Opinion
Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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4A
Friday. October 24.1997
David Keith / KANSAN
Examining
Community service should come from heart,not as a requirement
We all hear the cries about getting involved. Whether helping the homeless or attending a social rally, many people feel, for many reasons, compelled to play an integral role within their community.
But when we participate in such activities,we should do so out of the kindness of our hearts and not out obligation or the desire to promote ourselves to others.
This message was obviously vacious to a few Gamma Phi Beta sorority members as evidenced by their behavior at the recent "Womyn Take Back the Night" rally. The women slandered participants at the event, including a homosexual couple holding hands.
Many of the sorority members say
they wanted to attend the event. They say they gained a great deal from the experience. A person should go to a rally, such as "Womyn Take Back the Night," with an open mind, eager to learn. If someone does not want to go, then they should stay home. Otherwise they may disrupt the entire purpose of the rally and poison those around them with their negativity.
The Gamma Phi Beta women were supposed to attend the rally as a punishment for their involvement in the Bacchanalia debacle.
Members said the punishment was recommended, but not compulsory. The women went to the rally on their own volition, but some of them obviously went for the wrong
reasons.The rally was not intended to be the target of narrow minded ridicule. It was about illiciting respect for one another, something a few of the Gamma Phis chose not to do.
Not only does the guilty members behavior emphatically assert their ignorance, it unfairly fosters a negative image of the Greek system as a whole. It takes away from the many sorority women who wanted to be there.
If people decide to get involved, they should examine their motives. If you cannot find a reason within your heart to be active in a cause, stay away. The positive participants in these events do not need your negativity.
Nick Zaller for the editorial board
Sororities are more than social clubs
When a group of women in 1867 decided to create the first sorority, their purpose was to create a support system for women in the patriarchal society. However, if members continue to use a sorority as nothing more than a social club, the mission for sororities will fail.
Each chapter can provide University women with opportunities to enhance their own lives. Sororities have created a community of women that can encourage women leadership in academics and University activities. Sororites have a strong presence on this campus — they make up 10 percent of this University's population. Members have a powerful voice as a large women's organization and that voice should be used to enhance the role of women in society.
Recent events, such as the "Womyn
Take Back the Night" incident, indicate that sororities are losing their purpose. Politics aside, any women's organization should be supportive of a cause that will bring awareness to women's issues. The problem here does not rest with sororites in general, but with the members who make up the chapter.
An organization is only as good as its members. When a woman decides to pledge a sorority, it should be because she wants to be a part of that support system for women. Sorority women should use their membership to become involved in leadership opportunities and academic endeavors.
The social aspect of sorority life is important to the development of a member. But members need to respect the
fundamental purpose of their chapter and not regard it as trivial or out-date
Each member needs to evaluate her role with in her chapter and use that role to further gender equality. If the member is not contributing to the fundamental mission of the sorority, then the sorority simply becomes a social group or a symbol of status.
Community service, the involvement of sorority women in on-campus activities and the overall high grade point average sororities should all be applauded. These things demonstrate the success of a chapter in enriching their members lives.
But sororities should step beyond that and use their organization and leadership skills to enrich all women's lives.
Kansan staff
Tamara Miller for the editorial board
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
Jason Strait ... Editorial
Jodie Chester ... News
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Broadon your mind: Today's quote
"Our hearts were drunk with a beauty
"Our hearts were drunk with a beauty
would warrant."
Our eyes could never see."
—George William Russell
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Raving
Gamma Phi Beta leader explains actions at rally
The leadership of Gamma Phi Beta sought out the "Womyn Take Back the Night" event to educate our members, breed our minds, and leave us stronger.
broaden our minds, and increase awareness of women's images. Ouzo.
one hundred Gamma Phi Beta women were in attendance, because the overwhelming feeling in the chapter was for stopping violence against women and children.
Lisa
Sapasap
opinion@kansan.com
Nobody ever deserves to be harassed, let alone at an event designed to empower victims. Gamma Phi Beta was shocked, embarrassed, and ashamed to learn that some of its member
had made an insensitive remark to a participant in the rally. Many of our members felt compelled to leave the rally immediately as our presence seemed no longer appropriate, despite our continual support of all participants in the rally. For the actions of certain members of our chapter, we sincerely apologize. In this situation, the actions do not represent the feelings of the entire sorority. As individuals, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately, the actions of a few or even one can reflect upon our entire group, even if the majority does not agree.
All Greek organizations have core values unifying their members such as scholarship, friendship and working for the good of the community and University. One of our most cherished ideals as Gamma Phi Betas is striving for the highest type of womanhood. When our members' actions fall short of these standards they are held accountable; we are not taking this or any mistake on the part of our members lightly.
Gamma Phi Beta represents a wide spectrum of women. Some of us come from small towns and some from big cities. We have members that are conservative Republicans, some that are liberal Democrats, and many that fall somewhere between. Some of our members have only been a part of our organization and the University for a few short months. They are trying to adjust to all of the changes that come with leaving home for the first time. Our sorority has
only been an influence in their lives for a short time. Some of our members are very mature and are concentrating on all of the things that come with graduation and life after college. For some of our women, the experience of mistreatment, discrimination, assault or harassment is far too real. Gamma Phi Betas are not immune to rape, physical or emotional abuse.
