Meryl Streep Speech The Golden Globes 2017

This says it all.  Thank you Ms Streep!

The text of Meryl Streep's speech tonight:

Please sit down. Thank you. I love you all. You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve lost my voice in screaming and lamentation this weekend. And I have lost my mind sometime earlier this year, so I have to read.

Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press. Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said: You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners and the press.

But who are we, and what is Hollywood anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places. I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, came up in Central Falls, Rhode Island; Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids in Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates? And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised in London — no, in Ireland I do believe, and she’s here nominated for playing a girl in small-town Virginia.

Ryan Gosling, like all of the nicest people, is Canadian, and Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, and is here playing an Indian raised in Tasmania. So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.

They gave me three seconds to say this, so: An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.

But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose. O.K., go on with it.

O.K., this brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call him on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in the Constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the Committee to Protect Journalists, because we’re gonna need them going forward, and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth.

One more thing: Once, when I was standing around on the set one day, whining about something — you know we were gonna work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, “Isn’t it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor?” Yeah, it is, and we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should all be proud of the work Hollywood honors here tonight.

As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, take your broken heart, make it into art.

''Is is that difficult for you to get an erection?"

Jimmy shares his thoughts on the Minnesota dentist who illegally killed a lion who was a local favorite in Zimbabwe. If you’d like to donate to the wildlife preservation group who had previously been keeping track of the lion, please visit http://www.wildcru.org/

Guest Post - Some thoughts on the Masonic Fraternity

Past Grand High Priest Tom Dean sent me the following which he wrote following the passing of a good friend and Brother.  It is worth reading.

We all join the Masonic Lodge for various reasons:  because our family were members, we see it as an opportunity to help serve our community, we see a possible camaraderie that we are searching for, it sounds like a great organization, and so on and so on the reasons go.

I have come to believe that it is not why we join the Masonic Fraternity but the benefits we in  fact gain because we belong to the Masonic Fraternity.  Maybe it is my advancing age or my sentimental reasoning, but I often think about on what the Masons have meant to me.  The recent death of a Brother and Companion and caused me to reflect once again on what the Masonic Fraternity means to me  and maybe to you as well.

While I love our rituals and ceremonies and the many stories that are exemplified in them, I don’t  believe the ritual is what is most important to me.  The institution, as old as it is, is probably not the issue.  It is not the famous members who have seen fit to wear the Square and Compass that makes me  the proudest.  It is something much more simple, much more common………….it is the people that I have come to know and able to call brother and Companion.

I have had the good fortune to know brothers who are bankers, farmers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, janitors, machinists, plumbers,  dairy owners, insurance salesmen, truck drivers, carpenters, police officers, assembly line workers, social service personnel, college professors, teachers, administrators, counselors, iron workers, electricians, judges, business owners, laborers, and many,many others.  While I probably could belong to many organizations where I might find myself in contact with people  from all  walks of life, I would challenge them that it is not like the Masonic Fraternity.

If it had not been for the Masonic Fraternity I would be less of a person, there is no doubt. I have been able to obtain leadership positions in our Fraternity that mean a lot to me.  I have grown from my experiences as a Mason, both in leadership roles and as a person on the sidelines.  I look at the world in a different way than a lot of people who have not experienced our work do.  I strive, though probably not always successfully try to live my life by our precious tenants, especially Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.  The Masonic Fraternity has been good  to me and I will never be able to put into the Fraternity all that I have gotten from it.

However with the recent passing of my Brother and Companion Bob Christensen I have stopped and thought a great deal about life and the hand that we are dealt.  I have reached the conclusion that it is only because of the Masonic Fraternity that I ever met Bob Christensen in the first place.  If I were not a member of our Fraternity Bob and I would have probably never crossed paths.  It is only because I was a Mason  that we met.  I am so glad that I belonged to the Masons to have that close personal friendship with Bob.

I, perhaps like you, are  fortunate to belong to this Fraternity and to have met all of these fine brothers.  As I look back, it is better than any honor, award, office that could  be bestowed upon me just in knowing and being friends, brothers and companions with these fine gentlemen.

