Now we move to uh what actually our keynote of the day there are many ways many organizations that do charitable work as we do there are many fraternities with close Brotherhood but we’re special and why are we special why is Freemasonry our choice Randy cple the senior Grand Warden has some answers
Thank you brother Paul thank you Brethren it’s great to be here good afternoon we’re winding down Founders Day 2024 um I’m not sure what I’ve done to our Deputy grandm but I’ve been placed in the precarious position of following past Grandmaster Roger Van Gordon and a wonderful presentation by past Master
Tyler Whitaker and lunch so if you know we’ve got a talk we can do that um a couple couple housekeeping things real quick that the Scottish right staff is asking to do someone lost their cell phone in the first floor restroom and it is at the security office and the
Announcement that was made about brother Tom fallis and $100 bills I inquired to him about that and he happens to be my boss here at the Scottish W and I’ll just say that his response was less than Masonic so so with that there we go so why Freemasonry when the deputy Grand Master
And I were were kind of doing the the the beginning stages of of planning Founders Day which falls upon the deputy Grand Master with the assistance from the senior Grand Warden uh uh Deputy grandm Dave my older brother has asked me to talk about why free ma he gave me
No guidelines which is dangerous for me because I can talk almost endlessly um as most of you know um and there’s just so many ways that we could take this subject of why freeas why am I at Mesa why why are you a Mason why do we want
More Masons why do we stay in Freemasonry why do we leave Freemasonry it’s it’s it’s wide and open I’m going to try to hit a couple wide points um first I want you to look at the man beside you or behind you or in front of
You um and the guys that are home watching at home um or in Lodge parties look at that man beside you and I’m going to transpose some verbage here that that man beside you is not a member of Freemason he is not a member of Freemasonry that man beside you or that
You’re looking at is your brother I’m transposing an idea The Grandmaster and I are membership guys we are membership guys at Scott a stri we’ve signed petitions where we we have a drive to membership but again I’m transposing words that I don’t want to fill this fraternity with
Members membership is easy membership in an organization is easy you pay a fee you pay an Initiation fee you fell out of petition you join you get elected depending on the lodge depending on your desires and where you go how much you put into that to progress to full
Membership it’s easy you’ve done nothing but I’ll tell you being a Freemason is hard and it takes work and it takes dedication and it takes the support of each one of you supporting each one of us and the relationships that we build in this fraternity that Mystic tie that
Holds us together it’s not always easy I I say it in some other things I talk about sometimes that in this great fraternity we don’t always like each other there are brothers that I know that probably don’t care for me that wouldn’t want to take a long car ride
Wouldn’t want to sit in a fishing boat and in turn there’s brothers that I have that I wouldn’t want to be invited over their house to dinner we’re just not you know we’re just not connected but why free maery is because despite our differences despite our disagreements
Despite the fact that sometimes we don’t get along because of our shared obligations and because of our shared charges we are united together in this fraternity by Brotherly Love there is this distinct difference between like and brotherly love and for each one of you I have brotherly love for and I
Would hope that each one of you has brotherly love for me despite our differences despite a conflict despite our politics and all the other different chaos of life that you would help me and I would help you and that’s one of the reasons why Freemasonry what other organization what other group what other
Club binds us together in brotherly love and we’re charged to hold each other to that certain line to hold each other to our obligations to whisper Good Counsel in the ear of a brother to Aid and assist and support him in his troubles what other organization does
That I spent 30 years in law enforcement I have a long and somewhat not glorious story at some times and other times a story of great Triumph and uh and uh that law enforcement was so integral in my life that how many law enforcement officers do we have here I know I know
We got some up here I know there’s some over there one of the most distinctive symbols of a law enforcement officer besides a cup of coffee and a donut is The Thin Blue Line The Thin Blue Line you’ll see it on patches you’ll see it on flags and The
Thin Blue Line in law enforcement is emblematic that the law en enforcement officer is the last line of defense behind chaos and behind a civilized society and it’s not a thick line we’d love it to be thicker but it’s a line that holds Us in my mind Freemasonry is
The last standing organization that is The Thin Blue Line Between Civility and inability it is the preferred it is the premiere for interal organization that takes good men not perfect men not perfect men and makes them a better man the beauty of Freemasonry to me is I don’t know a perfect Mesa there
Were some that were off of clo we had our our dinner our annual dinner with the Grand Lodge officers last night for founders day and we always talk about the past Grand Masters that have gone on before us and of course of course we lost past grandmas Richard Hickam to
