There has been a breakthrough and the esoteric information is no longer available for sale on ebay.
An e-mail from the Grand Polemarch Samuel Hamilton has been forwarded to several mailing lists where the subscribers are predominantly Kappas.
I just checked the Official website for Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and there are no direct links to the e-mail itself.
But upon doing a search for the e-mail with the word "eBay", the link and URL of the message does appear.
What point am I leading to or trying to reference as subtle as I possibly can?
The point is that if you did not know of the situation through other means or somehow witness the issue being raised in your online or offline presence, then you are the kind of person that the concept policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is supposed to protect.
I congratulate our leadership for doing the right thing in making the request of eBay to remove the item from the eBay marketplace. I know that the process was not a simple one as the maze of corporate America can be a death-trap laced with all kinds of boobies of misinformation and speaking to the wrong personnel.
What is still missing from the situation is the applied foresight and wisdom to recognize the system that brought the issue to the table in the first place.
The issue was raised by a very alert Kappa Brother on the internet mailing list called NupeNet. The issue was not raised within a formal meeting of any kind. It did not require the approval of a quorum. It was not sanctioned as an official Kappa means of communications.
Our top tiers of leadership have been extremely reluctant to give any recognition to the NupeNet other than as a nuisance or a group of renegade, trash-talking, but inactive and unfinancial group of Kappas with a internet connection since the NupeNet was in its embryonic years in 1994.
The former opinion is totally subjective by the infected bureaucrats within our Bond and the latter opinion is farthest from the truth as any congregation of members is possible.
Granted, no one would normally and formally recognize the telephone system or the fax machine as being vital for bringing such an issue to IHQ's attention, but we're not talking about inanimate objects here--we're talking about living, walking, and talking human being members!
This is the lesson and motivation that has been missing within the upper and larger levels of our organization.
I do not know if the Brother who first saw the auction and information is active or financial. But I do know that he felt more comfortable in using the wisdom of a crowd such as the NupeNet versus determining whether or not his observation would be victorious after running the gauntlet of a committee, board of directors, chapter, etc.
The moment the NupeNet and internet were identified as additional venues for the Bond, they should have been fully embraced versus being identified as a potential threat.
Instead of worrying whether or not an opinion of an elected position might be misconstrued and placed on the internet, the NupeNet should have been used as a platform and microphone to express the thoughts and visions that all Kappa men should aspire to.
Such forums should be aggressively used at all costs and even to the potential cost of being misunderstood, underappreciated, and totally ignored.
Who knows how many incidents of hazing and other inappropriate activities on both an individual or collective level could be prevented, corrected, and repaired versus until waiting after the fact to do damage control within the media and with attorneys present.
Here is what I want to see:
Every Kappa Brother who feels that they are qualified to be recognized as a Man of Achievement and/or seek higher roles within our Grand Fraternity should have a blog at a minimum.
I want to know your thoughts, opinions, history, and other information about your life before and since joining Kappa prior to hearing your name upon the lips of other Brothers affiliated with your Chapter and Province who are suddenly pushing you as a candidate for office.
Cream does rise to the top and it should not take the years that many have paid their dues to get the placements that they have. I know that many will want the current system to remain in place, but there are ideas and concepts that will truly take us to the next level but are going unnoticed, unnutured, and kicked out like food poisoning just because a certain individual or group has not endorsed them.
The proposal and request for more individual Kappa blogs also should work to identify and forewarn the membership of those who are more interested in giving their resumes a shot of steroids while not being sincerely and totally concerned for the greater welfare of the Bond and the communities in which we inhabit.
The parade of resume and photo-opportunity seeking card carrying members have reverberated throughout the years in the physical forms of hazing, and other nonproductive activities less than the noble cause of achievement.
You may think that they are not connected, but these dots really are.
I will call this concept Kappas Who Blog and it does not mean that every Kappa man who has a blog is interested in later being a candidate for an office, but that each and every Kappa Man does indeed have a voice whether or not the voice is popular and accepted within various levels of our organization.
I will create a link on this blog if and when I am notified of your blog's existence.
There are proposals that will be just as paradigm shifting and initially viewed as heresy just as the statements of noted scientists, philosophers, and theologians have been. But without seeking the wisdom of the crowd of Kappa, we are reduced to suffer the benefit of the legislations and guidance of the short-term focused and true-degenerative concept called "The Coalition".
There is a mailing list of Kappas entitled "Jobs for Kappas" (I think) that has been just as successful as the NupeNet (or possibly more financially lucrative).
I do not know whether this list has been given an official status, but as the past has indicated, such usages to connect the masses have been given the cold shoulder.
Again, thanks for work involved to remove the esoteric information. Now just work a little harder to make a greater difference on the micro and macro levels of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
But since no formal appreciation for the NupeNet will take place, the NupeNet will have to appreciate its existence and unofficial appreciation and recognition found within the Grand Polemarch's message where he said " I call upon all of our members to forward any and all information containing esoteric material to International Headquarters for safe keeping" (bold font added).
Yours in the Bond!
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