babyface,

What doesn't kill you may make you stronger, but what about the brothers that have been left behind because "it" did kill them? or injured them? I can't see justifying any form of "hard pledging" that puts the life of a brother in danger!

And death does sever bonds. They may still exist out of respect for those that have past along, and the links to the past. But any bond that doesn't have the ablity to be strengthend as a friendship, brotherhood ages them - can not truely live.

Artimis