Catch the 0900 ferry in Steilacoom, wander up the hill and be prepared for hot coffee and a fresh goodie. This happens on every Tuesday! Well, almost every Tuesday! I will send e-mail to most who come on Mondays!

I can promise you refreshments, you bring the friendship and fraternity and we all will have a fun morning. It seems that our discussions are getting increasingly interesting. Keep it up!!

Y'All Come, Y'A Hear!!!

Jer

A trip to Canada by our Worshipful Master...more at our next Stated!!!!

<———This is a picture of a Lodge WB Tom Kingsbury visited on his trip to Canada. This is Calgary Lodge #23 (on the Left). ———>This is another Lodge that WB Tom visited, Cornerstone #19, the Lodge that puts on the 1765 play.

Hello All

Once again, I have tons of input this month!  This is great!  Keep it up!  For four months in a row!!!

Thanks

The Editor!

MASONIC ETHICS

What has happened to the ethics revered and generally followed in the past? Mass cheating and public scandals are the trend today. Worse yet, despite knowledge of misconduct, violators are not turned in. Today, more and more Freemasons are violating the tenets of the Institution of Freemasonry. Rules prohibiting gambling and those involving the use of alcohol are unobserved. Code sections and various time honored regulations are being misinterpreted or ignored in attempts to increase membership. Lack of respect for the views of others and like matters disturbing the harmony in Lodges are becoming more frequent.

Not too long ago conduct was self-imposed; it sprang from core beliefs. At one time students signed a paper "pledging one's honor as a gentleman that no assistance was given or received". Agreements used to be made solely by the shaking of hands, and a man's word was his bond. Trust and adherence to Truth was the standard of conduct for most Freemasons. This sense of honor is largely unobserved and probably not comprehended by much of our society nowadays. Freemasons, however, are supposed to be ethical before they become Freemasons and, as such, are taught to think and act ethically.

Bobby Jones, the noted golfer, who often called penalties on himself once remarked to one who praised him for this and other acts of sportsmanship - "You might as well praise a man for not breaking into banks. There is only one way to play this game and that's by the rules". The principle behind this simple observation should be self-evident to all right thinking people.

There are many other instances in history of men with a firm understanding of and adherence to ethics. One in particular involves Socrates, the Greek Philosopher, who, when advised by Crito to escape from prison to avoid his sentence of death, asked several Questions. He asked - "are we to say that we are never intentionally to do wrong ……. or is doing wrong always evil and dishonorable ……..?". Crito answered "Yes. He then asked - "Ought a man to do what he admits to be right …..?". Crito agains answered "Yes". He finally asked - "Do you imagine that a state can subsist ………in which the decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and overthrown by individuals?". The answer Socrates received to this was "No". Thus Socrates accepted his

death sentence, even though believing it to be unjust, rather than violate the law himself. He had made an agreement with the State that he would duly obey its laws, and had not sought to change them. Socrates thus valued his oath and obligations as sacred and, not having sought to change the laws of his State, obeyed them. Can Freemasons do less involving laws that do not endanger their lives, but merely how they manage them? Can they not be expected to obey their oaths and obligations and abide by the laws of the Craft, especially if they have taken no action to change them?

Honor, along with duty, form the bedrock of human character. Today, many who see an injustice or are dissatisfied with a status do nothing. Others betray the right. Toleration of misconduct makes the person who tolerates equally guilty of malfeasance. Ethics rules, unlike most laws, are observed only by ethical people, who don't need them. Honor codes are meaningless to individuals without a sense of honor. Freemasons who breach the Constitution and Ordinances of their Grand Lodge, or the By-laws of their Lodges, not only violate their obligations, but are individuals without a sense of honor. Those who have knowledge of those breaches and do nothing are likewise guilty of malfeasance. An observation of such inherently immoral action is set forth in the Volume of the Sacred Law, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?".

Freemasonry's only dogma consists of moral principles requiring only common sense to understand them. T.R. Fehrenback, an editorial writer, observed that ethics is - Do right if you can; above all do no harm; and if questionable, do not do it, whatever the law allows. Freemasonry sets a higher standard to always do right. Its ritual includes references to: purity of life and conduct; being good and true; practicing the domestic and public virtues; squaring our actions by the Square of virtue; and displaying discretion, virtue and dignity. But even the most explicit laws or lists of do's and don'ts or standards of conduct are futile if those they apply to lack the basic character to abide by them.

It is not difficult to know right from wrong. Common sense is inherent in most people. Epictetus, when asked what common sense was, said - "As that may be called a common ear which distinguishes only sounds, while that which distinguishes musical notes is not common but produced by training; so there are certain things which men not entirely perverted see by the natural principles common to all, Such a Constitution of the mind is called common sense". Thus, Freemasons can not only understand the principles of Masonic ethics, but work them out in life. Determining what is right and exercising common sense should be the constant rule and guide for each Freemason. Since Freemasons are urged to live Masonic principles and thus, by precept and example, encourage others to emulate their actions, they must abide by their obligations and not palliate the offenses of their brethren. They must realize that the teachings of the Craft are designed to improve society as well as each member, just as Aristotle knew that though it is worthwhile to obtain the end merely for one man, it is fine and more Godlike to attain it for a nation.

The membership selective process in our Craft must be always by the requirement set forth in the first Degree charge - by not recommending any one to a participation in our privileges without having strong reasons to believe that he would ultimately reflect honor on our ancient Institution.

In this day and age of pleasure derived solely from material gain, Freemasons should also take pleasure in seeing themselves daily grow better. They must do as the Emperor Marcus Aurelius suggested - no longer talk about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.

Jack R. Levitt, PGM, State of California