If it were not for the Masonic Fraternity I would have never met or have touched my life the likes of Willard Loper from Sperry,  Bill Crawford from Glidden, Maynard Smith from West Liberty, Jay Cole Simser from Ames, Dennis Zahrt originally from Marengo, Jimmie Arnold from  Mt. Pleasant, Glenn Marshall from Cedar Rapids, Harley Holm from Stockport, Bob Allen from Ames, Don Heath from Cedar Falls, Glenn Holmes from Cedar Falls,  Jerry Marsengill from Des Moines, Glen Fanhauser from  Mt. Pleasant, Tom Weir from Mt. Pleasant, Tom Francis from Ottumwa, Vic Folkers from Cedar Rapids,  Max Yates and son Charles from Sioux City, Phil Severson from Sioux City,  Charlie Croker from Cherokee, Jimmie Fisher from Muscatine along with Phil Cook from Muscatine, Jim Newburg from Mt. Pleasant along with George Craig, Harry Huston from Winfield, Windy Gould from Ottumwa, Tom Corothers from Sioux City, Tom Eggleston from Cedar Rapids, Dean Harlan from Stockport, Glen Wilson from Mason City, Scotty Bonebrake from Leon,  Vic Raider from Burlington along with Loren Stein, Lonnie Hausner from Burlington as well, Marty Davis from Waterloo, and many, many, many others.

These people and many others have touched my life and left an imprint.  The imprint they have left in my life is more  important that any office, honor or award I have ever received.  These individuals and others in the Masonic Fraternity that I have been blessed to know have assisted in making me the person that I am today. 

I owe the Masonic Fraternity a debt of gratitude.  Not only for the rules and guides I have gained from belonging, but for allowing me the opportunity of a lifetime.  The opportunity to be a part of an organization where I have had the pleasure to meet and become life long friends, brothers and companions with so  many outstanding individuals from all walks of life.  The opportunity to have been able to have my life to be touched by so many outstanding individuals.   

My Brother and Companion Bob Christensen  has  entered into that house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens, and I thank God that my life was touched by Bob and so many others, but it never would have happened without the Masonic Fraternity.  For whatever reason I joined the Masons, I was wrong, but I do know what I have gained most from the Masonic Fraternity………….

Guest Comment

A friend sent me his thoughts on the situation in Connecticut - I think it is worth sharing.  He gave me permission to share.

So here's what I propose.

I am not opposed to guns.  Before a disease took over my feet and legs, I thoroughly enjoyed hunting upland game and waterfowl, and enjoyed eating the results of the hunt as well.  I still think pheasant, quail, wild ducks, and wild geese are among the most delectable dinners on earth.

I even have nothing against handguns—in moderation, that is.  I have REAL problems with people who think they need 150 different handguns around the house, but then everything in moderation.

I have REAL problems with people who own guns that are designed only for military use.

But here's what we can do for those people who think they need weapons like that.

In their zeal, they tend to forget that the part of the Second Amendment that allows possession of firearms depends on the first half of the sentence in which it appears:

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

The REASON, therefore, that people may "keep and bear arms" is the existence of a "well regulated militia," something missing from the landscape these days.

So let that Newtown shooter's mother collect all the assault weapons she wants to own.  She must agree to be a part of a state militia organized and commanded according to accepted military standards, and commanded by the general in charge of the state's national guard or the meanest retired Marine Master-Sergeant they can find, whichever comes first.

She will attend rigorous military training, including Quentico-level physical training, instruction in the proper use of and care for military weapons, and forced marches with full equipment, and she must do this 26 Saturdays every year, as well as spending two weeks at primitive military camp every summer.

All of this she must do at her own expense, in addition to paying a $10,000 per annum fee for belonging to the militia.

Any civilian use of her assault weapons will result in an automatic sentence of two years at hard labor in a military prison.

These militias could be called out in states of emergency by governors of states, and militia members would be required to pay all of their own expense when thus deployed, as well as to remain under strict command of their superior officers.  At least 20 years of regular military field service would be required of every officer above the rank of sergeant.

