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Hey, chris, yeah.
Speaker 2:Fred, what's a Mason? That's a really good question, fred.
Speaker 1:You've reached the internet's home for all things masonry. Join Chris and I as we plumb the depths of our ancient craft, from the common gavel to the trowel. Nothing is off the table, so grab your tools and let's get to work. This is On the Level. Wow, we're here. There, it is the Rebel Yell from the Rebel State no doubt South Carolina.
Speaker 2:In the south from the Southern Boy.
Speaker 1:He's a Southern Boy from the south. Wow, chris, this is different. The tech side of it is a little sketchy here. I'm still working through some issues, but for those of you listening, I'm going to be back with another video. This intro was probably our worst ever, and there's a reason for that. And the reason is is that my partner, chris Burns, is in South Carolina calling in down to beautiful Florida. What's going?
Speaker 2:on with that man. Hey, your technology skills are becoming way more important than they've ever been now.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't have it. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well see, you don't know who knows this is.
Speaker 1:I don't know man, there's so much here. The problem is and I'm going to say this out loud, okay, the problem is is that we have a Mac OS which does not want to play nice with our recording deck. So that's the problem. I've been on the phone with Tascam, with all the different tech people. It's the same old thing. Mac does not want to play with outside non-proprietary software. It just doesn't want it. It doesn't like, it doesn't want to do it. There's a roadblock at every turn, and I've had it.
Speaker 2:So we're going to get it.
Speaker 1:You made a breakthrough, though I made a breakthrough. I did. I made a breakthrough. I was able to download the firmware off the website, Tascam's website.
Speaker 1:You have to do all kinds of stuff because Mac again doesn't want to accept it. So you got to go round and round and round to get it on the computer. From the computer it has to be downloaded onto the SD card on the deck. From there it must be downloaded onto the deck itself, and Mac just doesn't want to do it. And they're all telling me that on a PC this is one click and it's done, and on a Mac it goes round and round and round and every single, every process there's some sort of proprietary thing that pops up, Doesn't want to do it, doesn't like it, doesn't understand it, it's like. So I am not a Mac guy. I did not raise my children on Macbooks and I bought this thing because I wanted to try it and give it a try, and I so regret it. I know there's a lot of Mac people out there that are just yelling at me right now, but I don't care.
Speaker 1:Brothers, I don't care, I don't care, it doesn't work. It just doesn't work when it comes to non-proprietary applications. It simply doesn't want to play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you got to use the proper tool for the proper job. You can't you know? Yeah, I think it's going to work all the time.
Speaker 1:Right, that's right. I'm going to use the PC with Windows. That's right, I said Windows, and it's going to work like magic and I'm pretty excited about that. Anyway, how are you brother? How's things going? You moved to South Carolina.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you I didn't. We did a stated meeting on Tuesday night.
Speaker 1:Right, I was there.
Speaker 2:At a regular state of communication. Yes, it was a great meeting. Santa came, we had a lot of photos of that and we had our elections and it was just this awesome night. We did a give back and awarded with aprons. The guys wanted to go have a drink because everyone knew it was my last meeting.
Speaker 1:And you had to get on a plane at 3 am.
Speaker 2:Well, actually I drove, so we went to the train.
Speaker 1:Please explain.
Speaker 2:And one and done was the plane. And after three shots of the Kula and four drinks and many karaoke songs, I finally got the better out in 12.30. I had to get up at 2.30 to pack the truck for another 45 minutes and then proceed to drive for 11 hours to get here.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So I had a rough night, but it was well worth it because we had a great time with everybody.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and I'm coming back.
Speaker 2:I'll be right back tomorrow we're going to do a Master Mason degree for 10 brothers.
Speaker 1:Another one. It's like the third time this year An outdoor Master Mason degree in Englewood for 10 brothers. Yeah, that's going to be awesome man.
Speaker 2:Englewood launch number 360.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's dedication. I just moved out of the state, drove 11 hours coming right back two days later.
Speaker 1:Coming right back, except you're not driving. You're flying, which is going to be just a little easier.
Speaker 2:We will eat up and talk some business and change some things. You got to give me some things. It's a breath here and I need to give you some things for down there.
Speaker 1:Yep, we'll get it together.
Speaker 2:We're getting our stuff together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just a heads up, and this is a heads up for anyone listening and a heads up for you, partner. I got a notification from Facebook that we are in violation of their community standards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a spam thing that they send to everybody to try to get you to click links and do things. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, good.
