By Sunny Collins Palm Desert
Santa Monica Dressing for the occasion Editor: I’m often at odds with David Pisarra, but I find myself in agreement with his Jan. 3 column (“Let’s Take 2007 back to kinder, gentler time,” page 4) advocating improvement in civility and dress. Similar to his bike experience, I was recently on a crowded Vegas sidewalk and a young man walking right, but looking left, ran into me. Needless to say, he felt the collision was my fault. It was a cold night and he, like many young people out that evening, wore only a thin shirt. Maybe being cold made him grouchy. But there you have it: They’d given so little thought to their mode of dress they were not even dressed warmly enough. The fact of the matter about one’s appearance is that it doesn’t take a lot of time or money to be well-groomed and well-dressed. And so-called “proper” dress is often just as comfortable to wear as all the shorts and T-shirts sported by some of the men on the promenade. These self-styled, rugged individuals are no more comfortable than a guy in long pants and a nice shirt. Further, better dress — like good manners — not only garners more respect for the wearer, as Pisarra points out, it also demonstrates the wearer’s respect for those who have to look at him or her.
As for Jerry Rubin’s response to the column and admission that he’s “often criticized” for wearing shorts (“The long and short of it,” Jan. 6, page 4), this criticism should tell Rubin that his fellow human beings find his ultra-casual attire and in-your-face T-shirts sporting his personal opinions disrespectful, at least on certain occasions. If he believes in being civil toward his fellow man, he should consider this — his attire is not in any way bold, creative or inspiring as he may believe; it is merely eccentric.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 10, 2007. Read the original PDF.