United We Stand

by Senior Midnight Freemason Contributor

WB Gregory J. Knott

September 11, 2001 I was angry, I cried, I was distraught, I was confused and countless other emotions that most Americans felt. It was the worst day in my lifetime of attacks on the American homeland. 

September 12, 2001 I woke up as most American’s did and tried to begin to figure out what happened in New York City, Washington DC and Shanksville, PA. From coast to coast we united as one country, as Americans. We weren’t white, black, hispanic, asian, native american or other ethnicities, we were simply AMERICANS.

People flocked to church to pray for those lost in the attacks, blood drives were going full force, flags were flying from every big and small town, members of both parties in the United States Congress gathered on the capitol steps to sing together. Our first responders were our heroes as they selflessly rushed into the crash sites to help others, and so many of them gave their lives doing so. People flooded recruiting stations to sign up for the military, such as United States Army Sergeant Major Thomas P. Payne, who was recently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry in Iraq.

We stood side by side with a determination to pull our country together in a show of unity that I hadn’t seen before in my lifetime or since. United we stood.

19 years later, our country is bitterly divided along ethnic lines, political parties, rural vs urban vs suburban, young vs old, etc. What happened to that feeling of September 12, 2001? Divided we fall.

I won’t get into deep speculation of why we are so divided. My view is 24/7 news channels, social media, the decline of social capital in our communities, and more is just a small part of the problem.

But I belong to an organization that brings men together of every race, of every religion and from every status of life. We meet in a lodge where you can check all of those differences at the door and enter a sanctuary where every person is absolutely equal with one another. A warm handshake (before COVID), a sincere greeting and a deep sense of caring for each other await you. Of course I am speaking of Freemasonry.

Freemasonry absolutely has the framework that can help solve so many of the world's trevails today. You enter a lodge, engage with other brothers, learning from them, helping them, all the while being on the level with them. You leave the lodge a better person and go back into the greater world and apply those principles we talk about and learn about in our degrees. You are instantly part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

So I challenge all of us as Freemasons to use those lessons and put them to work in your community, at home, in your place of worship, on the job and as you use social media. Be the example and others will soon begin to take notice and your positive influence will rub off on them.

Be a light in the darkness. United we stand.

~GJK

WB Gregory J. Knott is a founding member and Senior Contributor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Past Master of St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 in St. Joseph (IL) and a plural member of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL), Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL) and Naval Lodge No. 4 in Washington, DC. He’s a member of the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, Eastern Star and is the Charter Secretary of the Illini High Twelve Club No. 768 in Champaign-Urbana. He is also a member of ANSAR Shrine (IL) and the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. Greg serves on the Board of Directors of The Masonic Society and is a member of the Scottish Rite Research Society and The Philathes Society. He is a charter member of a new Illinois Royal Arch Chapter, Admiration Chapter U.D. and serves as its Secretary. Greg is very involved in Boy Scouts—an Eagle Scout himself, he is a member of the National Association of Masonic Scouters. You can contact him at gknott63@gmail.com

September 11

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

RWB Michael H. Shirley

“[T]o love is better than to hate, and Forgiveness is wiser than Revenge or Punishment.” –Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, 859.

Like everyone else I know, I remember exactly where I was when I heard about the World Trade Center attack. I was teaching an early class that morning, and was in mid lecture when the planes hit. When class ended, I started to walk down the hall and was waylaid by students who wanted to know if I’d heard. In bits and pieces, we found out that it was a deliberate act, then that one tower had fallen, and then another. Then came the news that the Pentagon had been hit. I was standing there, trying to comprehend it all, when one of my students said, “Dr. Shirley, what does it mean?” “It means we’re at war,” I said, with no real thought beyond that simple statement. As more information came out over the next several days, it became clear that things had changed beyond recovery. I did what so many others did: stayed glued to the television, tried to buy an American flag from stores that couldn’t keep them in stock, thought about what I could do to serve my country. But I kept coming back to the realization that these terrorists had killed innocents, including children, because they believed their cause was more important than people made in the image of God. And I had a choice: to hate them or not. 

I wasn’t a Mason then; I didn’t petition my Lodge until 2006. But my time in Masonry has taught me that hate is never the answer to any question worth asking. If I am committed to Masonry, love has to be my only response to everything, both large and small, because if I hate, I become what I hate. I have to see the fundamental humanity, the image of God, in everyone I encounter. Otherwise, I’m not practicing Masonry to the best of my ability.

My sister, an Episcopal priest and Air Force Chaplain, has said that she has to recognize that everyone is equally deserving of God’s love, which is to say, not at all, so acting high and mighty has no place in the world. My mother says regularly that the hardest word to accept in the Lord’s Prayer is “Our.” We all want to be special, but we can only do that if we reject what makes us human. We all need to meet on the level and acknowledge one another as fully human, undeserving of the gifts we’ve received, and just love one another.

So now I pray that I will be enabled to act as if all people are my Brothers and Sisters. For the simple truth is, they are. I don’t have to like them, and if they mean harm to others, I certainly have to stop them, but I can’t hate them without losing the best part of myself. Love, I would argue, is the answer to every question, both in Masonry and in the profane world. Every day, I am presented with the choice of whether to act with love or not. Every day, I can choose to hate, to be indifferent, or to love. I don’t always choose well, but I find that if I pay attention to Masonry’s teachings, I make the right choice more often than not. 

 
Fourteen years ago I chose, briefly, to hate. It was nearly impossible not to do so. But hate kills the hater, and I could not continue. Since 2006 I have cast my lot with Freemasonry, and have been grateful for its work in my life every day since. Lord knows, I don’t always choose well, but I’ve found that if I remember that Love drives away darkness, I don’t make that darkness my home. I’ve found that I prefer a well-lit room. And so I pray for light for everyone, especially for those who have shut it out of their lives and have chosen to live in darkness. I pray—today of all days—to let the Light of Love illumine our world.

~MHS

R.W.B. Michael H. Shirley serves the Grand Lodge of Illinois, A.F. & A.M, as Leadership Development Chairman and Assistant Area Deputy Grand Master of the Eastern Area. A Certified Lodge Instructor, he is a Past Master and Life Member of Tuscola Lodge No. 332 and a plural member of Island City Lodge No. 330, F & AM, in Minocqua, Wisconsin. A Scottish Rite Mason, he is past Most Wise Master of the George E. Burow Chapter of Rose Croix in the Valley of Danville, AASR-NMJ; he is also a member of the Illinois Lodge of Research, the York Rite, Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees, Eastern Star, Illini High Twelve, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon.The author of several articles on British history, he teaches at Eastern Illinois University.You can contact him at: m.h.shirley@gmail.com