| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on October 8, 2002 |
Return to the Los Altos Lodge Trestleboard TOC Page
Return to the Los Altos Lodge Papers Page
August seems to be a time for vacations and regrouping before the beginning of Fall.
Our August stated meeting saw several of our officers missing. I was quite fortunate to have able and willing volunteers to fill in for the evening. Vacations not withstanding, we had a very busy evening with mid-year reports from our Secretary, Treasurer and LAMTA. We elected Jeff B. to membership, and will be conducting his EA degree on August 26th. Please come and show your support. This year we were forced to cancel our lodge picnic due to scheduling conflicts. During the meeting we had two items arise having to do with communications with our members. The first item is we will be instituting a telephone tree so that we can quickly get information out to our members. If you would like to be added to the list to be called, please contact me or our Lodge Secretary. If you could help by making 5-8 calls occasionally, please contact me or our Lodge Secretary. The Lodge also approved a new telephone answering system. We will shortly be adding a new telephone number for Lodge activities. This telephone number will have a list of upcoming Lodge activities (will be updated by the Master or Wardens) and will provide a way to leave a message for any of the Officers as well as make dinner reservations. Look for the new number soon! Also in August we were pleased to have a few new visitors: our newest member Craig Schoonover, a visitor from London, England and another from an Ohio Lodge (See Page 4).
Visitors are always welcome. If you have friends, family or co-workers who are Master Masons, please invite them to come visit.
September will be an interesting month for us. Before the stated meeting we will be presenting another 50 yr presentation. We have a tentative 2nd degree on Sept. 23rd. On SEPTEMBER 24th we will be participating in our Constitutional Observance night with Mt. View DeAnza Lodge. This is a DATE CHANGE!!!
Wor. Sam Nixon has also informed me that this night will be combined with a Table Lodge. It sounds like a great night. Let's show up in numbers and show them that Los Altos is alive and well. The last Monday in September will again be our roll call / coming home dinner. Wear the apron you were raised in (if you can still find it). If you will be unable to attend, please send a short note letting us know what you've been up to this past year.
IMPORTANT!! We still need volunteers (please call me if you are willing to help): - Saturday, October 12, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m : KidsID booth at the Oak school walkathon (6 people needed) - September 24: Tri-lodge US Constitutional Observance program : this is the second event this year we are sharing with our neighboring lodges of Palo Alto Roller and Mt. View DeAnza.
Hope to see you in September.
Fraternally,
Robert Lake
Master
Our Grand Master has designated September as “U.S. Constitution Observance Month 2002” and with that and September 11, 2001 in mind, I wonder how many of us fully understand the motives of those founding fathers who conceived and instituted it.
If the truth were told, there are few documents in all of history as misunderstood by the average citizen, as is our U.S. Constitution.
I submit that our constitution is the law of our land for our land, and its rights and privileges are and were intended to be directed toward our citizens and supporters thereof. In recent years we often seem to extend those rights and privileges to anyone who is here, be he a citizen who holds an allegiance to our way of life, or a terrorist who by his own words and actions intends to destroy it.
Most great thinkers in history clearly understood the importance of this distinction. Hear what John Locke said in his Second Treatise, Ch. 4 § 21.
“... freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power erected in it. A liberty to follow my own will in all things where that rule prescribes not, not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man, ...”
It is obvious he understood that the privileges of the rules of any nation should apply only to its adherents and members, certainly not to its enemies.
On September 11, 2001, people who had no qualms about admitting their intent was to destroy our way of life, attacked us without mercy.
These people are not even citizens of our great land, yet they are afforded the same protection under our laws as though they were.
In my opinion, our founding fathers never intended this to be the case, and perhaps we would do well to heed the advice of Thomas Jefferson on this type of interpretation when he wrote his letter from Monticello to Judge William Johnson on June 12, 1826.
“On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
If we do not distinguish our constitutional rights and privileges between our citizen supporters and those who would destroy them, we are beaten before we begin.
These principles of self-protection are not exclusive to our country alone, they would apply to any right thinking society. Listen to what Voltarine de Cleyere said,
“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."
Even the 14th Amendment to the Constitution makes it clear that our rights apply to us and not to outsiders. It reads as follows:
"Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Of course there are those who will interpret the words, “…any person within its jurisdiction…" to apply out of context with the rest of this section which is specific in its reference to “persons born or naturalized,” but extending rights under our constitution to terrorists who have admitted their intent to destroy our very way of life is simple folly. How do you feel about this? ~ Editor -
The Grand Master's Reception will be held on October 20, 3:00 PM on at the San Jose Scottish Rite Temple. The theme is Hawaiian. Tickets are now on sale for as little as $11.00 each!
Go to the Last Trestleboard Issue
Go to the Next Trestleboard Issue
Return to the Los Altos Lodge Trestleboard TOC Page
Return to the Los Altos Lodge Papers Page