"We Do Not Torture": The Lies Started in 1967
DEPARTMENT: No Comment
BY: Scott Horton
PUBLISHED: November 5, 2007
New York Times, “Branding Rite Laid to Yale University,” Nov. 8, 1967
NEW HAVEN, Nov. 7–A Yale fraternity accused by the student newspaper of burning its initiates with a brand will have its fate decided Friday by student fraternity leaders.
The fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, could face the temporary closure of its house and a $1,000 fine resulting from alleged violations of rules previously passed by the Inter-Fraternity Council, which consists of Yale’s five fraternity presidents.
The charges against Delta Kappa Epsilon were made last Friday in a Yale Daily News article that accused campus fraternities of carrying on “sadistic and obscene” initiation procedures.
The charge that has caused the most controversy on the Yale campus is that Delta Kappa Epsilon applied a “hot branding iron” to the small of the back of its 40 new members in ceremonies two weeks ago. A photograph showing a scab in the shape of the Greek letter Delta, approximately a half inch wide, appeared with the article.
A former president of Delta said that the branding is done with a hot coathanger. But the former president, George Bush, a Yale senior, said that the resulting wound is “only a cigarette burn.”
To be fair, burning in this context might not be torture, but it is wrong, and it does tell us something about Bush's personality. It is not flattering. Although no single episode is sufficient to draw conclusions about someone's personality, this suggests some serious psychopathology.
I wonder what ever happened to the charges and the $1,000 fine?
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