OUR VIEW: Your frat house, your responsibility

Regardless of how much time is spent by members of fraternities discussing how much service and hard work is put into maintaining a reputable image — regardless of what kind of leadership skills one might learn by being a member of such organizations — the fact remains: You can say how much real college fraternities aren’t like what we see in the movies, but let’s face it, frat parties usually include drinking. Dare we say, sometimes, even underage drinking.

Three years ago, a young USU student — under the age of 21 — died while rushing a now-defunct fraternity chapter. It doesn’t matter how this unfortunate victim attained the alcohol, or even who was involved. In the end, he was still dead. The poison that killed him: alcohol.

What kind of leadership skills did it take to determine who is responsible for calling the cops or dropping victims off at the doorstep of the hospital emergency room in these kinds of incidents? Who ignores the fear of getting arrested to help save someone’s life? Bravo to whoever pulled the short straw.

For the record, dropping a dying or severely intoxicated individual off at the hospital, whether it results in incarceration or not, is the right thing to do. In this case, authorities say a 17-year-old girl is alive because of it.

The word “hero” has been thrown around, but is a person who is at least indirectly involved in what endangered this girl’s life in the first place really a hero?

Instead of hastily producing a press release claiming your fraternity is the victim of some kind of due process-less form of injustice — frankly, a weak effort to displace any blame or responsibility — Why not say something more along the lines of “We messed up, and we are prepared to show that we are going to be men about this.”

Deb Brown? Really? Let’s not compare apples to oranges. The true crime would have been allowing this girl’s life to be erased by a lethal dose of cheap booze. This is one fraternity-sponsored event we don’t want to talk about again. Real men accept responsibility for their wrongdoings. For those fraternities who haven’t been a part of such an incident, keep up the good work.