Speaker 2:But don't worry about that.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if for any reason we're off of Facebook, guys do not despair. It's clearly an error on their part and we'll get it fixed. So I just wanted to make sure that you can always you can always find us on the website. You can always go to on the level with Fred and Chriscom and catch our share.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure that will be okay on Facebook. Here's the thing that I am worried about. We only have three weeks left to sell tickets for the Masonic Education Symposium.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:We need to stop about a week beforehand because of the Arvena needs a head count to prepare the food.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:In advance. We will stop selling tickets the week before. So what is that going to be like? The third of January yes, correct. Or the sixth.
Speaker 1:Something like that, yeah.
Speaker 2:The sixth, I think, is that Saturday after our installation on the shift. Oh yeah, we have three weeks, guys. Please go to on the level with Fred and Chriscom and you'll see right there on the homepage. The event that we're doing in Sarasota on January 13th starts at 9 am and goes until 5 pm. Tickets cost $50 and we have three guest speakers and a keynote speaker. These are amazing lecturers that are going to be talking about really cool Masonic Education topics, yeah, and you get to talk to them. You know, part of this whole thing is that we are going to do what we always do have a conversation Right, that's right With each of these people, each of these brothers, including our keynote speaker right, where she'll tell you a Tala, who's one of our Grand Lodge officers, and we'll be talking about the future of Freemasonry with everyone that shows up. I'm sure he'd love to hear your ideas About how the Grand Lodge could help improve Freemasonry in Florida, so please come out and tell him right, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be a great time and there's dinner is included and, yeah, drink tickets. And it's at Sarasota Saheb shrine, which has a gigantic tiki hut right out front. Really nice outdoor bar, nice indoor bar. The venue is real nice. I mean it's a great place, it's gonna be a great time and Sponsored by the three ruffians. Premium cigars, that's right, they'll be out there today during the during the program. That's right.
Speaker 2:Sarasota. The demolage chapter will be there assisting, and does anyone else wants to sponsor? We have room available for tables.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, we're looking, I'm looking forward to it. It's the first one of many that we're gonna do and so we're gonna, we're all gonna kind of pioneer this thing together this first time out. The goal and hope and goal is to do for a year, every quarter, to do one every quarter. And then we also kicked around. We were up in Washington DC for those of you who didn't see on the Facebook post, we were up in Washington DC to do the yearly. What is that? What? Officially? It's the.
Speaker 1:It's the refling annual Reflang at the tomb of the unknown soldier, but it was a three-day thing for us that we went. We went to Arlington, obviously for the, the reflame, and then we we spent a good amount of time there, man, it was really awesome that day. And then the next day we toured the Capitol Not my favorite Part of the part of the trip. I was not not my house anymore, but I went and it was interesting. For sure I learned a few things while I was there and but then for me, the, the thing that really really stuck out to me was being at Potomac number five lodge for their installation and seeing you know how they open in a master Mason degree and how they do their work, which is very different than ours and but the basics are there.
Speaker 1:You know it's, it's Masonry. You can see it, you can understand it, no matter where you're from, you can still understand it, but it's different. You know it's different and it's cool. And also there in DC, in that in that particular Grand Grand Lodge, they have a bar there at the at the lodge itself, which is very interesting. You can drink at Blue Lodge in DC, which I found very interesting.
Speaker 2:I Saw that very interesting. There were several very interesting things about it. Right, the ritual work was pretty fascinating, especially I think we all agreed that when they level at the end. Yes are more meaningful than the way that we level in the state of Florida right and we can't really say exactly what that means.
Speaker 1:If you're amazing, you, you probably know what that means, but it was a really moving, touching moment where you know where you felt part of something you felt part of it, right.
Speaker 1:Everybody came to this place, you know, and it was. It was awesome man, it was really good. Anyway, the point is is that we kicked around an idea of doing doing a summertime DC trip as part of OTL, as part of on the level once a year, an annual on the level trip, doing a tour, a Masonic tour of DC In 2020, late 2024. So that's something we'll be kicking around as well to kind of see if we can can do that.
Speaker 2:I just so much history, masonic history right in that place. Yeah and we found Residents that live there their whole life didn't even know about the Masonic connections.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:It's just really amazing it was amazing.
Speaker 1:They had no idea. The guys right down the street from the George Washington Memorial, a Masonic Memorial and there's no idea.
