[15656] in APO-L
Re: Laws vs. Morals
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joseph M. Fisher)
Sun Nov 17 16:07:30 1996
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 16:06:31 -0800
Reply-To: "Joseph M. Fisher" <jfisher@RacerX.mse.jhu.edu>
From: "Joseph M. Fisher" <jfisher@RacerX.mse.jhu.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <9611110539.AA22874@RacerX.mse.jhu.edu>
On Sun, 10 Nov 1996, Loren J Chassels wrote:
> When we start to say that morays...unwritten rules of conduct based on
> morals are irrelevant because they are unwritten, we start to do two
> things: Create a business of making rules. Find people trying to scrap
> to get around the rules. Both of these results are wonderful for
> lawyers as far as business is concerned, but they are also
> self-defeating.
I saved this post because it impressed me as a very pertinent statement.
I imagine it was directed toward the debate over the "gentleman's
agreement"... in which case it is probably in opposition to my position...
but I do agree. We can't write all the rules down. However it seems that
we have different ideas of what the unwritten rules are.
The rest of this post contains my views/seconds on the other issues we're
discussing.
Pledge voting: My chapter didn't do this, and rejected the idea when it
was brought up. Our thought was that people who were just jerks wouldn't
bother to join, and that a good presiding officer would minimize the
impact of people who insisted on being a pain in the butt. Which was true
in our case. I'm not sure how I feel in general... however I might point
out that a rejected pledge can always complain to the staff, which will
look into the chapter's affairs if something seems grossly unfair.
Service requirement: A bad idea. Chapters at schools with stricter
academics simply can't ask that of people.
Toast Song: I concur with whoever said that "True to" has more meaning. I
have a random question too... I translated the song into French for the
Canadian extension effort. Are we going to use this at all at nationals?
Do we want to try and get more translations?
The resolution identified as the Gentleman's Agreement: Are we sure this
is it? Seems *awfully* vague.
--Cyrano
