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A tragic death occurred at Florida State University months ago when an undergraduate student drank himself to death. While there appears to be no evidence of hazing directly related to this drinking incident but plenty of evidence of the foolish acts of drunk young people, FSU President John Thrasher and VP of Student Affairs Amy Hecht acted quickly to punish all FSU fraternity and sorority students by banning Greek Life for six months.

Practicing “collective punishment” is a totalitarian tactic, like punishing a neighborhood for an act of one resident.  Thrasher and Hecht will be proud to know that these tactics are banned by the Geneva Convention and punishable as war crimes (Article 33, Fourth Geneva Convention).    That’s right, it mattered not that 95% of those punished had no affiliation with the fraternity where the death occurred, Thrasher and Hecht suspended all members of all fraternities and sororities at FSU indefinitely, banning their leadership, social, and fellowship activities and depriving them of untold opportunities.  The staggering monetary costs of lost event deposits, dues paid for which nothing was rendered, and countless other opportunities lost are incalculable and were taken by FSU from these young adults and will never be recovered.

To make matters worse, during the time of the suspension, Hecht’s office empowered itself with modern day Gestapo-like powers, spying on the social media of FSU’s fraternity and sorority students and even calling in members and chapter advisors – refusing to explain why in advance – to reprimand them for perfectly legal acts like dressing up and visiting the Tennessee Street bars on one’s 21^st birthday and playing impromptu stickball games.  These innocent, independent and perfectly legal acts were determined by the FSU administration as inappropriate or worse, during the suspension period.

Offensive as this was, it was just the beginning.  Hecht proposed a draconian set of new rules to “reset” or create a “new normal” at FSU.  Beer posters would be banned, 24-hour searches of the private residence of all fraternity men would be allowed without cause, warrant, or permission. Fraternity “Sweetheart” competitions – cancelled.  Parties - banned!   Most offensive of all was the imposition of a new “Greek Tax” that would be levied to take over $1M per year from these students so the FSU Administration could support and build its newfound power base and anti-Greek empire in the office of VP Hecht.  Mind you, FSU Greeks already pay millions in fees for activities and services, from which they are banned to receive any funds back like other FSU student organizations do because fraternity members pay dues. Therefore,  double taxation proves to be as punitive as it is duplicitous.

Stunning as it is that a University would impose these kinds of restrictions on adults, nothing should surprise us when the liberals running higher education put their minds to a new agenda item.  Thrasher’s bold proclamation stated that a “new normal” of behavior was needed by FSU students.  Meanwhile, on his own staff, an FSU Deputy General Counsel (lawyer) was charged and convicted in a child porn/sex sting and another FSU employee was removed from her office at Doak Campbell Stadium relating to murder charges of her former husband.  Despite this, there has been no official plan or comment from FSU on any “new normal,” taxes, fees or programming for its employees.  This leads us to the logical conclusion that stopping the behavior of sexually deviant and murderous employees is less important for FSU than punishing an easily targeted group of students after one accidently drank himself to death.

Of course, fraternity men are viewed by the left with great suspicion because they embrace tradition, are predominantly white, allegedly often conservative and perhaps in some cases from wealthy families.  What better target could the left find than this group?  But as offensive as John Thrasher’s paternalism and Amy Hecht’s empire and reputation building exercise may be, what is more offensive is the lack of fight in FSU’s fraternity men.

Thank you, Sir, may I have another?

Stunningly, after being punished for six months for an act in which none of them participated, with the implied suggestion that they were all guilty of some heinous act, not a single act of defiance, not a single protest, not a single public gripe was uttered by FSU fraternity men about these polices.  Alumni members were outraged, many prepared lawsuits and fought hard behind the scenes to end the tyranny, but despite their valiant efforts, they were undone not by the pathetic apathy of the fraternity men, but by a group of conscripted students who stood to support the anti-freedom, liberal fascist tactics of the Administration at the recent meeting of the Board of Trustees.

The Florida State University Interfraternity Council (IFC) has been nothing but complicit in the punishment of innocent fraternity men.  Of course, the IFC is “advised” by member of the Administration that seeks to control them. What is stunning is that the members of IFC seem to have no issues with taking orders from the Administration, orders that seem to conflict with their own cause of freedom and work to impose more and more bureaucracy and restrictions on its members.  In fact, those in the IFC seem to like the arrangement.  They get a nice little budget and get to have fun meetings with important people.  The question is, are these IFC types men seeking nice letters of recommendation from the Administration or are they men intent on representing the wishes of their fraternities.   Time will tell, but recent history paints a bleak picture.

In the past year, rather than fight for fraternity rights an against the unwarranted attack on the civil rights of its members, the IFC has actually imposed more rules, created more bureaucracy and astoundingly, just last week represented at a meeting of the Board of Trustees that it supported Hecht’s “Greek Tax.” While it was doubtful and unclear if a vote of any IFC members had taken place to authorize its support of this tax, an IFC officer stood to thank Thrasher and Hecht for the punishment FSU inflicted upon fraternities and to support the plan to use funds from the tax for “programming.”

Of course, the FSU administration will say this is all the doing of the IFC, but they fail to tell you that these pliable young minds are “advised” by Mr. Chris Graham, who works for Amy Hecht.  The IFC sheep are led by a sheepdog under orders from Dr. Hecht. Castro, Chavez and Maduro would blush at the way Hecht has devised this way of manipulating young minds, stealing their freedom and getting the ignorant, foolish youth to say thank you for it.

Replace the word “Greek” or “fraternity” in any of the acts the FSU Administration has imposed on its fraternities and use instead Black, Jewish or Muslim and the ACLU would already have filed suit and protests or worse would righteously be taking place.  Stunningly, the current fraternity men at FSU can’t even seem to muster the courage to put Tide in the Wescott fountain as a gentle protest of their current fate.

Independence Day,

Whether or not FSU’s fraternity men (we may be using that term loosely), actually have the courage to fight for their own freedom or the intellectual acuity to understand that they are being manipulated and abused by a totalitarian regime remains to be seen.  In the meantime, on this Independence Day, it seems the only thing FSU students have in common with America’s founding fathers and brothers is that they know how to dress up like Indians.  Since the Greek System at FSU has forgotten about the Boston Tea Party, as a courtesy, we have reprinted Jefferson’s words below to remind us all of the importance of freedom, self-governance and of how independence can be won.

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

The Declaration of Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.