Speaker 2:I took her to the George Washington Masonic Memorial and she was shocked that that was there in public and she's had no idea Her whole life that he was amazing right.
Speaker 1:And if you walk into that building, if I was blown away and and for anybody who's been to the thing, the, the, the Washington Masonic Memorial, it's no small deal, man. When you walk through those giant brass doors and the, the front doors are our six doors wide and probably four, four floors in height, of all brass, old-school brass Framing and glass door system and that's impressive because it's super high. The columns are there. You walk through and you're thinking, man, this is amazing. And then you realize you're standing in this, this area of all this marble, and Marble granite marble columns that tower over you, man.
Speaker 1:They got to be 60 feet high, man, it's just, it's an absolute marvel. And it goes on from there. The elevators which are pitched from outside to inside, seven degrees each floor. You go up, they get closer and closer together till you get to the very top. It's all engineered that way and it's just. It's just an amazing thing. But yeah, so for me I'm doing a summertime trip because it was really cold. It was. It was brutal cold for us, for a cold and rainy, cold and rainy and overcast the whole time. So doing a summertime trip up there with a group of guys we can meet from all over the country, and finding a couple of people who can kind of put together an actual Masonic bus tour when we just we we charter a bus and then we go from Masonic thing to Masonic thing and do the teaching and stuff on it. I really think Jeremy Barnes could be a big help on this. Shout out to you, brother.
Speaker 2:I know the barns. I mean, when we visited the Capitol, I literally saw him chatting with the government employees there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they knew him and he, yeah, they know him so, yeah, he's, he's definitely somebody that we want to get with on this and and try to try to put it together and bring bring people together and and really start Educating people, because I need a lot of education on it too. There's a lot more there.
Speaker 2:Then I.
Speaker 1:I think, I think, even as masons, we understand.
Speaker 2:We scratch the surface. We know the influence this or that right the whole story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because if you look at, you know, I Haven't really totally thought this through yet, but what I, one of the things I noticed was the Supreme Court building. If you look at the apex, going into the grand entrance of the Supreme Court building, you'll see the mural above and what you see is you see Moses in the center, a Statue of Moses in the center, and sitting to his left and his right is Aristotle and Socrates and Plato, and it goes down through all of these different philosophers, throughout all of history. Well, that thing was built, you know, in the 18, in the early 1800s. So so, yeah, if, if the Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1777, it was ratified. I don't know when I was ratified, shame on me, but 1776 the Declaration of Independence was was begun and the war for independence began and was fought and won.
Speaker 1:By the time you get to the early 1800s, that thing is being built on the apex of that building right there, which is very Masonic, you know, and I know my, my, everyone knows my Christian brethren, who want to say that this was a strictly designed as a Christian government. I think, I think we we need to step back and have a conversation about that because, though most of the men Were either either declared outright, you know, christian men of Christian faith, or they completely agreed with the tenants or precepts behind it, like Thomas Jefferson, but they were, but they were Masonic in their application of the constitutional Republic that they decide, that they designed. And if you look at all the monuments, if you look at everything that you see out there, that's pretty obvious to me.
Speaker 2:You, if you think about it. We know the influence that the Masons had. We know that the Masons were probably Exclusively Christian there in that place at that time well, they, they, they under, if they weren't actual.
Speaker 1:You know, christian men who held to the tenants of the Christian faith. They were. They were, for lack of a better word, sympathetic to the teachings, sure, and precepts behind the moral code it represents.
Speaker 2:And I would bet that the majority were Out practicing Christians, but this is how you know. The Masons influenced our government because, although they were primarily Christian men, they were Masons too and they knew the importance for tolerance of other religions as part of inclusion and making us one unit, one whole Family. And I think that that comes through in our government Because, although we were founded by Christians, I don't think they intended it to be a strictly Christian nation.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean well, and, and I think when, when we talk about the word tolerance, that's a modern word Now back then, they would not have known anything about that, did the they were?
Speaker 2:not necessary.
Speaker 1:What would have understood importance of sure what they were looking for was they didn't want to create another government System that could impose its will on the people that that's what they were completely intolerant of.
Speaker 1:They were intolerant of another king, another monarchy. So they crafted. So they had to sit down and craft a government system that would not allow for this type of thing, and that's why I think what they settled for was is that the people Ie those who go to church, those who don't go to church, those who are strong in their faith, those who are not strong in their faith, don't have a faith at all. The people are required to force the state to remain within its jurisdiction and boundaries. So we were, we as the people were, to hold this Leviathan in distrust and not let it grow and not let it get out of control, and hold it accountable. Now we have miserably failed In this day in that, in that area. But that's what they crafted and I think that is a very Masonic idea. If you look at our Masonic government, the Grand Lodge of Florida, when you go there, it's a. It's a representative Form of democracy.
