Dressing to distraction

Monday's Cape Cod Times featured an article which was largely centered around this blog and my efforts to reach out to Falmouth's citizens.

Yet many readers where so distracted by a single quote that they seem to have missed the point of the article. In the "Reader Reaction" section at the bottom of the online article, a number of people took me to task for being the "style police" - that I was unfairly criticizing someone for how they dressed.

The irony is that I did no such thing. The controversy hovered around a question someone asked about someone's attire. Apparently, because I wear a suit and gave an honest opinion, I'm suddenly the fashion police.

I don't preach; I won't tell you what to do, or how to do it. If someone wants to appear before the selectmen in shorts and a t-shirt, that's their decision; there is no dress code.

When I ran for selectman last year, I wore a hat most of the time. I had only a tie during candidate forums. I lost. This year I ditched the hat and donned a suit. I won. Was my success based on my change in attire? Probably not, but many people complimented me on the change, so I'm certain that it played a part.

It was a reminder that image does matter, whether we like it or not. Indeed, someone told Troy Clarkson that I bring "dignity to the office" with my attire.

Another poster to the Times did a fair job of summarizing the thread, "I find it funny that all you people can focus on here is the dress issue. We finally have a politician that is trying to let the rest of us in on the process from his perspective, and all the blather is about the fact that he thinks public officials should dress the part. Get over it. At least he is not afraid to state an opinion."

Which is what the article was really about.