[20796] in APO-L
Partisan Political Activity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kegan Baird)
Wed Aug 25 19:02:25 1999
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 17:05:04 -0600
Reply-To: Kegan Baird <kxbaird@USWEST.COM>
From: Kegan Baird <kxbaird@USWEST.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Well, since the mill is running, let's try tossing a little grist in to see if
we see how it works.
This spring, in the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy, the Gamma Theta chapter
at the University of Colorado - Boulder put together a service project where
they folded thousands of paper cranes. One of the brothers of the chapter that
was an alumni of Columbine started it is a personal way for her to cope with the
enormity of what had happened, and the whole chapter jumped on the bandwagon.
Before long, the campus press got wind of a campus group folding cranes as a
gesture of peace and did a story on it.
Shortly after the story came out, another student on campus e-mailed the chapter
and lambasted them for not using their time and effort to do something more
effective such as lobbying for tighter gun control. Thence followed a series of
e-mails between the student and the chapter. We responded to the student that
due to the diverse group of people and groups that we served, we refrained from
lobbying and other partisan political activities. After several attempts to
explain ourselves in such a way as to achieve some level of understanding, the
student decided we were "beyond hope" and ceased contact.
This was a real situation. You be the judge. Should the chapter have lobbied
for gun control, or not? Don't make this an issue of whether or not guns are
bad, but rather an issue of whether lobbying for gun control is good or bad for
the chapter. Would such lobbying be a worthwhile service project? What
possible negative consequences could befall the chapter? For the time being,
let's not delve into whether or not such lobbying could be considered partisan
political activity, and whether or nor it could conceivably violate our
non-profit status.
Kegan Baird
Sec.30 Chair
