The blockades are gone, the streets are back to normal, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a mere memory, now that the conference is over.

But is it?

While APEC may have retreated from the world stage, the images and stories generated by more than 1,200 members of the international media will continue to circulate for a long time. And when the next APEC host country is chosen, it’s Hawaii that will be remembered, revisited, recalled and evoked as the 2011 destination of picture-perfect weather and eye-candy sunsets. And yes, as a place to do business.

Photos impart a form of immortality. Among the countless images of APEC in Hawaii crisscrossing the globe, one is conspicuously absent: a group photo of the delegates in aloha shirts.

I disagree with the characterization of the aloha shirt as "traditional tourist garb" ("Off the News," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 15), and also with President Barack Obama’s decision not to feature it in the APEC group photo. To relegate this Hawaiian signature to the realm of "tourist garb" is to dismiss all the working men of Hawaii who proudly wear their aloha shirts to their executive suites, banks, classrooms, studios, offices and workplaces throughout the islands.

When was the last time you saw a business suit in downtown Honolulu? Except for lawyers heading off to couurt and a few CEOs and executives in boardrooms, the Hawaiian shirt is standard attire for conducting business in Hawaii.

The state Legislature long ago encouraged the use of aloha shirts on "Aloha Friday," a practice that has become standard for the rest of the week.

The governor and state legislators wear Hawaiian shirts year-round, even at the state Capitol, and people around the world will soon receive mail with an aloha shirt stamp, approved by the U.S. Postal Service for 2012.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the aloha shirt and also of Kahala, owned by Tori Richard, manufacturer of the shirts that were offered to yet did not appear on the dignitaries.

Among other things, APEC was an opportunity for Hawaii to show its spirit, its colorfulness, its multiculturalism, its history and style.

It was sad enough that the Obamas were not greeted with lei and hula upon their arrival; to not include the aloha shirt in the formal APEC photo was even more embarrassing.

More than a fashion misstep, it was culturally insensitive. Hawaii is a living example of multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, and if the U. S. is founded upon these principles, there would have been no finer emblem than the Hawaiian shirt.

While commuting to work in their suits and ties, mainlanders often envy the sense of ease and casual comfort we have in the islands. The Hawaiian shirt expresses not only our pluralistic qualities, but also the ideal weather that allows it to be worn as business attire.

As an immediately identifiable symbol of these things, the Hawaiian shirt, like the lei, would have spoken volumes about what we stand for, especially to an international audience.

Yes, there are far more pressing issues than what the delegates wore. Yes, Hawaii was chosen to represent the U.S., where the business suit is considered de rigueur. But we are more than corporate America.

It would have been nice if Hawaii, as APEC host, could have made a multicultural, not just Western, statement, and to have chosen unity over conformity. The choice of a business suit instead of a Hawaiian shirt leans all too heavily on the side of conformity. What a shame.