This has nothing to do with sports, even remotely. But it involves a college, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk about.At Syracuse, the main off-campus stretch of road for parties, couches on decks and front-lawn beer pongery is Euclid Avenue. I had the good fortune of living on Euclid my senior year and it was all of those things, much to my delight. As is the case with most college towns, its well-understood that many of the dilapidated houses lining Euclid and the area around it are lived in by an ever-revolving cavalcade of college students who act like college students and live like college students are wont to do. And as is the case with most college towns, there are also some non-student residents living in the immediate area, some of which lack the common sense to realize that living in said area brings with it certain "issues" that for better or worse are a part of college life. These people give lots of reasons as to why they're right, my favorite of which is the oft-used "I was here first" corollary.
Not heard as often is the shifty "It's not like you're an organized religious group recognized by the United States" defense. But a couple of Georgetown students have stepped up and finally done something about it, earning this Syracuse grad's respect.
According to the Washington Post, our story concerns nine guys who live off-campus together in the Georgetown neighborhood. When they started running into trouble with the locals over parties, it was brought to their attention that the local zoning laws allow no more than six unrelated people to live together in one place. However, if these unrelated folks were all part of a religious sect, then that number would be fifteen.
You see where this is going...
The Apostles of O'Neill. That's the name the young men used Oct. 2 when they filed paperwork to incorporate as a nonprofit religious organization. In an e-mail statement, the group says that it has donated to charities and that its mission is "to be active and positive members of our community."
My favorite part of the story is the fact that the guys in the house are openly admitting its bullshit, which they can do as the legal and moral loophole through which they have jumped (what is a religion and how to do you define it?) allows for so much gray area that the old fogies who are (of course) fighting this decision can do nothing but stomp their feet and call the students names. And leave it to one local resident with no perspective to blow the entire thing out of proportion.
"This shameless proposal makes a mockery of the Zoning Ordinance (not to mention religion) and could have potentially devastating effect on the quality of life in our neighborhood"
Local residents haven't been this afraid since Allen Iverson enrolled.
Thanks to CollegeHumor for pointing this out.