Quote:
Originally posted by Optimist Prime
 I'm all bummed out now.
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Don't be bummed. I think others have made a good point -- we tend to place our founders way up on pedastals, so that the they are almost bound to disappoint us at some point.
I'm all for honoring our founders -- I certainly honor mine -- but I think part of honoring them is remembering that they were human with faults and that their vision, incredible and inspiring as it was and is, was in some sense bound by the time in which they lived.
I'm sure our founders could not have foreseen the diversity we find in their fraternities or sorotities today, nor do I think they would have necessarily liked it could they have foreseen it. But I do like to think (and perhaps here I am failing to follow my own advice) that, given the ideals and values they set forth for us who follow, that -- could they see the world as it has progressed, and could they have the perspective of
our time rather than the perspective of the time in which they lived -- they would approve of our diversity. Wishful thinking, maybe, but the values they set forth for us are all I have to go on, and it is those values that, I think, that encourage us to reject prejudice.
The way that we can best honor our founders is by fully living into the values of our fraternities and sororities, even if that takes us to places our founders didn't imagine.