The women from our chapter had many different individual and emotional experiences at the rally. Many members were very comfortable with the event and felt excited and empowered. For some members, the rally was not a place were they felt comfortable or safe, because of their personal belief structure and values. While these women do not agree with abuse against women, the forum in which the information was presented was not appropriate in their eyes; some left before the march even began. That was their choice, because they did not feel comfortable, safe or welcome. This is a shame, because these women do believe in the right to live a life free of abuse, rape, or harassment. If as women we divide ourselves into factions of liberal versus conservative, and extreme versus moderate, it is very difficult for us to get anywhere as a group on common issues. The issue of domestic abuse and rape is every woman's issue, even those who don't realize it. The burden of standing up against violence should not only rest on the shoulders of women society labels as feminists. All women need to step out and speak and all voices need to be welcomed. Division amongst women only weakens us. If all women rose together despite labels we would have tremendous strength in our numbers.
When a person walks down the street you cannot look at them and determine what they believe in or stand for. You need to interact with them and begin a dialogue with people different from you. This is one of the most important ways we learn at the University. Gamma Phi Beta leaders and "Womyn Take Back the Night" organizers have met and are planning a forum for all women at our University to interact and work together towards our common goals.
Sapasap is a Kansas City, Mo., senior in human biology and Gamma Phi Beta president.
We all should faithfully practice and preach love
"C atholics will burn in hell!" This "message of salvation" from Protestant evangelist James Gilles in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall on the
Donato
Fhunsu
opinion@kansan.com
afternoon of Oct, 7 sent me home to think and reflect on the state of that mixed blessing we call religion.
"Did Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Christ, Mohammed and the other so-called founders of the various world religions really come to teach us religion as we usually practice it, or was their message a simpler and healthier one?" I wondered. Then the record of the unfortunate practice of religion by humanity
began to parade before me, like a horror movie.
I saw the ancient Egyptians, in the name of God, persecute the Jews who were in captivity in their land. Then, as soon as the Jews got out of the darkness of Egypt, and on their way to the Promised Land, I saw them massacre the Gentiles. I saw Christ crucified because he advocated love, inclusivity and justice for all. I saw the followers of Christ persecuted and given as preys to the circus lions. I saw the same Christians, once their religion proclaimed the official religion of the Roman Empire, execute anybody who did not want to convert to their particular brand of religion. I saw them send armies of crusaders to liberate the Holy Land from the Moslem pagans. Later on, the Moslems, righteous, themselves conquered Spain, that land of the Christian. I saw the Reformation pound upon those lusty Catholics and the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition put in their right place those rebellious Protestants. In the name of the Christians' concept of God, I saw the European colonizers, both Catholic and Protestant, kill those who, in Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas, did not want to give up their natural ways of seeing the Ultimate Reality. I saw the righteous from the Christian World and the Moslem World find it justifiable to buy African people and sell them as slaves throughout the world. In the United States," a country founded on the Christian principles" and whose motto is "In God we Trust," one person of African descent was only "three-fifths of a person." As if that were not horrible enough, after the emancipation, I saw the Jim Crow laws keep blacks and whites "equal but separate."
"All this is the past," the optimist in me said. Then the historical movie switched to the panorama of current world affairs. In Ireland,
Protestants and Catholics refused to sit at the same table to talk. In France, the Christians were uneasy because the Moslems had "taken over the country." In the Balkans, Christians and Moslems were up in arms. In the Middle East, Jews and Arabs found it unholy to share the Holy Land with the unholy other. In India, Mother Teresa did the "unnatural" thing of crossing the "natural" divide between Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems and Christians. In the U.S., the Christian Coalition wanted to "take back their country." From Africa, I received this religious tract from a Christian preacher: "Brethren, we are in battle with one of the deadliest religion in this world: Islam." Then the movie was over, and the message of the Protestant evangelist in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall sounded again: "Catholics will burn in hell"
I thought more deeply and these challenging observations by writer Alice Bailey came to mind: "Humanity has never really lived up to the teaching given it. Spiritual impression, whether conveyed by Christ, by Krishna or by Buddha (and passed on to the masses by their disciples) has not yet been expressed as it was hoped ... Spiritual impression has been interrupted and there has been interference with the divine circulatory flow. It is the task of the disciples of the world to restore this flow and to stop this interference. This is the major problem facing spiritual people at this time."
"What is this thing that has been interrupted and interfered with?" I wondered. Then the words on the tomb stone of the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta, came to mind: "Love one another as I have loved you." "LOVE!" I finally sighed.
Love being the basic power in the universe seems to be the central message of the originators of all the world's religious traditions I have personally studied. Or, as the Judeo-Christian Bible puts it, "Those who do not love do not know God, for GOD IS LOVE" (1 John 4:8). If this is so, than maybe LOVE (of Life, of ourselves, of our fellow human beings and of all the other beings through which Life manifests) is the only thing we all need to practice. Maybe to the question "What is your religion?" we should all answer simply "I am A LOVER."
We should answer, simply, *this* would be true for all of us — religious, agnostic and atheist people alike — because all of us have experienced, in one form or another, at some time or another, the transforming power of love. I bet this would truly make us better human beings and our planet a more peaceful and more beautiful place for all of us to live.
Phunsu is an Lawrence graduate is French.