[6039] in APO-L
APO-L: RE: service as a focus
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Help Help I'm being repressed!)
Wed Apr 21 19:35:08 1993
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1993 18:32:55 -0500
Reply-To: Help Help I'm being repressed! <REITMESM@VUCTRVAX.BITNET>
From: Help Help I'm being repressed! <REITMESM@VUCTRVAX.BITNET>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Brothers,
I have been watching this debate with increasing interest, because as
my ideas about community service/involvement develop and mature I have
wondered if I agree with the philosophy of APhiO. There have been opinions
about whether one of the three cardinal principles is more important
than others, with (it seems to me) the conclusion being that service should
be put back where it belongs on EQUAL footing with leadership and friendship.
I am extending one last plea before I unsubsribe to this list, and probably
deactivate in order to concentrate on a state-wide service network I and
another are working to establish.
Please, in this debate about service, never forget that APhiO
nationally as well as locally has an OBLIGATION, as an organization
that focusses on service, to do quality service. It is fine to
work to develop leadership and friendship, as long as the quality
of the service program does not suffer.
When care is not given to choosing and running projects, to thinking about
the reason why we do service in the first place, to working with the
members of the community to discover what they need, to empower them
and make their voices heard, then your chapter is HURTING OTHER PEOPLE,
hurting those people that before your carelessness you were trying to help.
And if you ask those people, who because of fortune's mysterious ways need
some help at this moment, they will for the most part tell you that if you
come into their community with the wrong attitude about why you're there,
they don't want your *help*. What I'm saying is that if you don't do service
thoughtfully and well, don't do it.
I will be on the list until the end of April to read responses (if there
are any!) and you can always write (or flame I guess) me through private
e-mail.
YiLFS,
Sarah Reitmeier
Theta Mu 940
reitmesm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
reitmesm@vuctrvax.bitnet
Disclaimer: these opinions expressed are my own and do not represent those of
the chapter or of other brothers.
