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Y'all sure are overprotective of your tee shirts.
I understand that if someone disassociates, she is expected to give up ritual items (pin, etc.) -- but that does not, in my opinion, include lettered shirts. To expect someone to give up clothes that they paid for with their own money just because they aren't a member just strikes me as very odd. I mean, I would prefer that they don't go walking down the street in letters singing, "I'm so happy that I am a Kappa Kappa Gamma" or whatever, but if they're just wearing them around the house or to go running or whatever, what's the problem there? It's a tee shirt, for Christ's sake. The amount of lettered stuff I have probably adds up to a couple hundred dollars, minimum, at this point -- if I disaffiliated and you want that back, you can reimburse me. Otherwise I don't see why you have any right to any of it.
Now clearly in Joanna's (Johanna?) case it's a little different -- she's "just wearing the shirts around the house," but she's also on national television. And if she signed her disassociation papers and they included a clause that she had to return all lettered stuff, it's a moot point. She is legally bound to that. However, not all organizations have similar policies, and for those that don't, I think it's pretty tacky to ask for the letters back (and naturally, I think it's pretty tacky to pretend you're a member of an organization when you're not, but I tend to expect that most people can behave rationally in that situation, you know? And those that can't probably won't be giving the letters back even if you do ask nicely).
I also think people need to understand that there are many, many reasons for disassociation and that 90 percent of them don't involve hating the national organization, but that's another thread.
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