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Brutal Commentary on Colorado Death...
This is pretty harsh. I hope it isn't like your chapter, but let's be honest, it is like some...
From The Denver Post via. Fraternal News:
Denver Post
September 24, 2004
Commentary
The brotherhood of booze
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Columnist
They call themselves a fraternity.
Only the first message about brotherhood that the men of Chi Psi
sent to Gordie Bailey was this:
Party 'til you puke.
After being blindfolded - more Chi Psi male bonding - Bailey's
"brothers" drove him and 26 other pledges into the Rocky Mountains
and supplied them with copious amounts of cheap liquor and wine.
Bailey partied.
Then, he puked
Then, he died.
A perverted notion of fraternity is alive and well on America's
campuses, not just at the Chi Psi house at the University of Colorado
at Boulder, where Bailey's body was found last week.
Hundred-proof relationships existed in the Greek social system when
I went to college 30 years ago. Older friends tell me those
relationships were around long before that. Actually, drinking
buddies are as old as fermentation.
In college, I joined a social fraternity filled with high school
friends and football players. I didn't pick it because of its
commitment to public service or its penchant for deep, life-affirming
spirituality. I picked it because it had good parties and needed dues
so bad it no longer asked new members to pledge.
So I endured no blindfolded binges, no beatings to get my "brothers"
to sign a pledge paddle. No one tested my knowledge of the national
charter or the secret handshake. My ritual induction included writing
and signing a check.
At the same time, I don't believe my ease of entry made me any more
or less loyal to my "brothers" than Bailey.
We both belonged to the brotherhood of booze. He drank during his
initiation. I drank Saturday nights at frat house gatherings. In
either case, what bound us to our peers had the staying power of a
fifth of Jack Daniels or a case of Coors.
That brings us to the second message about brotherhood the men of
Chi Psi sent to Bailey.
They wrote it in marking pen.
After the 18-year-old freshman passed out from his drinking binge,
it seems no one tried to revive him. Instead, they doodled on his
face in jest. It's a tradition, don't you know.
A lot of traditions converged last week in Boulder.
There was the long-standing, if flawed, assumption that young people
are simply indestructible.
There was the abiding myth - created by human insecurity and
sustained by the makers of alcoholic beverages - that everybody is
more appealing when they've been drinking.
Finally, there was the enduring illusion of compassion in a society
grown so superficial by its worship of narcissism that it can mistake
a drunken impulse for intimacy.
This gets us to the third message about brotherhood that the men of
Chi Psi sent. Bailey was no longer around to receive it.
After he died, police began to ask what happened. Several Chi Psis
refused to talk freely and honestly with investigators. Instead, the
cops said, Bailey's "brothers" lawyered up.
Sure, they have the right to remain silent. Yes, anything they say
can and should be used against them.
But the worst charges they face, according to police, are probably
misdemeanors. Besides, they call themselves a fraternity.
Where's the mutual respect?
Where's the willingness to sacrifice for one another?
Where's the love?
The answers rest no more peacefully than an 18-year-old corpse.
Bailey died doing what so many Americans - especially college
students - believe they must do to survive: He picked a peer group
and set out to fit in.
His fatal flaw came in believing he'd found fraternity.
Gordie Bailey didn't have anything resembling a family at the Chi
Psi house. All he had was kindred with spirits.
On campus or off, that raises a question for all of us he left behind.
Oh brothers, where art thou?
__________________
Fraternally,
DeltAlum
DTD
The above is the opinion of the poster which may or may not be based in known facts and does not necessarily reflect the views of Delta Tau Delta or Greek Chat -- but it might.
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