The SAEL club (Society for the Advancement of Ethical Leadership) is the greatest club on campus. There are no fees, free books, free food, and great discussions. Whoever funds this club is heaven-sent. Club members are given a book (each book has some ethical issue), asked to read it, and encouraged to attend a group discussion after a lite dinner in the coming weeks. That's the entire club. Beautiful.
For this session we read the book Three Cups Of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. In a nutshell, Greg Mortenson (Dr. Greg) spends his life building schools and helping educate individuals in Pakistan, even during very dangerous times, through an organization he founded called the Central Asia Institute. One year ago, 60 Minutes did a story that casts doubt on many of the events Mortenson claims in the book (number of schools built, a kidnapping, a climbing trip, etc.). There has been much discussion since then about what actually happened and what is fabricated in the NY Times Bestseller. Dr. Greg has continually claimed that everything in his book is true as he remembers it.
In our group discussion, we discussed whether it was appropriate to embellish what actually happened, whether we should each continue to support such a man (if he lied), whether we should even buy the book, and other things relating to personal integrity and values. As time ran out, we had one last comment from a fellow who made the best comment of the night. He said something like, "This book and investigation exposes a fundamental flaw in our society: our reliance upon heroes to do something great." Unfortunately, the discussion ended with that. I would have loved to talk further about whether he meant we each can do great things regardless of our societal status, or whether we hold "heroes" on a different pedestal, and forget that they are human and make mistakes.
It was a fantastic evening with a diverse group of intelligent individuals. The discussion was stimulating and the food (bacon mac n' cheese from Noodles & Co.) was great. Anyone with the opportunity to be involved with the SAEL club should not miss it.