| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on March 26, 2003 |
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On Saturday, March 29th we will have a Pancake breakfast starting at 8:00 AM and continuing through 1:00 PM at Mountain View-De Anza Lodge (pancakes, eggs, sausage, & bacon). Proceeds of this event will be donated to our local Masonic Youth Groups. Please come and support our local Masonic Youth.
Our Ladies program for April will be a "Weekenders" Apparel and Accessories show. Your hostess will be Lisa Mingus (408-257-6681). This will be a presentation for the Ladies with active participation. Lisa is asking for 5 volunteers to model the outfits. Please call Lisa by April 1st if you are willing to participate. Lisa will provide changing rooms for the Ladies. Jewelry and accessories will also be presented. Delivery of items will follow the ordering that evening. This should prove to be a fun evening program!
The funeral service for Brother Bill Moller on February 27th was very comforting to all in attendance. The Los Altos United Methodist Church was nearly full of his many friends and family. Brother Bill was a wonderful man who touched the hearts of all he encountered. Many WWII veterans and survivors gave testimonies of Brother Bill and the events of WWII.
On Tuesday, March 18th, a graveside Masonic service was held for Brother Bill Harvey at the Gate Of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos. Worshipful John Runcie, PM performed the service. Brother Bill always sat in the seat just west of the Jr. Warden and received his 50 year Golden Veterans Pin during Worshipful Malmstrom's year as Master (2001). Brother Bill was also an active member of Valley Star Chapter 250, O.E.S.
On Monday, April 28th, 7:30 PM we are tentatively scheduling a 2nd degree conferral. Please check the Lodge Information Line at (650) 569-6276 for confirmation.
On Wednesday, April 30th, 6:30 PM we are hosting a Public Schools recognition program and spaghetti feed dinner ($5.00/person) at Los Altos Lodge. This is the 2nd Tri-Lodge event with Mtn. View - De Anza, Palo Alto Roller, and Los Altos Lodges.
I have several committees that are in need of volunteers. Please contact me for more information if you are interested (several of these committees center on planning and executing one-time Lodge events).
Please come support Los Altos Lodge.
Fraternally,
Richard Weyers,
Master
I would like to pose a question to our brothers. As I sit in the W, I often wonder what ideas and concerns, you the sideliners may have. Are their any issues that you are uncomfortable with? Is there something that you would like us the officers to look into? Do you have any ideas or suggestions that you think we have dropped the ball on? I really would like to know if any of the brothers have ideas or suggestions that would help in bringing more members to our meeting. Please let me know.
I think we have not adequately let our brethren know that we will furnish baby-sitting for the regularly stated meetings. What we need to know is that a brother is intending to attend and bring his kids. This should be conveyed a few days a head of the meeting date so that the JW can make arrangements for the baby sitter.
At the February LAMTA meeting it was voted that LAMTA will initiate a line item in it's capital expenditures to accumulate funds for adding an elevator to our building. The elevator will go from the dining room to the second floor. The Lodge should consider starting an elevator fund for its construction or directing LAMTA to create a fund for any one wishing to contribute to this addition. In order to accelerate this we may look at other vehicles such as selling shares or accepting interest free loans or just plain outright donations towards this endeavor.
We are all now receiving the new publication 'News from the Quarries'. This newsletter is designed to inform all the brethren and their families of the important activities in our jurisdiction. It is also designed to replace all the previous GM Proclamations that were sent to the lodge to be read in lodge. The accompanying California Masonic Philanthropies card is designed to facilitate our donation effort. It now allows us to send just one gift a year and designate how it is to be distributed. Think and appreciate these two new methods of communicating and let us all show our appreciation of the Grand Lodge effort to make our meetings shorter and simplify our obligations in philanthropy. Send your check in ASAP and let the Grand Lodge know you appreciate these efforts. Provide feedback to the GL, at 'communications@mhcuc.org' or calling 510-675-1245.
Last year I put together the Fifty year book. I am still thinking that we didn't do enough. I wonder how many of you are interested in Los Altos Lodge making a video of our Lodge. It would be nice to put together some scenes showing our Lodge and OES meetings, dinners and some of the activities we do each year. If our brethren think this is good idea, let me know and I will start to see how we can accomplish this effort. It might be something we can place in our archives and our future brethren can bring it out every now and then to see how and what we did.
Ernest Castillo, P. M.,
Senior Warden
Unfortunately, our society, like any free society, requires constant vigilance against all efforts to dilute its freedoms. Education is the very foundation of those freedoms, and as would be expected, is the first area targeted by those who would destroy our system.
Here in California, we are particularly fortunate to have our public schools protected in many ways by both the federal constitution and our California state constitution. Still, every once in a while, efforts are made to dilute their effectiveness.
By the time you read this article, one such effort will have already begun in the halls of our state government at Sacramento. In fact, on Wednesday, March 19, the California State Assembly Education Committee scheduled a hearing on a bill entitled AB 349. If successful, this bill would create a school voucher program under the "California Education Certificate Pilot Program." The pilot voucher program would be established within the Compton Unified School District. Under the program, any parent of a school age child could request a voucher to fund their child's attendance at any participating public or private school, regardless if that private school is a religious school or not.
One of the major problems with this bill, or, for that matter, with any school voucher program which allocates public funds for private or religious schools, is that it is, without question, simply unconstitutional. Article IX, section 8 of the California Constitution provides as follows:
"SEC. 8. No public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, or any school not under the exclusive control of the officers of the public schools; nor shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught, or instruction thereon be permitted, directly or indirectly, in any of the common schools of this State."
This constitutional provision was intended to ensure that public funds be used only to support our public school system, and to prevent the creation of any publicly funded opposition system of schools.
In the year 2000, California voters overwhelmingly rejected student vouchers by 71 percent to 29 percent.
Vouchers would also violate the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state, because public funds could thereby be used to teach religious doctrine. In addition, once these public funds are released to private or religious schools, the public completely loses control of the use and application thereof. There are no publicly elected school boards running any private or religious schools anywhere in California. This means the recipient private or religious school would be able to use the funds as they so chose, even to the extent of funding religious indoctrination. Our public schools are as we speak in dire need of additional funding; instead of moving this much-needed money away from public schools, we should be using it to fund the public schools themselves, where 90% of our students are already in attendance.
To funnel and divert public funds from public education to private schools is the first step on the road to forming an elitist society, under which most underprivileged children would suffer by exclusion.
As conscientious citizens it is our duty to protect our public school system. As Freemasons, can we be any less responsible?
Fraternally,
Luis Orozco, II, F.M.
Junior Warden
The Elevator Fund for the Los Altos Masonic Building
LAMTA is establishing an Elevator Fund for the Los Altos Masonic Building. Estimates are we'll need $250,000 for an elevator to travel from the dining room to the top floor. LAMTA will match donations up to a total of $100,000 Stay tuned for more details...
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