Great Freemasons: John Philip Sousa (1854 - 1932)

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‎"Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself."



"Governmental aid is a drawback rather than an assistance, as, although it may facilitate in the routine of artistic production, it is an impediment to the development of true artistic genius."
John Philip Sousa

Great Freemasons: Danny Thomas (1912 - 1991)

It’s Great To Be A Freemason
by Danny Thomas, 33°
The years found me an admirer of the great work the Masonic Order has been doing in making this world a better place for all of us to live. I have, for a long time, desired to be one of you and rejoice that now I can proudly boast of my membership in one of the world’s greatest fraternal associations. I am grateful for those individuals who have in quiet ways motivated me in my work on behalf of unfortunate children. I am grateful for the high moment in my life when the doors of Freemasonry were opened to me. Since then I have had many pleasant times of fraternal fellowship and even opportunities for service in the work of many branches of Freemasonry.

Our Order, for now I can say, "our order," teaches, "the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God" and this is great! The world needs so desperately to discover the value of this great truth in human relationships and world affairs. It is also a truth that will motivate men and women to continue to explore avenues of service and areas of common concerns in order to restore a measure of sanity to the madness of our day and to enrich the quality of life for all peoples everywhere. Now I join hands and heart with you in all your endeavors of philanthropy and say we must not slacken our efforts "to do good to all," especially those with needs that will not be met if we fail in our common task of service to humanity.

On stage, screen, platform, and in private life I have always sought to bring a smile to the face of others and put a little joy in their lives. I am grateful now for the larger opportunity which is mine to adopt the tenets of Freemasonry as my own and hopefully be able to have a small part in spreading Masonry’s message of love and caring to a larger audience, for wherever I go, I will be proud to tell others of my work and concern in behalf of all that you are doing, unselfishly, for others.

Someone once asked me, "why did I want to be a Mason," and my reply was: "Because Masons care for those who cannot care for themselves." The Shriners have always been a favorite of mine because of their work for crippled and burned children. Also I am excited about efforts proposed at the recent Conference of Grand Masters in regard to drug abuse among young people.

It is great to be a Freemason! I am proud of what we are doing. I shall assist in every way I can our work of mercy, and it doesn't hurt to be a Brother with a "big mouth and lots of television cameras" to help get the message across. Masons are people of goodwill who want to "keep our kids alive" and we are doing this throughout the world. Our purpose is noble and humanitarian. Our labors will be crowned with success, for as Freemasons we will bring to our mission the best we have, regardless of what it demands from us in the way of sacrifice and service. We will make sure that in the tomorrows, life will be better for those who suffer today.

I was a Freemason in my heart long before I was accepted as a member in this great Fraternity. I was an outsider but now I am one of you, and the remaining years of my life will be spent in seeking in some small way to say to all: "Thank you for making me a Freemason." I want always to make you laugh but I trust that I will also make you care and that now, together, we will put melody in the heart of the world that will sing of a better life for all people. The task challenges us to larger efforts and higher goals that will demand from all of us the best we have to make a better life for others. My promise to Freemasons everywhere is that I will give the task my best!


(Reprinted from the October 1990 Fresno Scottish Rite Bulletin with credit to Kansas Masonic Bulletin.)

Great Freemasons: Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868)

"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave." Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868)

Abolitionist and founder of "The Edinburgh Review"

(Raised in Fortrose Lodge, Stornway, Scotland)

Great Freemasons: Sir Winston Churchill

"People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now. It is this very conflict of spiritual and moral ideas which gives the free countries a great part of their strength. You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like — they boast and vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts; words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home — all the more powerful because forbidden — terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words; they are afraid of the workings of the human mind. Cannons, airplanes, they can manufacture in large quantities; but how are they to quell the natural promptings of human nature, which after all these centuries of trial and progress has inherited a whole armoury of potent and indestructible knowledge? " Sir Winston Churchill

(Studholme Alliance Lodge No. 1591, Rosemary Lodge No. 2851.)

Note: The Churchill Society claims he resigned from his Lodges in 1912.)

A day there was of monumental villainy...

"A day there was of monumental villainy. A day when a great nation lost its innocence and naked evil stood revealed before a stunned and shattered world.

A day there was when a serpent struck a sleeping giant, a giant who will sleep no more. Soon shall the serpent know the wrath of the mighty, the vengeance of the just.