In addition, the degradation of care for mentally ill people begun under the Reagan administration will be reversed immediately, and all gun owners taxed on a per-weapon basis to pay for adequate care for and treatment of people diagnosed by competent physicians as suffering from mental illness.

Addendum. - Here is an article about Switzerland which goes along with some of the ideas expressed in the above. Click here   -  J 

Guest Editorial

My friend Bob Wilson sent me the following and I asked his permission to print it here. I wish I had written it.

I have reached a point of frustration with the situation, now existing, as it relates to the level of hatred and disrespect afforded our sitting President.  While I don’t always agree with his statements and actions, it seems to me that there are those that don’t seem to know of the name of the Health Care Bill they claim to despise, with a fury.  I have read several documents that refer to the law as the Affordable Health Care Bill, but all I seem to hear from a segment of the community a constant roar against Obama care, which is at the very least an attempt to skirt the content of the law and ask the people to do away with it because our sitting President is being blamed for doing something, his predecessors attempted to do, and by the Grace of God our current President accomplished.

Believing the teachings I received in my 5^th grade civics class was in part the motivation for my joining the United States Marine Corps and serving for 20 years.  I was led to believe that our form of   government was worth defending and in the end it meant a better world for all concerned.  For the duration of that military service I not only defended that concept, but used it as a catalyst to serve the Senate of these United States and the House of Representatives of this country as an aide to 2 elected officials.  I even worked across the aisle with members of the party of individuals who believed differently, but we worked for the common good of all the people.

Never have I been able to explain or understand the level of disrespect shown our sitting President when I look back at those 43 who preceded him.  They refer to him as Obama, when Mr. President, President Obama or Sir might be better used.  The media has taken to question the high rate of black of unemployment and assumed that our current President should have solved it and his record on this issue, which has been discussed over the last 50 years at some length, is at least as good as those who served before him.  He was not elected as a President to solve the black unemployment problem, but the unemployment problem for all Americans.  The method of reporting the facts, used by his administration, seems consistent with the methods and resources used by those who served before him.  The choice he made to prioritize Health Care for all Americans may not have been popular with all Americans, but it was a promise he made and though it had been attempted by previous administrations, he succeeded, and there are those who think it was the wrong decision.  There are many who are elated.

This is a country that until recently was accepting of the voting process that 50% plus 1 was often sufficient to decide an issue and the losers, while not happy, did not act ugly.  Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain, showed a lot of class in 2008 when he showed that depth of his manhood and commitment to fairness when he rebuked one of the people who spoke in a negative manner about the character of President Obama and gave him a huge lift in my respect for him, in addition to the fact that he was already high on a list of politicians, with whom I don’t always agree, but hold in high esteem.

This country is divided along some very contentious lines and not likely to agree on a lot of issues and how to resolve a lot of problems, but when the candidates stoop to the level of making the point something  other than issues and turn it into character assassination and an attack of the very people most in need, I don’t see that as being the American way.  

There is a lot of waste in government, but it begin in the last few years and it won’t be solved within the first few days of whoever is elected in November.  The truth is that this mess is the result of many years when the actions of our elected officials, at all levels, were not rewarded appropriate with their actions.

There is a benefit to seniority in both houses of our Congress and we have allowed it to consume us and at the same time destroy the specifics of what the public was fed as the true intent (all inclusive) of those laws being passed and while there are some restrictions on what individuals can do upon leaving certain areas of government, before moving to other areas influencing government decisions.  At some point it seems that lobbying has become an arm of government, because our elected officials allowed it to happen.

There are 3 branches of government and if we allowed each of them to do their individual jobs, without throwing in the bias of political persuasion, there may at some point be a return to some level of civility.  While these are just my opinions it seems to me that if this is a country of the people, for the people and by the people we would be well served to remember that our diversity is one of the things that makes us unique.  While we differ on many things, I was taught to accept the final vote (even when I didn’t agree).   We should be able to disagree, without being disagreeable.

