Great Freemasons: Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1902)

"Sectarianism, bigotry, and it's horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful Earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization, and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now.
But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal." Swami Vivekananda

(Hope and Anchor Lodge No. 1, Calcutta)

My Next Girlfriend

Mikey Mason's follow-up to his internet hit, "She Don't Like Firefly."




And of course, the original:

Woody Guthrie - Union Burying Ground

Solidarity Forever (Pete Seeger)

Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons

Great Freemasons: Uriah Smith Stephens (1821 - 1882)

In Honor of Labor Day I would like to recognize a Brother who was instrumental to the Labor Movement, Uriah Smith Stephens.

"Uriah Smith Stephens (August 3, 1821 - February 13, 1882) was a U.S. labor leader. He led nine Philadelphia garment workers to found the Knights of Labor in 1869, a more successful early national union.

Stephens was initiated an Entered Apprentice Mason in Kensington Lodge No. 211 in Philadelphia on December 9, 1864; passed to the Degree of Fellowcraft on February 25, 1865; and raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason on March 24, 1865. He was also a member of Keystone Lodge No. 2, Knights of Pythias, and Fidelity Lodge No. 138, Independent Order of Odd Fellows."

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

The end of labor is to gain leisure. ~Aristotle

The Dark Lord Meets the King

Ray Charles (1930 - 2004)

What is a soul? It's like electricity - we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room.
Ray Charles

Great Freemasons: Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

"For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that Thanks and Compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator."
o Letter to Joseph Huey (6 June 1753); published in Albert Henry Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, volume 3, p. 144.

(St. John's Lodge, Philadelphia, February 1731)