Many of us you know to most of us the Mason the Mason and we lost him and even Richard hickham would admit that he was not perfect but what Freemasonry does why Freemasonry is because we are together striving for Perfection we don’t always make I can
Tell you into my own life I made a lot of mistakes some of them were minor some of them were major but what Freemasonry does and has done for me was to let me know that I wasn’t alone and when I failed and when I failed miserably that
There were brothers there for me some that I knew and intimately knew and some that I didn’t know at all were there to help aid and assist me and provide me with that brotherly love and that relief and encourage me to seek truth which is the very Foundation of this great
Fraternity who else does that but a church very involved in the church sometimes they fail but Freemasonry in my life in 26 years through all the good times through all the greatness through all the wonderful things that I’ve been able to achieve in my professional life and my personal
Life Freemasonry has been there and it’s been a constant with me but also through all my mistakes through all the tragedy through death through divorce through problems through issues through financial problems whatever we are faced with Freemasonry has also been there through the good and through the bad why
Freemasonry when I joined the fraternity I didn’t come from a Sonic family there’s a brother sitting over here I don’t know your name I don’t think we’ve met but he’s got a very impressive leis Jewel what’s on there seven six six I did not come from a
Masonic family my father was not a Mason he would have been a fantastic Mason um but we had I had a great uncle or two that were long dead and gone when I was young that my family spoke reverently of Uncle Amel was a Mason and and I think
He was a 32nd degree Mason it meant something to my family they didn’t understand it they didn’t know it and that was always a little seed in the back of my mind but when I joed I just started my career in law enforcement I had moved from my community to a brand new
Community and I wanted to meet men that weren’t police officers to enhance my life now all our police officer guys know cops are fun to hang around with but after a while you need to broaden your horizon because you’re constantly you get cynical you get angry at society and you
You suspect everybody of doing something so for a police officer it’s very healthy to join freeas and expand their Horizons of the people that they know and that they associate with to try to battle back from that cynicism and that’s why I initially joined to meet good men and
Meet men in my community and it was successful but what I didn’t know what it opened up in me was I could memorize things I was a terrible student terrible didn’t cause a whole lot of trouble the ones that you know me I have a certain
Sense of Mischief uh that I like to get into but I I wasn’t a troublemaker by no means but I was not a good student I did not I always said on my report card does not apply himself not apply himself to his full capability I had a crusty old secretary
At my Lodge by the name of Leo Wilson you never saw Leo andless it was in the LOD room without a more 120 cigarette cigar hanging out of the corner of his mouth and they they sent me to be his mentee he was my mentor and uh he was tough he was tough
He held me to the line we go all the way through the catechism the the pitch and catch the questions and answers and he go well not bad but you missed three words and I go what three words did I miss Leo that’s not for me to tell
You we would go back out but I learned it I learned it and I learned it well to the point that I kind of became um I won’t say a pet but the old Lodge guys would take me I’m going over to nstown Lodge and you’re coming with me and
You’re going to do that apron lecture because they need to see that and it and it opened up something in me that I learned the ritual I was hungry to learn I was hungry to learn I was hungry to do it I was hungry to challenge myself to learn this
Ritual but then as time went on I knew all the ritual but I didn’t understand it knew it you understand some of it but I really didn’t understand it and I’m looking at my good brother Jim Sharp up there years ago from the south years ago
In traing I met Jim he probably doesn’t remember the first time he met me uh but I met him and he’s a beautiful ritualist beautiful but what he opened up in me he doesn’t know this we’ve never had this conversation what he didn’t know was that he opened up and something in me
Because not only did he know it he understood it you could tell that he understood it and Beyond understanding it as I watched him and I would ask people about him and anytime we’ve met he lives it he lives it wife free masonry because of Brothers like Jim Sharp I look over
Here to my right and I see young Elliott Fellowship Lodge up here waving everybody so they know young Elliot Young Elliot is much like I was he joined the fraternity uh a lot younger than I was when I joined I was 28 um but he had a he’s got a desire to
Learn the ritual uh Cliff Henderson is taken under his wings he doesn’t talk near as long as Cliff does but but has taught him and taught the ritual and to watch him progress through lines he’s now senior Warden and he gave gave me the honor the other day of asking me to
