[20806] in APO-L
Re: Partisan Political Activity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kegan Baird)
Thu Aug 26 15:26:12 1999
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 13:28:42 -0600
Reply-To: Kegan Baird <kxbaird@USWEST.COM>
From: Kegan Baird <kxbaird@USWEST.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
The KKK issue does seem to be a matter of freedom of speech, and the First
Amendment. However, wouldn't the KKK's basic tenet of the superiority of the
white race be directly opposed to the all-inclusive nature of APO?? I don't
know how you could make a case to expel a brother if the chapter discovered that
they were a member of the KKK, but at the same time, our brotherhood is based on
a common set of principles, a major one being our all-inclusive nature. A
brother's involvement in the KKK would, in my mind at least, call in to question
whether or not they actually believe in the principles of our brotherhood.
Expanding further to include extra-fraternal activities in general, as part of
our ceremonies, we put forth that the extra-fraternal world will judge new
members by our known standards of behavior, i.e. our visible behavior reflects
both positively and negatively on the fraternity. Keep in mind that even if a
member attending a KKK rally agrees not to wear his letters to the event,
undoubtedly there will be someone there who knows that he is a brother, and
associates the fraternity with the activity thereby. Obviously, we can't stand
in judgment of every human mistake that our brothers make both in and out of the
fraternal circle, but membership in an organization that espouses discrimination
and hate is a choice. If they leave that organization later on down the line,
both they and we can look back on it as an unfortunate error on their part, but
their concurrent membership in such an organization is not something that I
think we should forgive.
Hopefully this will never be more than a theoretical example. :)
Kegan Baird