There are those who will not agree with what I have stated, and that is your right.  I fought for you to have the opinion you choose and that means my opinion counts too.   Let’s work on the common good of all, those we like and those we don’t like, some of these problems were created and supported by those we love and hate.  But we are where we are and we have to move on from here, hopefully without the nastiness.

H. Robert Wilson

USMC Retired

1953-1972

Guest Editorial

A friend of mine get e-mails from his "friends" Sometimes he answers them. He is insightful and generally has his facts - which those forwarding the e-mail did not. He gave me permission to share this.

From an e-friend:

“What do you think of this? I think it is true."

“----- Original Message -----
“Subject: Fw: Interesting thought

“ What a profound short little paragraph that says it all!!!

“*”You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”*

“* Adrian Rogers, 1931*”

His response

Well, Adrian Rogers was a far right-wing Baptist preacher who was born in 1931, died in 2005, and was a wildly popular, Southern Baptist evangelist (yeah, one of those guys on the radio who asked little old ladies for donations). He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention for three terms, and during his tenure, he fired all moderate and liberal faculty members at Southern Baptist seminaries, and forced all employees of all Southern Baptist schools and organizations to sign loyalty oaths. He was a bigoted clergyman who was absolutely persuaded that his own interpretation of the Bible was correct, and anyone who believed otherwise was damned out-of-hand. He particularly hated Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Calvinists (Presbyterians and Congregationalists, among others). He also advocated that pastors have an absolute responsibility to influence their parishioners’ political choices. CHARMING person.

If you think Rush Limbaugh is a brilliant political philosopher—and not a college dropout (his MOTHER said, “He flunked everything, even Modern Ballroom Dancing!”), a drug addict, and a blowhard one-trick pony on the radio—then you’ll buy this big-time.

Personally, I think it’s horse…ummm …“hockey.”

Of COURSE you can’t “legislate the poor into prosperity.” NEITHER, however, can you “legislate the wealthy OUT of prosperity”—unless, that is, you tax them at 100% and seize all of their property. That contention, then, is sheer crap.

Second, “what one person receives without working for” just MIGHT be the dollar you put into the collection plate at church last week. That “non-working person” might not be ABLE to work. Ever try to be a paraplegic and earn a living? A person dying of cancer? How about a person who’s been fired, and has six children to support with no money coming in? On and on. So this one is crap too.

“The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”

Yup, that’s how government works, and the money the government gets is called “taxes.”

So, for instance, the government spent somebody’s money and gave us I-80. Did YOU pay for it? ALL of it, I mean? Do you ever USE I-80? Who DID buy it if you didn’t? WHAT gives you the right to drive on it, anyway? Does somebody who pays more in taxes than you do have the right to drive on I-80 more than you do? Do YOU have the right to drive on I-80 more than somebody who pays less in taxes than you do? More crap, of the purest sort.

“When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.”

Absolute, unadulterated, chin-deep horse diarrhea. MANY of the “people who do not work” in the U.S. today ARE THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY!

Of those, the few who DO work are the ones who screwed us over in this economy by their sheer incompetence!

AND, far from denying them more money, the Bush administration GAVE THEM BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WITHOUT EVEN ASKING THEM TO ACCOUNT FOR THE MONEY!!! Naturally, the filthy-rich swine paid themselves millions of dollars off the top!

The WORKING people—you, and me, and your employees, and everybody with a normal job—PAID TAXES TO GIVE BILLIONS TO THOSE B**TARDS FOR MESSING US ALL UP! THAT, my friend, is how it works in the real world, and that is right-wing, neoconservative-led law giving at its most basic and working level.

That is the nirvana of Richard Nixon, the slobbering idiot Ronald Reagan, and both foolish Bushes, father and son. THIS IS THE GOLDEN AGE THEY GAVE US! BASK IN IT!

And THEN their pygmy intellectual descendants have the COJONES to try to destroy the people who are trying to clean up THEIR mess! What contemptible creatures they all are!

“You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

Oh, C’MON!!! “Dividing it” is the ONLY way to multiply wealth effectively!

If you have money, you invest some in stocks. Some goes into bonds. Some into taxable investments. Some into tax-free investments. Some goes into CDs. Some goes into a bank account as cash.