Speaker 2:It's exactly like our government.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, is everything about it, yep.
Speaker 2:We've got our legislators with the vigilance committee yeah, these are the legislators. And then we've got the House of Representatives, that's us, yeah, and vote.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:We have all the members.
Speaker 1:It's, it's completely representative. So it's not mob rule. It's not every one man one vote which is mob rule and of course Plato, he explained that very clearly to us that it's a failed system. It is a constitutional representative Republic and it's brilliant In its crafting. But anyways, we're down a little bit of a rabbit hole here. But the truth is is that when you tour, when you drive around DC and you start to take it in and you start to see this stuff, you realize that this, this, this, this entire system was, was Masonic at its core, man and and there's lodges all over the place out there and there's there's all kinds of symbolism and and stuff all over the place. And it's just interesting to me how how in our, our day and age today, masonry can be held in such suspicion. You know, having we have, I guess. So I guess we we've forgotten all of it. I mean we've completely been. We have not been diligent In any, any of the things the founding fathers told us we needed to be diligent in.
Speaker 2:No, and Masonry as a whole isn't particularly good at claiming credit for things. Right, yeah, we'll be taking to like to just stay in the background and do our thing and not take credit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:As individuals and as an entity, and I think that's a good thing in most cases. But you know, we do have a monument in Arlington.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:To Washington. So the fact that it's there and people still have no idea is a little scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, it just it kind of shows and, like the bartender, we were talking to you know who's in the heart of his whole life. He lived his whole life there in the heart of DC and he had no earthly idea what Masonry really was. He's just one of those guys what do you mean? Like bricklayers? You know, he's one of those guys. You know it's like, and it was just. That was shocking to me.
Speaker 2:It was just, it was like wow, we really I think we've got to do some reeducation to our citizens about the importance of Masonry and our role in the formation of this country.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:We can still play.
Speaker 1:And I, you know, and it goes back to that, putting together that yearly, that annual trip to, you know, to, to DC, the, the, the, the, on the level, on the level Masonic education trip to DC annually.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be a bulldog on it. So we'll try to put that together, guys, and keep the, keep the costs down as best we can and get everybody to come, you know, to come and put and, and my thing is going to be to find a tour guide who really knows this stuff and maybe, year after year, kind of build this tour to the point where it is so informative and it is so dead on, dead on. You know that that it becomes. It becomes a a must you know for for every Mason to to either actually experience it or maybe we can do publications of it and do you know broadcasts from there to help people. But the other thing is is that it goes to what you and I are going to be talking about at the symposium on January 13th. Get your tickets go online to what is the? What is the online thing? It's the.
Speaker 2:No, no that's we could just go to on the level of Fred and Chris.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it, yeah get your tickets right away, don't, don't wait. They're going to start selling really fast, especially when, as the holidays wind down, everybody's going to want to get their tickets at the same time and there is a limited amount. So please get on, get online and get it and get it, get those tickets. But the the talk that we're going to do, that we're it's going to be a very we're going to be very brief, the two of us, because we're going to let our guests do most of the speaking and we're going to let our our, the people who come in the audience, do a lot of the questions and answers and speaking.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it's going to be an open forum idea, but our talk is is a basic theme, is the basic theme for OTL for 2024. And that is a question. And the question is does masonry have something to offer to this hurting country? And we think the answer is yes and we're going to try to develop that more and more, that theme for 2024 throughout the year. Does it does? Does masonry have something to offer the young man?
Speaker 1:a young man who doesn't know who he is, doesn't know, you know, what to do in this world, has no purpose, feels like he has no purpose, feels like he's lost or or wants to become something you know, part of something bigger than himself. Well, I think, I think and I know you do too, chris. I think masonry has something to offer in that area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what we need are engaged masons.
Speaker 1:That's right and informed, informed and engaged.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we need to be active, we need to be contributing and we need to be visible and we haven't been some of those things for a little while now. And, you know, credit to right wishful catsalists and silverman for what they've been doing here the last six or seven years, because I think it is doing all those things.
Speaker 1:It really is.
