I figured before I talked about the word "oath," I should probably state the Webster's Dictionary definition of it. So here it is:
Oath- a (1) : a solemn usually formal calling upon God or a god to witness to the truth of what one says or to witness that one sincerely intends to do what one says (2) : a solemn attestation of the truth or inviolability of one's words
When we talked about oath in class, I think we pretty much assumed that it follows this definition. The word truth is very important here, and also the fact that we must do what we say we will. We touched apon how we all take an oath when we join our sororities or fraternities. We said this oath was a promise to uphold the values of our organization and that it's also a promise to hold our brothers and sisters accountable for the same values. This second part is really important, and we said that most of the time we tend to fail at it. We want to hold our brothers and sisters accountable, but it ends up being too hard for us sometimes. We don't want to hurt their feelings or deal with them being upset with us. It becomes hard to blame others for things that we ourselves are not perfect at. Others in the class even said they'd fear the backlash of others in the organization. There are lots of reasons why we don't want to/can't hold others accountable. I think that we need to find ways to overcome these fears and come together as one community that will always be there for one another, in good times and bad. I think that when we take an oath to join our organization, we should also be thinking about how this oath affects the greek community in general. I think it should encompass more than just your organization. I think that by upholding your organization's values, you are in a way promising to uphold the values of the entire greek community. When we think about it in this way, it adds much more of a sense of community and closeness to all greek organizations as a whole.
On the subject of this closeness, I think it needs to be said that the greek community here could be doing a lot more to be really unified. We are off to a start, but when I walk down 15th I don't necessarily feel like everyone I see outside are my brothers and sisters. Maybe I'm just a little naive, but I think it should feel like we are all brothers and sisters. Not neccessarily in the "family" way, but I think a sense of closeness or friendship should be shared and understood between all greek members. If we can get this to happen, I think it will be a ton easier to organize events as a whole or get more involved in the university as a whole. I think this is really the reason why I am taking this class to begin with; I want to be able to make a difference, lead the community through example, and take positive action to get the greek community more involved on campus. The only problem is I don't know how to do this or where to begin. I think this is something we should be addressing in class. It would be awesome if we could all work together to find simple ways in which we can begin this journey, because that is why I enrolled in this class in the first place.
Side Note: in response to last week's class, yes, more of us do need to start taking responsibility for our actions and stop blaming others. But, I did not join my organization thinking about these things. I instead joined because I knew about all of the good things they do-- all of the community service/philanthropy, all of the support for doing well in school, and most importantly all of the close relationships to be made with the sisters. I also want to LEARN how to change these stereotypes. I took this class to better my leadership skills. But how can I when we are just sitting around talking about the bad things that happen in our community? I don't want to talk about it, I want to LEARN how to DO SOMETHING about it.
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