“Our house… our house… our house is burning down…”

My house burned down last weekend.

One of my roommates woke me up very early Saturday morning to let me know that Theta Chi’s house was on fire.

We ran over to the house. We watched. It burned. It sucked.

The guys who lived there, my good friends, lost virtually everything they owned in that blaze. It could have been worse. The fire started so quickly they’re lucky they got out with their lives.

For myself, my loss was not as great, but sobering nonetheless. I’ve been an out-of-house member for the past year or so, but that does not diminish the feelings Ihave for that old place at all.

That place was my home, and some of my best memories of college took place there, such as:

Playing hot lava and tackle football throughout the house until four in the morning every night.

Watching our homecoming display explode in the face of one of our members. Following that incident, one could often hear a Theta Chi say, “Casey got blown up.”

Taking our rush chairman, stripping him naked, and taking him to the Alpha Delta Pi house, where we then proceeded to throw him into their foyer.

The great bonfire incident, which involved some house furniture, a homecoming display, “Inna-gadda-da-vida,” a bizarre mating dance, a three-story inferno on our back patio and more beer than Dionysus could drink.

Forsaking the rules of Greek Week by skipping almost every event of the Greek Week Olympics for some, er, intra-team festivities on our sundeck. And still getting third place.

And many more, most of which if seen in print would result in numerous arrests, legal proceedings, and deportations.

As I look back now, maybe we were a little immature, a little naive, and most definitely, inebriated most of the time.

But that is part of my college heritage and experience, and I look back fondly on those times. Sometimes, I even miss them. A lot.

And now, it’s all gone.

The memories are still there, but much of the physical evidence I could point to is gone. And I can’t figure out how important that is; the memories Ican remember, or those Ican touch?

Regardless, I know the guys who lost their property, their home, a part of their lives, have appreciated the efforts the community has made to ease this difficult period for them.

It’s this community effort that has got me thinking lately.

They say the university is a type of micro-cosm of society, only more intense. Perhaps.

Debates of political ideology, voter apathy, racism, expanding commercialism, the rights of individual peoples versus the good of the community; the manifestations of these issues exist both in our own community and within the world community.

We are a community that depends upon and thrives due to not necessarily just our own personal success, but also the prosperity of those around us.

The pursuit of happiness is not a race to be won by out-running your opponents, but a communal trek that ends when we all have achieved prosperity.

One of the maxims of our fraternity is to “extend the helping hand to those who need it.”

We as a community have an obligation to uphold and protect the rights of all peoples, especially those in need. Even if we, ourselves, have no personal stake in the issue.

Insure the rights of women. Insure the rights of the poor. Insure the rights of under-represented groups. Of children. Of animals, the environment, the elderly, the disabled, etc.

Can Ibe a man and still fight for the rights of women? White and still fight for minorities? Straight and fight for gays? Can’t we all?

Perhaps it is when we cross those racial, gender, or whatever other barriers we keep setting up for ourselves, and join together and struggle not for what strikes closest to our hearts, but struggle for what is right in a world full of wrongs, then we are truly a community. To extend our own helping hands to others.

I know the guys at Theta Chi appreciate all the help they’ve received and have been offered by the university, the greek system, Red Cross and all others. That helping hand has been extended to them when they needed it. And as a result, the fraternity will rebuild and grow again and move forward.

Let’s hope that when any of us need that helping hand, there is someone there to offer it. If all of us did so, the world would be a better place. For each and every one of us.

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Tim Davis is a senior in theatre studies from Carlisle. He is the editor of the Opinion Page.