In other words, if a wealthy person wants to make MORE money, he or she splits up the wealth fourteen ways from Sunday, and puts it into ALL kinds of money-making investments. Of COURSE the money is divided! The very first sentence in EVERY book on investment contains some version of the word “diversify.”

This old fart may have been a fine man and a good preacher (though I’d have had real “issues” with him).

He was a real toilet-licking ignoramus as an economist.

“A profound little paragraph,” my Aunt Fanny’s Off Hind Foot! It is one of the most ignorant things I’ve ever read.

Moreover, YOU don’t believe it, either. Not for an instant, if you really think about what it means.

THAT is what I think. In fact, that’s only the tip of the iceberg of the contempt I feel for these kinds of foolish statements.

One last little tidbit: That Cadillac-driving welfare queen you hate so much? NEWS FLASH! She never existed! She was invented—MADE UP—by RONALD REAGAN, who didn’t think this country owed anything to anybody. He wanted to do away with Social Security, veterans’ benefits, job-finding benefits, food stamps for poor people. He LOVED giving benefits to really, really rich people by making it possible for them to pay NO taxes (that was his goal).

So don’t BEGIN to tell me that your version of welfare is evil. It doesn’t even EXIST!

Now. Want to know what I REALLY think?

A Response

One of the qualities of a good Leader is to pick your replacement. From 1986 - 2006 I was Chairman of the Committee on Jurisprudence for the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. I chose my replacement and recommended Past Grand High Priest Tom Dean. Tom reads my blog and occasionally we have e-mail conversations. This morning he writes: (and I use this with his permission)

Okay, I read all your postings from yesterday, apparently from after lunch........

I am fired up again and writing..watch out.

The problem of leadership in Freemasonry is not limited to the York Rite!

The lack of “leadership” is affecting every organization that you can imagine! Lions Clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis, K of C, you name it, a lack of leadership is evident at some point or another.

I have had the pleasure of conducting hundreds of Leadership Development Seminars and Courses over the years. Some of these were with adults, while the majority was with college age students. I am STILL of the opinion that you can make a leader anymore than you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear! Not everyone is a leader and not everyone wants to be a leader!

The York Rite of Freemasonry is not the only Masonic organization that has a shortage of leaders. It may well be the most apparent, especially to a few of us, at this critical stage in the Rite’s life. We need to look at the qualities that we look for in a leader and analyze them as to the importance we place on them!

In Freemasonry we tend to equate “Leader” with “Ritualist.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Not all football players are quarterbacks are they? Not all baseball players hit home runs do they? Each has their own pivotal role in the situation that they are involved. On rare occasions a “Leader” and a “Ritualist” are the same person and it tends to spoil us.

We have a tendency to push people through “lines” to be officers and then the “head” of our bodies. We assume, incorrectly, that if we elect them to the “head” position, then they will wake up and be a leader. Look around you, you know Brothers and Companions that have held leadership positions and couldn’t lead anyone.......anywhere. They are however, considered “leaders” in our organization. We even give them jewels and awards!

We spend too much time not thinking about good leadership. We are willing to tolerate a down year in our organizations cause “Joe Blow” was elected.

We KNOW that the year is not going to be a good one, because we really, deep down, KNOW he is not a leader. We forget that one down year leads to more down years and that is where the lack of leadership really shows.

Tom Peters, a management consultant of considerable note studied business and organizations for year, focusing primarily on business. He coined a phrase, and called it The Peter Principle.” Quite simply put, Peters believes that “given the opportunity, people rise to their level of incompetence. I fully agree with this idea. For the businessmen in our beloved Freemasonry, they need to ask them selves if they would hire some our leaders for pivotal positions in their organizations. I would doubt if they would. A good salesman does not necessarily make a good sales manager!

Freemasonry needs leaders, but we need members first and foremost. We need people to make coffee too! We need people who are will to cook a meal for the membership. We need members who are good ritualists. We need people who have computer skills. We need members that we are able to cultivate and let their skills, talents and abilities shine. We need leaders to do this. A good leader is able to help individual members grow and become better members. This is a very important part of being a leader. Running a good meeting is fine, but if no one is there and involved, what good is it?

