Citizenship to Myself and My Fraternity

To me, citizenship means being an active member in the community you live in to make it a better place not only for yourself, but for those other members as well.  It’s keeping streets clean, helping out a neighbor, protecting each other from harm, and coming together to raise money for a noble cause.  All of which I feel Pike does very well.  A few weeks ago, we did a block clean up of Indianola, we participated in community commitment at the beginning of the year, and had a water station for the marathon.  We also got involved with another fraternities project when we helped Sigma Phi Epsilon with their Very Sharey Halloween Food Drive.  Something else we’ve done is Ben Nagel has started the block watch program and has gotten many other chapters involved.  The program is in place because of all the muggings that have happened and we want to prevent things like that from happening.  We just recently did our Rivalry Run in which I personally received donations from many people within our community from a variety of chapters.  They didn’t have to donate, but out of the goodness of their hearts they did, and I would easily return the favor to them when given the chance. It’s when people do little things like this that can help improve a community as a whole.  Coming together as a group is the most important part of being citizens, because you can only do so much on your own.

uuuhhhh….

I’m pretty sure the blog prompt for this week was to take a couple things that we heard last week and talk about them? Not entirely sure if that was it, but there was really only one thing that stuck in my mind.  It was what Clark said about competitiveness.  He said something along the lines of we need to lose some of the competitiveness between fraternities and sororities.  According to him, it’s so great that it’s basically tearing us apart as a community.  On some level, I agree with that, we maybe are too competitive.  But isn’t that why we’re all different organizations?  If there wasn’t competitiveness, we would all just be one giant Greek chapter.  We need to stay competitive with each other, it’s how chapters grow and learn.  Being competitive with each other brings out the best in both sides involved, and you truly get a feel for who wants success more, whether we’re talking about recruiting, academics, athletics, involvement, philanthropy, etc.  I know the drive for most people is competitiveness.  Why would you participate in something if you’re not getting challenged from it?  You’re wasting your time.  When you accomplish something that took a lot of effort and wasn’t easy for you, it’s so much more rewarding and satisfying.  You appreciate it even more, and are more likely to be remembered for it.  Pike and FIJI each have their own Rivalry Run this year, and something that made it a great success was the fact that we’re competing against each other. 

Now that I think more about it, something else I remember hearing during the panel questions was someone (don’t remember who) said just relax and have fun.  That’s completely right.  I don’t want to be a part of something if I’m not enjoying it.  And whatever action you're doing, you'll only get the best result out of doing it if you enjoy it.  It's pretty simple.  The hardest part about relaxing and having fun is remembering to actually do it!  Take an hour or 2 out of your day just to do whatever the hell you want to do, and forget about homework and exams and all that other stress that comes with school.  And get your crap done before the weekend so you can have the weekend to do what you want.  That's all I got, my hands hurt from typing.

Oath

The most basic way to sum up the word oath is that it is a promise.  It can be used in numerous contexts such as: being a witness in a court room and taking an oath to tell the truth, making a promise to a group of people you wish to associate with, being a doctor and taking the Hippocratic Oath to practice medicine ethically.  We as members of fraternities and sororities take an oath in our initiation to abide by our standards and values, and to hold ourselves accountable for our actions, as well as acknowledging that we will keep certain things secret within our chapter that nobody outside is allowed to know.  A lot of chapters have handshakes, their crests mean different things, letters have different meanings, and those are all things only the guys who have been initiated are allowed to know.  It is a promise we make to keep secret within our own society.  It’s what makes certain things special, and other things ordinary.  If you break a promise, or oath, that tells a lot about the type of character that you have.  An oath is something to be taken very seriously, and everyone who has taken it should stick to it religiously.

Pike has a very basic set of values that we all hold ourselves accountable to.  Our slogan, SLAG, which means Scholars, Leaders, Athletes, and Gentlemen, is something we all stick very closely too.  We take the oath to meet these on a daily basis before we even are a member of Pi Kappa Alpha.  I feel I have stuck to my promise and have upheld my end of each word fairly well.  I try to excel in every category, and no one aspect of SLAG is more important than the other.  We often say that the A is most important because it really means all.  You have to live up to every standard in order to keep the promise you made to the fraternity.  You don’t necessarily have to meet each one on a consistent basis, but you have to put in the effort to do so.  I try to get the best grades possible while balancing time for fun, I lead when a clear distinct leader is needed.  Athlete is a given, I love sports more than anything and personal health is important to me.  And when it comes to being a gentlemen, I just try to hold myself in the highest regard and try to act how I would like people to act towards myself. 

I also find oath to be something you should be able to successfully uphold very easily.  It’s not hard to keep a promise, you just have to keep yourself in check all the time.  Just know what you’re doing, and think about it before you do it and make sure it’s consistent with the values you promised to live by.  Aeschylus, a Greek Dramatist, once said:

“It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath”. 

To me, that means that just because you take an oath doesn’t make you a better person and it doesn’t make you truthful.  What has to happen is you have to carry it out yourself in order for people to believe it.  Otherwise, nobody will believe anything you say.