Speaker 2:We went around as a group of masons dressed nice, acting right in public.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I know a lot of people were looking at, looking at us and asking questions and everyone there was a great representative to the community as mason's. We were there visible doing things right. Touring the capital is mason's. That was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:It was a trip.
Speaker 2:I had not been to the capital building since I was very young, so I really didn't understand we had to basically bind you and blindfold you and gag you to get you in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's well, you know it does not represent us anymore. Those two houses represent themselves and that's pretty obvious in their behaviors anymore. But that doesn't mean we're going to give up. It's worth fighting for, that's for sure. And I know I'm not alone. I'm absolutely not alone in that, in that idea.
Speaker 2:Those old men and the other guy on the street. No, that's not who we should be fighting.
Speaker 1:That's right yeah.
Speaker 2:And yeah, these corporations controlling our government, those corporations and the politicians that sold out.
Speaker 1:The corporations and the politicians that sold out to them is really the enemy. And those people are in their 80s, late 80s. Hello, you know they're very old Now, they've turned. You know the grift goes to their children, but there's still not that many of them. There's a lot more of us and I think we can begin. Masonry can be pivotal in helping people to put away the left versus right lie. You know and I think you and I are a perfect example that we talk about it all the time. You know I would be considered more of a center right person and you would be considered more of a center left person, but we're able to be productive. We're very productive in what we do together.
Speaker 2:Well, we share the same desires. That's right At the end of the day and it's true, I think of everyone on the left and the right that are so passionate and hating each other. They both want their government to be good.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:They take these tiny little details that we have differences on to keep us quarreling with each other about the nonsense. Well, the big stuff just slides right out the door while we're fighting and it's working. So the only way to stop this is for us to stop bickering with each other about the nonsense and look at the back door and watch all the stuff they're carrying out, because we can stop them together, and I think we both want that stuff to stay in the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:We both want the government that we started with.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, both of us. Very limited in its scope and power, right and very much answerable.
Speaker 2:We're a generation of individuals who prided ourselves on our strength, our tenacity, our individualness. We've prided ourselves on that at one point and we've gotten a little bit dependent on things over time.
Speaker 1:We have, we have. And the founding fathers? Their opinion of government employees would have been very different than ours. Oh, totally.
Speaker 2:We hold them up.
Speaker 1:We hold them up as these heroes that can do no wrong and somehow they're a little better than we are kind of idea they were trying to basically deify that man Right and he was.
Speaker 2:He saw many instances where their attempts were being made to make a deity out of the person Right. Well, that's the. It's a time he would not be who he was. That's right and he was fighting against it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And if you look at the capital Rotunda so they wanted to bury him and the center point of the Rotunda, and if you stand in the center and look straight up, you will see, you will literally see a picture mural, a whole mural system of Washington as a deity and the idea was is that he was supposed to rise up from his grave where he was buried at the bottom of the Rotunda, right there, right, and he was going to glory to be this deity. They really, really wanted a king man and they wanted him to be the king. You know and you can see all of this and it just, and we, we as, as as people who actually make this country work, we need to fight against that.
Speaker 1:And my the point I was making was that our founding fathers would not have treated the average you know government in air quotes employee with much respect. They would not have understood them. They would not have understood the deep the lady behind the DMV counter who treats you like a piece of garbage. They would not have understood that. They would not have understood that they were in America. You know the ideal with building. I'm in the trades dealing with building department officials all the time who treat you like you're an absolute moron and have no time for you and lie to you and about you and hold up jobs just for their own ego's sake. Our founding fathers would have taken up arms had they seen something like this Leviathan that that holds us in contempt, you know, every day of our life. They would not have understood such a thing. Now I don't know what the remedy is. I say you know you, you change hearts and minds one person at a time, and I think that's what Masonry does.
Speaker 2:And I agree, you've got to be, you've got to show them. People don't believe things unless they see it with their eyes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, yep.
Speaker 2:And you know, it's like those people that built our country. They built the house. They built their own house, right, and the the respect, the reverence they had for the thing that they built was probably off the charts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:But when you get to a house that you built with your bare hands, three generations later, the great grandkids are ripping everything out. They don't care about the history of that house, they don't care that it was the first, this, this or that. They're like no, take it out, it's old. I want new, new new.
Speaker 1:I want new yeah.
