[9513] in APO-L
Re: Fit to be a brother... (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Shawn BB Hillis)
Thu Sep 29 20:04:19 1994
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 20:02:04 -0400
Reply-To: Shawn BB Hillis <ind00471@PEGASUS.CC.UCF.EDU>
From: Shawn BB Hillis <ind00471@PEGASUS.CC.UCF.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9409291938.A427-0100000@pegasus>
--Greetings all Brothers, pledges, and everyone else.
Brother Bias (the male counter part) raised an interesting point
that I wouldn't mind addressing and having addressed.
First of all, I feel that we are Fraternity and most chapters
vote on who is to become a Brother. This means, if we have ever voted
no, we discriminate. Some become Brothers, others do not. The question
might be, what do we discriminate, either for or against. Some things it
is illegal and against National policy to discriminate on; like race,
religion, gender (except for the all-male chapters), etc.... But what
about other issues? What about if a person is a habitual liar? a thief?
personally inflamatory or malicious? an alleged sexual offender? a convicted
sexual offender? a felon? Which, if any, of these are prohibiting of
becoming a Brother?
Where do we draw the line between protecting ourselves and protecting
the rights of an individual? I believe a general agreement is that
personal conflicts are generally not considered. If you don't get along
with the person, that's between you and the individual. But what if you
feel, or other Brothers feel, that you or they are not physically safe
from this individual? We are not bound by many of the discrimination
laws that bind most businesses. Nor are we bound to make a distinction
between convicted and alleged/accused. Do we put ourselves, our fellow
Brothers, and our Fraternity in danger for an individual? If some of our
Brothers feel they are in danger, they could be mistaken. Misunder-
standings do occur, even when several people share the same
misunderstanding. But what if they're not wrong and that person goes on
to hurt a fellow pledge or a Brother? Something that COULD have been
avoided, but wasn't. I love and care for my Brothers too much to let
that happen, if I can help it.
Secondly, I know our chapter has a few vague requirement such as
getting to know all the Brothers. I haven't seen it used as such, but I
guess we could use it to prohibit an "undesirable" from joining who has
met the other "objective" requirements. And if you wish to call it
"judging" an individual, fine. You do that every time you vote anyway,
or else there wouldn't have to be a vote. I wonder if Brother Bias is
suggesting absolute objective pledge requirements? If his Chapter-of-the
future wishes to set up requirements that don't need a vote, then that's
their choice. But I shudder at the thought of not being able to protect
ourselves if it's deemed necessary. I pray Brother Bias, that, should
you get such a pledge program, that you never have reason to doubt or
regret it...and that none of us will either.
____________________________________________________
--Shawn BB Hillis |Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things |
University of |I cannot change, the courage to change those I can|
Central Florida |and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had |
|to kill cuz they pissed me off. |
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