“You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.” ~ Faith Baldwin

We’re all probably aware by now of the tragic fate that befell Cris Mendez. The blogosphere has already presented all the emotions expected to come out of this senseless death. I pretty much share the same sentiments and I feel that everything that needs to be said has been said, and all that needs to be done has been… well, said. There’s one idea that rubs me the wrong way, though. And it comes from my favorite senator: the incomparable Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

From Inquirer.net:

“I am so furious. I am going to fight for a bill to abolish fraternities and sororities. As far as I’m concerned, from my experience in UP Diliman for four years in the College of Law, these fraternities do not aid the academic tradition of the University. They are nothing but elitist enclaves,” she told reporters.

I’ll have to firmly disagree with you on this one, Madame Senator.

Cris’ death wasn’t caused by the suspect fraternity’s traditions, procedures, and practice of omerta. It wasn’t caused by The System. It was caused by a perversion of Brotherhood. It was brought about by a number of idiots with twisted views of their own fraternity’s creed. Abolishing fraternities and sororities is overkill. It shits on the constitution. And ultimately, it will just delay the inevitable. Why? We’ll still have other forms of student organizations.

For the uninitiated (pun not intended), I’m a member of an academic organization in UP Los Baños. And in UPLB, you can hardly tell the difference between fraternities, sororities, academic orgs, civic orgs, hobby orgs, and religious orgs and hobby orgs. The only significant difference between a fraternity and my org, for example, is they only allow dudes to join their organization. That’s it. Our ideals, goals, and traditions are basically similar. We also embrace Brotherhood (and Sisterhood). We’re practically part of The System. Heck, we even had several “run-ins” with fraternities. That’s possibly virtually unheard of in other schools and universities. Members of academic organizations from other schools are probably nerds who can’t defend themselves from bees. Anyhoo, what I’m saying here is if fraternities and sororities get abolished, students will still have other outlets for their quest to be better members of society. They’ll still have the means to continue whatever values they followed in their gender-exclusive groups. It will only be a matter of time before media vultures feast on another death-by-hazing story. So I guess the answer to this dilemma would be to abolish all kinds of student organizations. Being someone who learned a lot from The System, I say FUCK THAT!

So how do we fix this? Simple answer is we can’t. The abolition of these institutions will just lead to the formation of underground groups. Groups that school administrators and the government wouldn’t be able to control. Unless, of course, they implement a martial law-esque atmosphere in the schools. They will then be like Marcos, who was a frat man himself. But I digress. The only people who can fix this are the people within The System.

For you people in power within The System, please assert your control. Practice discipline within your ranks. I’m sure you guys will just give me the ol’ “You have to be in The System to understand what the multiple swings of the paddle are for.” line, but come on. You can always come up with a good reason for not hurting your recruits that upholds Brotherhood and your other values. In short, STOP THE MOTHERFUCKING HAZING BIT!!! You keep doing it, more people will die. More people die, you feed media vultures more “Fraternities are teh evil!” stories. You screw up your frat’s name. You tarnish the collective image of fraternities. You drag other organizations into the mud with you. You bring shame to your school. And most of all, you give Brotherhood a bad name.

For those not in The System, yeah. You can cry for justice. You can scream “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!” But please, don’t let these power-drunk cowards skew your idea of Brotherhood. For some of you, it may just be an idealistic concept that only leads to death. For others, it’s a noble truth that brings a lot of good into a lot of people’s lives, including mine.