LIVE THE HELLENIC IDEALS - ΟΠΑ INVITES YOU TO BECOME PART OF HISTORY
Since ancient times, Greeks have been notorious for their adventurous and wandering spirit and their curiosity to learn from and explore the world. They traveled to the farthest reaches of the world; they became acquainted and interacted with different cultures while simultaneously preserving their classical values. In their his
tory, Greeks rose many times in prominence and power, and many times they fell and declined. Despite changing times, however, they have always remained resourceful and optimistic and had the courage to write history. Today we remain faithful to the heritage of our intellectual ancestors in our persistence to pursue innovation in the Greek life in American universities. Instead of taking the conventional and easy route of associating with a well-established fraternity or initiating a chapter of one of the already existing ones, members of the ΟΠΑ family struggled to create from scratch the first genuinely Greek Fraternity in the country ( ) and offer to its members the chance to pose their character, inspiring ideas, and philosophy of living. Therefore, the ΟΠΑ Fraternity would like to offer you an invitation to become participants in its history by becoming members or supporters of a revolution in Greek life which seeks to create a student movement that will refresh and reform the meaning of the fraternal mission.
ΟΠΑ is not only the first cultural-Greek Fraternity in the country but also the first one that was created in the 21st Century. Hence, this Brotherhood will aim to address the issues and the challenges of our generation through a Hellenic cultural perspective. In contrast to other cultural fraternities, ΟΠΑ does not set as a high priority to invite Greek students. For us Greek is not a person of Greek heritage or descent, but rather every fellow student who wishes to participate in Hellenic education and ideals. As ancient Athenian orator Isocrates explained “the word ‘Greek’ is not so much a term of birth as it is of mentality, and is applied to a common culture rather than of common descent.”
We believe that Hellenic ideals possess ecumenical dimensions because they constitute the foundations of the Western and American civilization. In effect, discovering the Hellenic ideals is a rediscovery of the origin and essence of what means to be American. The Hellenic culture set the foundation of western civilization; it introduced the rationality, which banished the oriental superstitious despotism and set the basis for the development of modern science. Even more significantly, Hellenism attributed for the first time in history value to the notion of humanism. Hellenic culture developed the earliest stages of concepts such as citizenship, democracy, human rights, social justice, and protection for the environment. Society was not a sum of separate and alienated individuals, who pursued their selfish and personal interests, but rather a collective entity in which human existence could find its meaning and fulfill its purpose. We are living in a crucial historical turning point which would generate new kind of challenges for the coming generations. From a Hellenic perspective, our era is not only undergoing a financial crisis, but also is facing a culture and value crisis. Instead of restricting ourselves to technocratic data, we must expand our approach in order to include criteria such citizens' political participation and awareness of public issues. We must consider the ability and power of media to shape public opinion and define the agenda of the nation. We need to reflect upon the increasing ability of lobbying and other powerful financial institutions to interfere with the democratic elected government in order to promote their corporate interests, which are not always accorded with the county's and peoples' welfare. These questions cannot be deduced only in the economic field, but they have significant implications about the quality of democracy, popular culture, and power of the people to live as free citizens. These are the reasons that Hellenic and classical ideals matter more than ever before. Our generation should answer to these prospective challenges with a critical spirit, participation, and active involvement. These qualities reflect the essence of the Hellenic Paidia (Education). Our ambition is to spread the Hellenic education and way of living throughout the American Greek system. We invite you at a micro level to join a Fraternity that we created only by our persistence against difficult odds. Join us, and if we succeed in our common effort, you will have proven to yourself that you are capable of changing your academic community. Then when you graduate, you will have developed the education and ideological foundations to believe that you as a citizen, at a macro level now, can contribute a positive change in your country. Our mission is to educate our brothers in the classical Hellenic ideals of philanthropy, political participation, education, and overall excellence. In that context, the ΟΠΑ Fraternity seeks to cultivate a new form of civic responsibility and reliability which will allow all of our friends to believe that they have the power as free citizens and men to define the fate of their lives and their countries.
