[Cube TX]

It may have happened 3 years ago, but it sounds like the judgment just went down. I'm all for teaching people about mistakes from the past. If you don't learn from your past then you're doomed to repeat it. It happened in my chapter.

In 1998 one of my fraternity brothers was driving drunk at speeds of up to 150 mph (he drove a 95 Camaro, much like the ones police use on highways). He hit an arrow-trailer and his car went airborne and landed on its roof. He broke his neck and was trapped in the car as it ignited. He suffered burns that included one of his corneas. He also broke his neck. To this day he is still paralyzed from the waist down as well as in his hands. He is also blind from one eye. He was 22 when the accident happened. He and I were actually pretty good friends, but I was in Albuquerque at the time for the UTEP/UNM football game. It took me a long time to work up the courage to visit him because at the time we all thought we were immortal and made of steel.

By 2002 most of us who were active then had graduated and moved on. No one ever spoke of what had happened in 1998 and the newer members had no clue who the guy who'd been in the accident even was. That's when several members went out drinking on a Monday after chapter meeting. They were at a popular campus hangout where underage drinking was the norm. One brother left before the others. Though toxicology reports were never released I personally know where he was at and why students hung out there. He had a wreck while driving down Sun Bowl Drive on campus and his car rolled at least 200 feet down the hill. It was a covertible, so there was no car roof to protect him. He died at the scene and was found a few hours later. He was only 18-years-old. The story was big news here because he was also a member of the university's cheerleading squad. I felt particularly horrible about this one because I was an alumnus by this time and he and a few others had been over at my apartment only a week before that. Perhaps if I'd helped educate the chapter about the event 4 years earlier this wouldn't have happened.

NEVER downplay the value of learning from your past. Saving only ONE life is worthwhile.