[11612] in APO-L
Re: New Topic!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James S Heifner)
Wed Mar 1 09:31:01 1995
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 08:32:37 -0600
Reply-To: James S Heifner <JSH1442@TNTECH.EDU>
From: James S Heifner <JSH1442@TNTECH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
>Subj: RE: New Topic!
>5. IMHO, the fraternity as a whole doesn't really challenge us to move
>any further than "volunteer." Volunteerism treats the effects, not the
>causes. There's nothing wrong with that...nearly all health care does
>the same thing...but it's important to realize that our projects,
>though they are of course helpful, don't really solve the problem.
>Donating money or even building a house don't really get at the causes
>of poverty and homelessness.
Well whether you are doing anything other than being a "band aid" depends on
alot of what you are doing. for example here at tennessee tech we try to do a
great deal of service for organizations like MDA and the american cancer
society and organizations like these are trying not only to help those people
who need help because they have found themselves with a disease that they don't
understand, but these organizations are trying to cure these diseases. In my
opinion doing service for these type of organizations are trying to fix the
problem not just put a band aid on it.
>6. I'm not sure that APO really can do much to move us toward
>conscientious citizenship. We have to choose on our own to think about
>what the ultimate causes of social problems are. As an organization, APO
>can't make us think-- just encourage us.
well as far as thinking goes ther really is nothing out ther to make anyone
think other than the desire of the individual to think and improve on what has
been done before.
I know that this post is a little confusing but I just wanted to state that
there are ways of being more than a volunteer without being mother theresa, and
this is entirely up to you because no matter what you do or who you talk to
there will always be some better way of doing something so just do what you can
and try to think about the service that you do and try to do for those
organizations that are trying to find permanent solutions for the problems of
society and the world.
Shawn Heifner
JSH1442@Gemini.TnTech.Edu
Alpha Phi Omega
Active brother of Tau Epsilon chapter
Beta Kappa #415
in L.F.&S.
"Education is not preparation for life;
education is life itself."
John Dewey
