEATS GO TO THE REAR!

Jock now dives swiftly for cover!

[Father Bill]

Now then Bill, in this state of high and intense agitation of yours, just you make sure that you put your kilt on the right way round----THE PLEATS GO TO THE REAR!

Jock now dives swiftly for cover!

No, Jock, that's absolutely fair! I need the pleats there - when I've been asked why I'm wearing a kilt, I usually say it's to cover my bu++, so the more cloth the better!

And I'm not grumpy anymore - actually I'm in a fabulous mood today - I had my first piping lesson last night, and today's my day off so I can learn those scales!

[okiwen]

In post #59 he stated that he has been a member for only a few months and yet HE HAS BEEN REPORTED!! I have read all manner of BS on web forums and have never thought about "telling" on someone. I just choose to ignore or consider the source. Reporting to a moderator something that YOU might find offensive is OFFENSIVE. Grow up, pull your big boy pants on and read the next post or go watch TV. For the most part, odds are you have misread something that someone didn't intend to begin with or just has a differnt view than you.

To tell on another adult, well I never. From a group of people that, by anothers view, are wearing dresses. How can you possibly be offended.

Rant over.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I think we all would do well to occasionally remind ourselves that people's opinions only have as much weight as we decide to give them.

I really feel bad when I read comments from people that they don't spend too much time on the forum any longer because of the "high number of posts" that make them feel that they don't have the right to wear the kilt, or at least not to wear it in the way they choose.

I feel bad because I do spend a lot of time on this forum, and I try to keep up with most of the threads, at least those that interest me, and I have to confess that I often scratch my head at the above sort of comments, wondering what horrific posts I must be missing -- because I don't recall reading anything like that!

Maybe I am not reading things as sensitively as some. Or maybe all that is going on in the threads that I tend not to read (which I doubt because most of the threads I skip tend to be in the contemporary/modern kilt sections).

But I think what is likely happening is that posts that I might be reading as one man sharing his opinion, or maybe even just expressing what he feels to be the common opinion of others (which he may not even share himself), is being read by others as the "Kilt Police" laying down the law.

So at the same time as we are all reminding ourselves of the need to be polite & respectful in expressing our opinion, I think we should also remind ourselves to be kind and charitable (and perhaps a wee bit forgiving) when we read the opinions of others. If something upsets us, perhaps we need to read it again and ask ourselves whether it is possible that we are reading too much into the post. Are we looking at what has been written assuming the writer has the worst intentions or the best intentions at heart?

For myself, I prefer to always assume people have the best of intentions until they prove to me otherwise! It helps keep a smile on my face and my blood pressure at an even keel. :-)

[KWD]

In post #59 he stated that he has been a member for only a few months and yet HE HAS BEEN REPORTED!! I have read all manner of BS on web forums and have never thought about "telling" on someone. I just choose to ignore or consider the source. Reporting to a moderator something that YOU might find offensive is OFFENSIVE. Grow up, pull your big boy pants on and read the next post or go watch TV. For the most part, odds are you have misread something that someone didn't intend to begin with or just has a differnt view than you.

To tell on another adult, well I never. From a group of people that, by anothers view, are wearing dresses. How can you possibly be offended.

Rant over.

I don't post a lot on here, as you can see by my post count. There are two reasons for this (let me preface by saying I respect a lot of peoples opinions on here and take their advice to heart)

1. I am not a fan of all the tattle tailing that goes on, having post removed because someone got their feelings hurt, This is the real world, SOMEONE is NOT going to agree with you, get over it!
2. I have put posts up to give the membership a chance at items I found on eBay that I myself could not use but i thought were good deals, to only have them removed because it wasn't me who was selling them...I really find that strange, considering I have seen people with much higher post counts do the same thing and their posts seem to stick around...I sense favoritism...maybe my post was put in the wrong section, but why not just move it instead of removing it and sending me a pm telling me "your post was removed for violating forum rules"

[Redshank]

I don't post on a regular basis on this or any other forum, mainly because more often than not what I have to say wouldn't be very nice, and as mothers have said down the generations "if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all",
I do however read almost every post on here on a daily basis, and I am bemused at the cause of this thread, not once have I seen a mandatory statement by the hyperthetical kilt police, I have seen many a thread from knowledgeable folk here and across the big pond on how we like to see the kilt worn, and worn with what here in the Highlands of Scotland, a place after all that is said to be the homeland of the garment, a place that I might add has it's fair share of kilts worn in all manner of ways that us old school do not always approve off, there are respected members of this forum who look a million dollars wearing the kilt and others that look like a sack of spuds trying to pull off the look, but at the end of the day we all wear the kilt because we have a personal reason to do so, and each and every one of us has a different view of others wearing the kilt, we are all different, with different opinions, as long as we are respectfull to one another I see no reason why we cannot state how we wear the kilt and in our opinion it should be worn in this way or that, I would hate to see this noble forum reduced once again to members blowing smoke up each others back passages with "Nice Kilt" comments

[DWFII]

In post #59 he stated that he has been a member for only a few months and yet HE HAS BEEN REPORTED!! I have read all manner of BS on web forums and have never thought about "telling" on someone. I just choose to ignore or consider the source. Reporting to a moderator something that YOU might find offensive is OFFENSIVE. Grow up, pull your big boy pants on and read the next post or go watch TV. For the most part, odds are you have misread something that someone didn't intend to begin with or just has a differnt view than you.

To tell on another adult, well I never. From a group of people that, by anothers view, are wearing dresses. How can you possibly be offended.

Rant over.

This comment is probably off topic, but brother is it ever "right on!"