We all have a role to play, a niche to fill and talents to share. We need to be honest with ourselves and determine through self-introspection what those talents are. We need to keep from putting our lights under the proverbial bushel! We need to examine the York Rite’s role and continue to press onward and search for leadership within and without our ranks.

I will get off my soapbox for now!

One other thing.......The York Rite pays rent at Masonic Temples across our state.........the York Rite leaving affects the financial picture of a lot of Masonic Temples!

Thanks, Tom, I agree with you. I also think that processes can be put into place to help the Rite. We can bring in people (such as yourself) to help us make decisions as to long range plans, goals and ways to implement them. We can develop "worker bees" out of which leaders may grow or be found. We can do it if we care. If not we are place holders...holding the place until ignorance apathy and complacency eventually bury the Rite. The Symbolic Lodge is realizing this and is actively working to overcome the situation. The Scottish Rite seemingly has a real leader at its helm and he will be there for several more years. The York Rite is floundering. Someone needs to throw it a life preserver. That is what this series of posts is about. Thanks for your thoughts. Hopefully someone will listen. jcs

A Freemason's Freedoms—and Responsibilities

Contributed by Hey Nonny Mouse


I belong to a mainline appendant Masonic organization—one of the best-known and most respected appendant bodies of American Freemasonry. I am proud to be an active member of this organization. Like most Masonic organizations, this one prides itself on providing additional education in Masonic philosophy, on giving its members a deeper understanding of the human condition, and conveying suggestions on living a productive and upright life.

The organization claims publicly to favor the following:

• Pride of patriotism, love of flag and country, respect for law and order, loyalty to the principles of sovereignty of the people, citizen control, and civil and religious liberty, as set forth in our Constitution;


• The American public schools for all children of all the people and, for the alien adult, inculcation of American principles;

• The use of English as the principal language of instruction in the grammar grades of our public schools;

• The complete separation of church and state, and opposition to any direct or indirect diversions of public funds to church-related schools or institutions.

• This organization neither makes nor permits to be made in its publications any criticism of any religious faith or church. True freedom demands that each individual have the God-given right to practice without interference whatsoever religion his conscience may dictate. The organization recognizes, however, its right and duty to affirm its belief in the American Constitutional Bill of Rights and to safeguard by all legitimate means the fundamental freedoms guaranteed to the people of the United States by the Constitution.

We live in politically turbulent times. This country is perhaps more polarized on political issues than at any other time in the past half-century. Here we have a Masonic organization claiming to prize individual responsibility, personal integrity, and dedication to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I daresay these beliefs are part of most Masonic organizations.

And yet, and yet...

Where is ANY of Freemasonry today?

• Why, when our legal system, our freedoms, and our Constitution are threatened by the executive branch of government; when the President of the United States, upon signing a law, states he intends not to obey it (a "signing statement"); when sovereignty of the people is undermined almost daily by the federal government; and civil liberties are usurped by courts and executives—why does Freemasonry not protest?

• When civics courses in the public schools are expected by law to be politically correct, and when there is virtually no systematic program to inculcate American values in alien adults, why doesn't Freemasonry insist on rigorous civics courses in the schools and adult education in civics for legal immigrants?

• The assertion notes that English should be the PRINCIPAL language of instruction in the public schools. Why doesn't Freemasonry rise up and DEMAND that instruction in English as a SECOND language be instituted in every grammar school in the country where there are students who don't speak English as their native language, and INSIST that this education be funded completely? The federal Department of Education has almost completely zeroed out such funds.

• The Bill of Rights—and Freemasonry—prize the separation of church and state. Yet Freemasons did not protest, so far as I know, when President Bush proposed to fund programs—with LOTS of money—at all kinds of religious institutions. He called it his "Faith-Based Initiative."

• Where is Freemasonry—and where are its members—when the Constitution is being threatened, the Bill of Rights undermined, and freedom of religion—particularly if one is a Muslim—is being squelched? Why aren't we using "all legitimate means" to safeguard fundamental freedoms for EVERYONE?

