Page 10 • Thursday, October 13, 2005
OPINION
The PenduluSL
TMs weekly column mil feature confessions m^or. Each week, lonathan will offer a UsUt-hearted look at»
little things in life that can make a big difference. n s
IT'S THE THINGS...
Who WouldVe Thought?
"This fraternity will be different, it will be based on
the love of God and the principle of peace through
lonathan Chapman
Columnist
“This fraternity will be different.
jnisiraternity will De airrerent. mat ' ir UUUUXil
^°^^^^hood." -Founding Fathm of Sigma Phi Epsilon
fraternity was needed by a faculty com- who enjoy their stupidity and women way
too concerned with Vera Bradley.
Jonathan
Chapman
mittee at the University
of Richmond in 1901.
Different. That is what
first caught my eye when
I was initially introduced
to the organization by
one of my favorite facul
ty members.
Greek Life was hardly
on my radar when I
returned to Elon for my
junior year.
I had never been a particularly huge fan
of Greek Life. In fact, I wrote a column
my freshman year about women’s recruit
ment and the frustrations that it supplied.
As far as I was concerned, Elon’s
Greek system consisted of drunken men
This notion hardly changed overnight. I
remember my roommate going through
new member education (what pledging is
now called) my freshman year. The stuff
they had him doing was crazy.
Not hazing, just crazy.
But as I got to know more people on
Elon’s campus, I began to dismantle the
John Belushi-Animal House sort of stereo
types and realize that while there are cer
tainly students on Elon’s campus who allow
their Greek affiliation to identify them,
there are a huge of number of Greeks who
consider it just another part of their experi
ence at Elon.
These are the students unwilling to let the
misunderstandings of others pin them into a
certain way of acting or being.
Last Thursday, I was identified for the
first time as a SigEp. It wasn’t a “This is
Jon, he works for Admissions, writes for the
Pendulum, is in Spectrum and SigEp." No.
It was, “This is Jon. He’s a SigEp.”
The way it was included in the conversa
tion seemed like that bit of information was
supposed to give the person I was being
introduced to a list of adjectives to describe
me.
Granted, of the fraternities to be associat
ed with, this would be the best one (in my
unbiased opinion) to be defined in terms of,
but that experience really threw me a loop.’
As I was thinking about it on my way
back to The Brittany, I began to recall all the
times I had done the same to others, the
times I had lessened people’s validity in my
Is the lottery that big of a deal?
Erin Moffet
Columnist
The North Carolina State Lottery began
with much controversy. But what is all the
fuss really about?
The lottery is a state-run gaming service
where people can pay a couple of bucks to
buy a piece of paper and scratch at it to win
or maybe pick the right numbers that are
given on the news that evening.
Should this even be considered gambling?
People aren’t throwing down hundreds of
dollars at a time. They are purchasing little
slips of paper for a couple of bucks.
With gambling, you have a high chance of
winning big every once in a while, but the
odds of winning big in the lottery are very
slim. That keeps a lot of people from play
ing frequently or at all, and from putting too
much money or hope into it.
Having a lottery in North Carolina is hard
ly endorsing gambling but allowing people
to play a silly little game of chance.
And why not? This way the state makes
some money off of people’s desire to play
games of luck.
Surrounding states, such as Virginia, have
lotteries and therefore if people really want
to participate in a lottery, they can do it else
where. But this did not benefit North
Carolina.
North Carolina realized that they were los
ing money they could be making to sur
rounding states that have a lottery. So this
fall, North Carolina got a lottery. And the
controversy began.
A great deal of North Carolina citizens are
of the Baptist denomination. Baptists are
strongly against any form of vices, including
gambling, and have voiced their outrage
against North Carolina having a state spon
sored lottery.
The belief is that the state is endorsing this
vice, and to those who do not believe in
gambling, this is very wrong for the govern
ment to do.
But the state is not tied into the Baptist
church, due to the separation of church and
state, and therefore should not be a factor.
North Carolina can make a profit off of the
people who play these lottery games in
other states.
So now that there is a lottery, the people
who are against it just need to accept this
fact and move on. It does not hurt them
any.
If they don’t like it, they don’t have to
participate in it. And at the same time, their
state IS still making money that it had been
basically giving to other states so it inad
vertently is benefiting thein as well.
The lottery is not such a bad idea after
u question on everyone’s minds
should be what took North Carolina so
long to get one.
Contact Erin Moffet at
opinions@elon.edu or 278-7247
mind because they joined a Greek
zation, and the times 1 had even, (y^*’
say it) bashed people because they
Greek.
So, how could 1 have joined one
ask?
one, y°^‘
I’ve thought a lot about that too- ^
1 realized I didn’t know enough to
educated about it.
I realized that I wanted a change
pace. .,
I realized that it could have an imP^^
on the rest of my life.
I joined because this fraternity
different.
is
Contact Jonathan Chapman at
opinions@eIon.edu or 278-7247
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