Starting Monday, posters, public announcements and your Student Council representatives all will be advertising Brotherhood week. The usual reply when asked about brotherhood is, "Oh, yeah, that's when everybody's supposed to be brothers." This is the typical conception shared by many students of what Brotherhood week stands for, and it is supposed that we have only ourselves to blame for this situation.

There is another group of people, though, who use Brotherhood week as a time to be friendly with everyone so that they will be elected the most popular boy or girl at the Brotherhood assembly.

Simply and basically, Brotherhood week was originated to remind us of a quality that is slowly becoming extinct in a world of cliques and prejudice‑minded people. Too often we use it to preach about "loving thy neighbor," and, "equal rights for the black, yellow, red, and what have you‑people." It's time that we stop sitting on our pious stools handing out solutions for the segregation issue, and look at ourselves the way we really are.

Some of the worst jealousies, hatreds, and prejudices originate in the school. It is at school, then, that we should begin our reformation.

How many times have you condemned a person because of the way he or she was dressed? Have you ever been jealous of anyone for any reason? Have you ever gone out of your way to avoid a person because you just positively hated him? This all boils down to the mere fact that none of us, to quote an old saying, is perfect.

Brotherhood is more than pretending to be nice to everyone. It is the ability to get along with people, ALL people. It is the ability to disbelieve any gossip you hear about a person you don't know. It is the ability to trust your fellow classmates and friends. Above all it is the desire to help other people who ever they are.

None of us is perfect, and therefore we could not possibly fulfill all of these conditions. Nevertheless, there is one all important factor that hasn't been mentioned. If we have a sincere desire to acquire these abilities, we have already taken a giant step in the cause of Brotherhood, a cause that is slowly becoming extinct in a world of cliques and prejudice‑minded people.