Race, changes of life, and Phi Psi - RIP Carlos

As most of my readers know, I'm a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. I'm one of the Founding fathers of my Chapter, and i'm the Chapter Advisor to 2 chapters in the area. I'm but one of a handful of "minority" members, both of my own Chapter, and of the fraternity at large. Of the over 200 initiates of my chapter we have less than 15% minority participation. Until I ran for National office at our last convention, no minority had ever run for a national alumni office before. i was the Obama of Phi Psi (even though to anyone with an ear for history i would tell I'm more Barbara Jordan than Obama). I lost that election, but it was close. What I really did was fling the door open for people behind me, and me too, to go and try and win. I thought about that in the wake of 2 things that have happened over the last 2 weeks - the whole Obama/Gates/Cambridge cop thing, and the death of one of those minority members of my Chapter, Carlos Navarro.

I'm really sad about Carlos. He was a good man and I was proud to call him my Brother. He wasn't the first Hispanic member of the Chapter (that distinction goes to my buddy Jaime, another Founder), but he was probab;y the first hispanic member who had a choice. He could have joined one of the 2 latino organizations that were on campus at the time, but he chose to walk with us. Once when he was a pledge, he sought me out. He was taking flak from "his people" and didn't know what to do. he was thinking about quitting. He was also just nervous. We went and had a gatorade together in the cafeteria and i talked to him. I tried to tell him that Phi Psi would be good for him; that the bond that you forge here will help him for the rest of his life. That his Brothers didn't care what color his skin was, just that he lived up to the principles of our Order - loyalty, Brotherhood, and Service. I told him my story: how when starting the chapter, members of the Black fraternities and soroities questioned my blackness, and those who didn't do that overtly simply shunned me, unitl I showed them that I was doing something bigger than the pettiness they were bringing.

Carlos left that meting and decided to really strive to make Phi Psi the best chapter on campus. He dove head first into our Ritual and was always the first to sign up for community service. Watching him made me proud to call him my Brother.  He understood that he could be his own man with us, and we'd always love him.

How does this deal with race, and what's the tie into the beer summit today? Simply put, while race is something that we deal with all of the time, and something that pervades our culture and influences a lot of how people act, or walk, or talk or think, Its really about individual choice and how YOU deal with race and racist behavoir that makes you the person that you are. Dr. Gates got angry - on that day he decided that he wasn't going to take it anymore; President Obama made a mountain out of a molehill; and when race enters Phi Psi - unless its some moron calling me N----r, I tend to let it wash off of my back. Carlos was the same way. i watched him get called everything but a child of God by his Brothers, much like I had some 15 years ago, and I watched him smile through it all. i watched as other Latinos/Latinas, got angry for/with Carlos for not striking back, and he calmly explainging how the people were his Brothers, and they would never say any thing with malice. But I also saw him angry when it wasn't meant to be funny, and he handled it with grace and the honor expected of him.

Carlos, you will surely be missed. My parents tell me that you'll like it where you're going, and when you get there, make sure you thank Letterman, Moore and Tom Campbell for all that they've given us.

Posted via email from Marc's posterous

I want google voice and (pic) the reason I get up in the morning

So Google has come out with this new app called voice that lets you put everything voice (vm, calls, etc) in one place. It's going to allow me to forward everything to the same spot and i'm super excited, but ATT just threw it off of the iPhone which is soooo bogus. More to come on this developing news

In other news, Simba (my 11 month old- not his real name of course) actually walked this morning so I'm pretty stoked about that - here's a picture.

I hope my week gets better - it started off pretty crappy

see ya soon

Posted via email from Marc's posterous

Posterous | Re: My First Blog Post

Today's Question:
Should prostitution be legal in the majority of America? If yes, why? If No, why not?

It's my opinion that, assuming the prostitute in question is there of their own free will, and not via coercion, that it should be legal. It should be taxed and monitored, and the providers should be tested regularly and there you go. Looking forward to people's answers.

Posted via email from Marc's posterous