Installing officer when he’s to be installed as Master next year to see that and now seeing progress into knowing it to living it and understanding that’s why free Ma look at the dichotomy and age and experience between Elliot and Jim Jim you’re 80 87 and Elliott’s 26 oh you’re 3 how did you must eat better than I do 87 and 32 yet what’s the commonality between those two brothers they’re Brothers they’re Brothers no matter the age no matter the profession no matter the difference that they meet on the level and their brothers striving for
Perfection why Freemasonry that’s why so as I progressed and I began to to understand what I was talking about to put some feeling in it put some put some heart in it then you realize sometimes you look in the mirror and you look at that person and you
Go I don’t I don’t I’m not tiing I didn’t like the man looking back at me I did not like him you take the working tools out of the box and work on yourself why fore masonry because allowed me to come to the realization that I wasn’t the man or the Mason that
I was capable of being that I have work to do and Freemasonry has allowed me without judgment to do that work to do that work Freemasonry is reflective it takes work it’s not easy if we’re not looking at ourselves in the situations we get into on a regular basis in daily life and
Realize that once in a while we’re not great once in a while we’re not the Freemason that we’re capable of being we’re not the husband the Father the worker the friend that we’re capable of being and we don’t take out our working tools then then really why Freemason why
Are you here because it’s a person personal Journey we’re each on that Journey we all have different ideas we all have different needs we all have different thoughts and Freemasonry is so wide and encompassing that it can meet every one of them it can meet every one of
Them why freeas because it has made me a better man but I am still on that journey I am still on that Journey there’s times when uh I suffer from PTSD there’s times when I feel like if I get backed in a corner I start swinging instead of adjusting to what’s
The best way to handle this situation I buckle up and I start swinging cuz I feel like I’m being Corners I still have work to do Freemasonry is still supportive of me but I’ve come a long way because of my relationship with my brothers and because of my relationship with them and
That co- jooin of Brotherly Love brotherly love what does the world need more now than Brotherly Love moving on in my Masonic career then when you start the understanding and you start developing the personal changes in your life that Freemasonry can give you what next what next that’s when hopefully the
Student becomes the teacher the student becomes the teacher and it’s a great responsibility when someone trusts you enough to say Randy I’ve got a problem and I need help that Freemasonry gives us the opportunity to pick up a brother when he’s fallen free masonry gives us the opportunity to celebrate with a brother
When he stands up when he stands up freem masonry gives us the opportunity to be the shoulder to cry on and I’ve cried and I’ve been cried on what other organization does that how do we transpose this beautiful fraternity that we have it’s beautiful the ritual is beautiful
But more beautiful is the relationships of Brotherhood how do we transpose that to grow to maintain I’m a firm believer in brothership versus membership I believe that in my heart again I don’t want the lodge room filled with members I want it filled with Brothers whether they make it to Lodge
Or not they’re still our brothers but that sense of we’re together in this fight of Life striving to be better striving for each of us to help each other to be better sometimes to pull us along sometimes to push us and sometimes to walk side by side that’s who I want
In my Lodge and we all have men within our Circle our own personal Circle that we know would be good Masons and you have to figure out what’s your why I see a man the days Grandmaster and I have talked about this the days of
Waiting for a man to ask to join the fraternity are dead they’re dead some people still ask but they’re gone that was an archaic rule placed years ago oops my timer going on I’m going to have to wrap it up I love to talk they’re dead Okay so they’re
Dead we have to talk to Good Men about this fraternity give them the option if they want to join and join us but you have to find your why why is it important to you for this great fraternity to bring men into this fraternity because it’s going
To make me better my motivation is more Brothers makes me better more Brothers makes my family better more Brothers makes my community better more Brothers makes the state and the state of Freemasonry in Indiana better and more Masonic Brothers will make the world a better place do you
Agree in closing I’d ask you one thing done Us in some other groups I I want you to think about if you walked out the door today and on the way home some nondescript governmental police car pulled you over and yanked you out of the car and said you’re under
Arrest and you go what’s the charge officer you’re under arrest for being a Freemason would you be found guilty the exhibition the the light that our Deputy grandm talks about will attract men to this fraternity when you live it when you walk it when you fall down and
Fail and pick yourself up and ask for help and get assistance and they say God he screwed up but man did he make a great recovery why Freemasonry because it’s made me a better man than my brothers and I mean that from my heart I have no doubt that it’s made you
A better man thank you very [Applause] much
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