Incongruency

To start off, no organization is ever going to be perfectly congruent.  There will always be something that needs to be worked on within an organization or group-nobody is perfect.  However, they can improve on a few select things that they are really incongruent with.  Something Greek organizations always complain about is the stereotypes and stigmas placed on being part of a fraternity.  What are we really doing though to shut those people up?  There are still incidents of hazing that pop up every once in a while on campus, and that’s not exactly helping our cause.  No wonder our Greek population is only 7%, nobody wants to join because of rumors they hear.  Overall, most organizations abide by the rules and are respectful of them, but it only takes that one group of people to throw it all away.  Also, most organizations have something about academics in their mission statements.  If everyone followed that, every single fraternity and sorority would beat the non Greek’s in average GPA. However, not all of them do, although a majority of groups have the potential to do it.  They just have to put in the effort.  Another thing we want is numbers numbers and more numbers.  But having limitations on the number of girls a sorority can have, I really don’t understand that.  I understand they don’t want one to overpower another, but look at it this way.  PHA has 16 sororities.  If we raise the limit to roughly 120 women, that is a potential of 320 extra members that our community could have.  Organizations really need to focus on recruitment because that is the most important aspect, to me anyway, of a successful community.  We control our own fate as a Greek community, and we are so close to succeeding in what we want, we just have to get on the right track and stay the course once we get there.

Standard Setting

The Mission Statement of Pi Kappa Alpha reads as follows:

Pi Kappa Alpha will set the standard of integrity, intellect, and achievement for our members, host institutions, and the communities in which we live.

To address the first part of this, I would just have to say we have a group of the most honest people I've ever met. If I want an opinion on something, I trust every one of my Brothers to give me a genuine assessment of what they think. Integrity is there, we all value it and honor it. Sure we will argue about stuff we disagree on, but at least we respect what the other person is saying and take it into consideration when making decisions about how we feel. Sometimes, we even change the opinion of a brother.

When it comes to intellect, we all have common sense. We use our heads when it comes to making decisions and we try to avoid making mistakes that would reflect badly on our chapter. I believe we are very good at this, and we will continue to better ourselves as men. However, our grades in the past few quarters have not been the greatest. We have really focused more on studies lately, and I look for a big improvement in our chapter GPA this quarter. We want to improve in every aspect, and this is the one we need the most improvement in. I would consider this to be the only aspect of our Mission Statement we are incongruent with.

Achievement is something we all strive for. Nothing is worth doing unless you do it right. We have a study hours requirement for every week to ensure that we not only achieve in social aspects, but academic as well. Pike's have the honor of being able to say we are the first winner's of the Fraternity Cup, and we plan to repeat.

Hosting situations is something we are dominating right now. You can find Pike's every where, from television to the music industry to the offices that run our organization. Zach Rubin-McCarry is holding IFC President Chair, Zac Beals was VP of Community Service, Ben Nagel and Michael Farranaci in USG, and myself, Jamaal Bledsoe, and Zach McManus as interns for Sorority & Fraternity Life. Also, we make up a good portion of this class, and were the prominent chapter represented in Greek Serv a few weeks ago. We are moving up the ladder and hope to be one of the top fraternities on campus within the next couple years, if not by the end of this year.

The community we are apart of is great. Our location is awesome, we have such a great set of neighbors with Delta Gamma's, Pi Beta Phi's, Alpha Phi's, and Alpha Gamma Delta's surrounding our house. It's just an awesome place to be, and everyone of those sororities is prestigious and known among Greek life here at Ohio State. We do as much as we can to give back and show them our appreciation for being able to live in the house that we currently have. We try to get as many brothers to community service as we can, and that's something else we want to set the standard on. Basically, since we've moved to such a great location, I feel like we are in the position to lead in every category. Right now, we are congruent with everything or are in the process of getting congruent. Nothing is too far off from being successful.

Habitat For Humanity

It's tough to pick just one organization because you are constantly being bombarded with values with every ad you see, every commercial you watch, and every internet site you view. It's easy to pick something that you see, but to actually get involved in that organization and help promote those values is something completely different.

My senior year of high school, we were required to do a senior project in which our English class picked an organization, planned and executed a fund raiser for that organization, and volunteered to help that organization for a minimum of 10 community service hours. The organization we chose was Habitat For Humanity. Really, the best value an organization can show is being non-profit. They get nothing out of it except the warm feeling people get of lending a helping hand, and that's what makes it such a great organization. It really was an eye opening experience, because that was the first time I really got involved in something that had an impact on people's lives directly. Just a few of Habitats values are family, service to neighbors, giving second chances. Second chances are huge, because sometimes that's all someone needs in order to turn their lives around.

What are your values and what do they mean to you?

Values....tough question. I really would have to be asked how I feel about a particular topic to give an accurate answer. Values mean different things to different people. It can be religious beliefs, someones opinions on someone's actions, how someone perceives somebody else based on appearance, personality, and character. To me, people don't have the right to declare themselves right on any topic that is opinion driven. Like religion, there's many different possible religions for one to follow, and the truth is nobody preaching any particular religion can know if they're right or not. People can have an opinion, but they should be respectful and open to hearing others. Before judging how someone acts, they should know the reasoning behind it before they jump to a conclusion about that individual. The movie John Q is a perfect example. If you hear someone is holding a hospital hostage, you're immediate thought is that person is terrible. But when you hear he's doing it to save his son's life, you're more sympathetic (I am in no way telling someone to go hold a hospital hostage by the way). I just basically think you should take the time to familiarize yourself with someone or a situation before judging it. Because if you don't, then you'll jump to wrong conclusions and look like an idiot when you're wrong. Don't let a first impression be the last impression.

Values to me mean character. They describe everything about you and make up who you are as a person. They're the most important thing you can have, and really are the only thing you have complete control over. And not being a hypocrite is huge. Don't preach one thing and do another. Makes you look like a tool if you do. Listen to your beliefs. If you can't listen to yourself, how the hell can you expect to listen to others?