Am I the only Mason who thinks my freedoms are being threatened? Am I the only one to protest when Constitutional provisions are being ignored?


Or are pretty words enough?

Health Care - Guest Editorial

by Kurt Hoffman

Regardless of political party affiliation, our nation faces a problem with our health care system. It's sad that people in the United States are afraid to go to the doctor because of how much it may cost.

Tonight, I watched an excellent program on PBS' Frontline on Health Care Systems around the world. It was a comparative look at the health care systems in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany,Taiwan, and Switzerland. There is much for us as a nation to examine in this election year. I won't regurgitate the entire program for you, because I'd rather you see it for yourself. It's available online at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

We must call upon our politicians and candidates to do something about health care in the United States. Personally, I like the method that the Taiwanese used, a careful examination of the systems of many countries. They then used what they thought was the best from each of those, and strived to learn from the mistakes of others.

In order to change our system for the betterment of everyone, I propose that a committee from various parties be formed:
1) Those representing doctors and medical professionals,
2) A group representing private industry (insurance companies and employers),
3) Representative of government
4) Private citizens to be selected using the same sampling methods as jury duty.

They would then spend 90 days traveling the world to study what other companies are doing regarding health care, meeting their counterparts in those countries. After the 90 day period, they will have 30 days to develop a new health care plan for the United States. Their plan will then be presented to the nation for a vote after 6 months. No outside organization would be permitted to utilize the media either for or against the plan, to prevent tainting the perception of the plan. The government will be required to provide a summary of the plan to each registered voter in the country. No Electoral College, no House and Senate approval, no Presidential veto. A pure and simple voice of the people vote. Should it pass the popular vote, the President must sign it into law or face impeachment.

I'm not an expert on the issue of health care, but it is too important for us to continue down the path we are currently on. At present, 15% of our Gross National Product is spend on health care, or $7.1 Trillion in 2007 (That's roughly $7600 per person). Our health care system is one of, if not the most, expensive in the world.

This issue is too important for us as a nation to be silent about. It's literally life and death.

Brother Kevin's Thoughts

Kevin and I have had a conversation extending over several e-mails about what happens at Lodge. He has written his thoughts and allowed me to share them with you. He writes:

"Here's my list of what our fraternity should be doing:

1) Blue Lodge meetings should not be a stepping stone to an Appendant Body meeting. Don't discount Blue Lodge meetings by hurrying them along to get to another meeting.

2) Every once in awhile, let's eschew the bologna sandwiches and potato chips and have a real dinner, and some real Masonic fellowship.

3) It's not a crime to be a Mason, it's a privilege. Let's start acting
like it. Petitioning a Lodge for membership is an honor, not something sneaky. (I don't want the guys at the office to know, or my wife, or in-laws, etc.) My wife was told, up front, when I petitioned. Same for York and Scottish Rite. And Shrine.

4) We meet on the level. Concept Lodges (Lodge Vitruvian comes to mind, and a certain Lodge in Texas) look good on paper. But go underneath the surface. Certain (not all) members of these Lodges promote elitism. Tuxedo, very few meetings, expensive dinners, political agenda, written excuses for non attendance required, very high dues, etc. What message does this send? This compromises "meeting on the level". I doubt the common Joe whose Masonic credentials are without equal would be accepted here. I question our Brethren as to what purpose this really serves. And look at the background of the founders of these Lodges.
These guys aren't about meeting "on the level", they're about forming a "restricted" club. This isn't Masonry as it's been defined to me. This is not an indictment of ALL members of that Lodge. I'm sure their intentions are pure. I'm just concerned about those members who write policy and set the pulse and tone of those Lodges.

5) Ritual. One of the reasons I petitioned. Time honored. What sets us apart from other fraternities. It should not be something that is "tolerated", it should be something we revere. It should be embraced. How do we preserve it? We should all learn to look forward to it at Blue Lodge, York Rite, and Scottish Rite. Ritual committees, to preserve and foster it. Hmmm, what a concept. Kudos to Dave Dryer here, and he's not the only one.