Jonathan
Mayhew "Skinny" Wainwright IV (August 23, 1883 – September 2, 1953) was
a career American army officer and the commander of Allied forces in
the Philippines at the time of their surrender to the Empire of Japan
during World War II. Wainwright is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_M._Wainwright_%28general%29
(Union Lodge No. 7, Junction City, Kansas)
A
man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of
obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all
human morality.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (29 May 1917 – 22 November 1963), Profiles in Courage (1956)
"To
and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret
Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of
British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of
emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British
subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by
energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British
settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley
of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South
America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great
Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and
Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an
integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of
Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to
weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the
foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote
the best interests of humanity."
From his Last Will and Testament (1902)
Cecil
John Rhodes was an English businessman, mining magnate, and politician
in South Africa. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers,
which today markets 40% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time
marketed 90%. An ardent believer in British colonialism, he was the
founder of the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which was named
after him in 1895. South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after
Rhodes. He set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is
funded by his estate.
Historian Richard A. McFarlane has called
Rhodes "as integral a participant in southern African and British
imperial history as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln are in their
respective eras in United States history... Most histories of South
Africa covering the last decades of the nineteenth century are
contributions to the historiography of Cecil Rhodes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes
(Apollo University Lodge 357, Oxford)
I
knew, as everyone knows, that the easiest way to attract a crowd is to
let it be known that at a given time and a given place some one is going
to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden
death.
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz in
Budapest, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October
31, 1926) was an American stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini
(Initiated in St. Cecile Lodge, N.Y., July 17, 1923, he was Passed and
Raised July 31 and August 21, and in 1924 he entered the Consistory.
Immensely proud of his Masonic affiliation, he gave a benefit
performance for the Valley of New York, filling the 4,000 seat Scottish
Rite Cathedral and raising thousands of dollars for needy Masons. In
October 1926, just weeks prior to his untimely death, he became a
Shriner in New York's Mecca Temple.)
It’s
not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better. It is not
enough to be very good if you have the ability to be great. – Alberta
Lee Cox
The Brethren
by Edgar Guest
The world is needing you and me,
In places where we ought to be;
Somewhere today it’s needing you
To stand for what you know is true.
And needing me somewhere today.
To keep the faith, let come what may.
The world needs honest men today
To lead its youth along the way,
Men who will write in all their deeds
The beauty of their spoken creeds,
And spurn advantage here and gain,
On which deceit must leave its stain.
The world needs men who will not brag,
Men who will honor Freedom’s Flag,
Men, who although the way is hard,
Against the lure of shame will guard,
The world needs gentle men and true
And calls aloud to me and you.
The world needs men of lofty aim,
Not merely men of skill and fame,
Not merely leaders wise and grave,
Or learned men or soldiers brave,
But men whose lives are fair to see,
Such men as you and I can be.