A day there was when Liberty lost her heart -- and found the strength within her soul." Stan Lee

Great Freemasons: Thurgood Marshall (1908 - 1993)

(On Left)

If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
Thurgood Marshall

Coal Creek Lodge No. 88, Tulsa, Oklahoma PHA)

Skeptical

Real Steel | Hit Back - Everything's Better With Eminem

Defiance

STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ - Character Progression - Smuggler

Great Freemasons: Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

"God knows; I won't be an Oxford don anyhow. I'll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I'll be famous, and if not famous, I'll be notorious. Or perhaps I'll lead the life of pleasure for a time and then—who knows?—rest and do nothing. What does Plato say is the highest end that man can attain here below? To sit down and contemplate the good. Perhaps that will be the end of me too."
-Quoted in "In Victorian days and other papers" By Sir David Oswald Hunter-Blair, (New York: Longmans, 1939, p122)

Apollo University Lodge No. 357, Oxford (UGLE)

Great Freemasons: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 - 1938)

"I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will; every ...man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him against the liberty of his fellow-men." Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

Death Star Destroys Enterprise

Great Freemasons: William "Count" Basie (1904 - 1984)

Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
William "Count" Basie (1904 - 1984)


Wisdom Lodge No. 102 (Prince Hall), Chicago. Also a Shriner

Gettysburg National Military Park

Friend to Friend
A Brotherhood United

Hot Fett

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)

Great Freemasons: Evelyn Briggs Baldwin (1862 - 1933)

Evelyn B. Baldwin (1862 - 1933) Arctic Explorer. b. July 22, 1862 at Spirngfield, Mo. Graduated Northwestern College, Naperville. Ill. in 1885. Accompanied Robert E, Peary on North Greenland Expedition 1893-94 as meteorologist and was meteo...rologist and 2nd in command of Walter Wellman';s Polar expedition to Franz-Josef Land 1898-99. Built and named Fort McKInley, discovered and explored Graham Bell Land.1889.
Organized and commanded Baldwin-Ziegler polar expedition 1901-02. Baldwin reportedly carried Masonic flags with him on his expeditions. d. Oct 25, 1933


(Adams Lodge Number 63, Oswego, Kansas)

-10,000 Famous Freemasons by William Denslow and Harry S. Truman

Politicians kiss babies...

Carl Hiaasen

The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind.
Carl Hiaasen

A Public Service Announcement from Paul Krugman

A Public Service Announcement from Paul Krugman: Please do not board up or tape your windows. We need Hurricane Irene to break as many as possible, to stimulate the economy.

Conan O'brien: Ron Paul is the Clear Winner

Great Freemasons: Hiram Bingham III (1875 - 1956)

"We cannot have confidence unless we have facts." Hiram Bingham III

(Hiram Lodge No. 1, Connecticut)

The Most Interesting God in the Multiverse

They said our wedding was unnatural...

Great Freemasons: Daniel Boone (1734 - 1820)

Situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things; And I firmly believe it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he is. This consists in a full resignation to the will of Providence; and a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewed with briars and thorns. Daniel Boone, As quoted in "The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon; containing a Narrative of the Wars of Kentucke" in The Discovery, Settlement And present State of Kentucke (1784) by John Filson

Miss Me Yet?

Great Freemasons: Rick Wakeman

(Rick is on the left)

"I always say that it's about breaking the rules. But the secret of breaking rules in a way that works is understanding what the rules are in the first place." Rick Wakeman

Brother Rick Wakeman hails from Chelsea Lodge No. 3098.

Items in Heaven's Welcome Basket

Great Freemasons: Simón Bolívar (1783 - 1830)

"A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability." Simón Bolívar

To the People of Libya

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Libya. May you be blessed for the rest of your days with liberty and peace. God is great. May your future be free and prosperous!

Air New Zealand staff have nothing to hide

Great Freemasons: Richard E. Byrd (1888 - 1957)

"The things that mankind has tested and found right make for harmony and progress — or peace; and the things it has found wrong hinder progress and make for discord. The right things lead to rational behavior — such as the substitution of reason for force — and so to freedom. The wrong things lead to brute force and slavery.
But the peace I describe is not passive. It must be won. Real peace comes from struggle that involves such things as effort, discipline, enthusiasm. This is also the way to strength. An inactive peace may lead to sensuality and flabbiness, which are discordant. It is often necessary to fight to lessen discord. This is the paradox." Richard E. Byrd

Henry Clay (1777 - 1852)

"All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty." Henry Clay

Praxeology - Episode 9 - Uncertainty

Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809)

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom." Thomas Paine

Patrick Henry (1736 - 1799)

"Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds....Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel." Patrick Henry

Famous Freemasons

Why rule a rule a world when you can just build one?

Obama's Magical Misery Tour

Ethan Allen (1738 - 1789)

To suppose that God Almighty has confined his goodness to this world, to the exclusion of all others, is much similar to the idle fancies of some individuals in this world, that they, and those of their communion or faith, are the favorites of heaven exclusively; but these are narrow and bigoted conceptions, which are degrading to a rational nature, and utterly unworthy of God, of whom we should form the most exalted ideas. Ethan Allen

Ron Paul Full Speech at New Hampshire Campaign Headquarters Grand Opening - 8/17/2011