As previously stated, I am a member of a Greek organization, so I must have seen some good in them, unless you care to take the first paragraph seriously and subscribe to my claims to unequivocally embracing vice. At the same time, we do agree there are problems with the fraternities and sororities. For starters one could easily argue that they promote exclusivity, gender division and alcohol consumption. Perhaps in your next article attacking the system, you might enjoy exploring these issues. Perhaps examine the structure of the system, how one enters, how one changes and relates to non-Greeks. The results will not be one-sided, but it might provide you with fodder for a real article of significant critique. It could even be exciting for a budding and talented new journalist like yourself. You might engage in some under cover investigations, but wait É how can you?

If you hate fraternities and sororities, that's fine; hate them. But if you want to be a journalist, you need to be informed. Next time you feel the itch to denounce the evils of the system, perhaps take the time to descend from your ivory tower and do some legitimate investigations. You gave four reasons why you could not do so, perhaps good ones if you're hoping to enter the clergy. However, since you are a columnist, I would imagine you might think about what makes good journalism.

Granted, yours was an opinion piece and not simple reporting, so in a way I am being too hard, but think about it. I happen not to believe in capital punishment, but were I a journalist writing about it, I would certainly make the effort to go to death row or even attend an execution. I am not talented as a writer; I can't spell, don't bother too much with grammar and invent words, so it is my lot that I will produce journalistic unpleasantries.

But you may have to bite the proverbial bullet and chance visiting a frat party. In fact, I formally invite you as my guest if you so choose. Ms. Billings, you have what could develop into a fine literary voice. You have some potential, but if you wish to compel your readers to your point of view, next time I hope you won't need to tell the reader that you actually know nothing about which you are writing. It tends to harm your credibility. Also just as a side note, you aren't the only one who finds Pledge Night unpleasant. Perhaps you might reexamine your critiques of it, especially since you are neither Greek nor have you witnessed the event.

Firstly I would like to point out that no one has to kiss. In fact, in my house many new brothers often don't and are respected for it. Many do -- and enjoy it -- but generally, they do so for the reasons other than those you described, mainly they can't believe their dumb luck. Some girls don't kiss either and are often respected all the more for it -- you know how we frat boys love a challenge.

Ms. Billings, you and I are alike in some ways, for one I too find the night's antics distasteful. I, however, am far from condemning it. It has its good side. As you are a freshman, maybe you are only recently becoming acquainted with certain qualities of Wake Forest's "social climate," however let me tell you that many find it stifling and abnormally judgmental. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't complain about the ludicrous speed at which gossip spreads and judgments are pronounced... especially about women. "She did that? What a tramp!" Perhaps tramp is not the most common word used.

It reaches a point where people are anxious about their every decision. "What will people think if I do that?" This kind of anxiety is the standard fare on this fair campus. Pledge Night is the one night during the year that this untenable standard doesn't exist. Subsequently, the night turns into a shocking release of inhibitions and to our mutual dismay, an explosion of kissing ensues. Personally distasteful perhaps, but I can think of a few things worse than excessive kissing.

Pledge Night is not the height of immorality as you describe it. It is the annual release of a student body, stifled in this hypercritical Wake Forest bubble. As you are looking to expose a problem, I tell you there is something to attack here, Ms. Billings. It is the insecurity or thoughtlessness that can transform us into a group of judgmental hypocrites.