Speaker 2:And they lose their history. Yeah, and that's what's happened to us. We're generations, generations, generations, and a large portion of our population have lost its history because they just don't care. And so, as masons, I think we benefit from the fact that we revere our history and we teach it Right, and not just American history, but our history is a species on the planet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, Like I think, the more that you try to lift up history, I think, the more successful your civilization is going to be. Yeah, we need not like the fact that you have to always live the way you did thousands of years ago, but just understanding why they lived the way they did will help you live better life today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they wrote, they wrote a lot. Thomas Jefferson left us a lot of the why he did what he did, why he believed what he did. You know he was, he was a deist. He didn't hold to the miraculous but he held to. He was very much into the enlightenment, you know that was, that was his thing. But he understood human nature. He totally understood the checks and balances that are, that are built into this system. He, they're there for a reason and now they're gone. You know, and the checks and balances, it's all one lump of grift going on.
Speaker 2:you know, and and it's just Well, they're playing to our base instincts.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're playing to our higher selves, right, and we've revered virtues and things that you know were hard, difficult, but now it seems like all politicians play to your most base primal instincts, right. Yeah, and all the while, which is a dangerous thing.
Speaker 1:All the while getting richer and richer. And that's why you know you, you, you vote a guy into into national office who says who's who's got a a life of exemplary service. You know I think of. There was a, a senatorial candidate that I helped support in Denver in Colorado, um, uh, back in the late nineties and uh, he was just a straight shooter. He everything, I mean his entire career. He'd been in government since, you know, from out of high school, for goodness sakes, and the guy had exemplary marks of a guy that really did what he said he was going to do along the way, and literally his first year in Washington DC, he just reversed everything he'd ever believed in and became another grifter and to this day he's one of the biggest grifters up there.
Speaker 1:And uh yeah, and it's just amazing to me that, uh, there's something about the unfettered ability to take to, to line your pockets, that just the it doesn't matter who you are, You're a human being, and that temptation is going to get you man. And that's the problem with with what goes on up there.
Speaker 2:We drove around, oh yeah, we drove around. There's no IQ test to get into your government. First of all, there's no requirement that you have any knowledge of history or even the workings of government or our own constitution. There's no test.
Speaker 1:No, that's right.
Speaker 2:Give it government. I mean anyone can get in there. All they have to do is become popular enough.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:I'd sure like to see some like let's make them take a test and exhibit that they understand our Constitution and that they know some important things that happen in our history before they go work in the government that represents us.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, well, that would make them accountable to it. So they don't want to know anything about that. And once you get into that position, once you're in the position, then you surround yourself with people who do all the work and keep you out of the loop, so you're not accountable for any of the things you do, and that's kind of the way it works.
Speaker 1:They have these gigantic entirges of people that surround them, that they put themselves in the center of this massive entourage. I think at one point Harry Reid, who was a senator from Nevada, had 380 people under him, 380 people working for him. I mean, that's a government. He was a government unto himself. I could be wrong about that number, but I seem to remember 380 of the people. And he was sponsored by every single defense contractor in the state of Nevada and he was just one of those guys. Like Mitch McConnell Same thing.
Speaker 1:If you look into the man's financial past he and his spouse you would be outraged. I was outraged. It's like are you kidding me? This man is worth hundreds of millions of dollars on a civil service salary and has connections all over the world, especially tight connections with China. It's like come on, man, and he's held up. Now he's a right-side guy, so he's held up by the right as this stall worth of freedom, but he's a grifter man, he's a total crook. And if you look at a Chuck Schumer, same thing, man. If you look into Chuck Schumer's life and where he's gotten his money, he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And if you look at their life, it's like you'd be shocked, man, that this is not the way it was. All right, we're going down this rabbit trail.
Speaker 2:Don't get me started. Like in most jobs, you have at least an annual review. It's not a quarterly review, or a whole over Our successes and our you know, are we getting better? How about we do that for our politicians? Yeah, well, can we do a little review, because once they're in, they're in.
Speaker 1:They're in. Yeah, they're in, there's no review.
Speaker 2:There's no way to get them out, not really, other than taking extreme measures and wasting a lot of money to try to get it done. But even that's become political stunt now. I think pretty much every president to the end of time. This impeachment proceedings will begin on day one of his inauguration. Oh yeah, what's that you're on?
Speaker 1:That system is so broken it's banana republic.
Speaker 1:It's a banana republic kind of idea anymore. So if you're listening right now and you're thinking, well, it's too big, it's too broken, there's nothing we can do, that's not true. There is something you can do and you can start. It always starts grassroots. All politics is local. You can go to your lodge, you can begin to educate yourself. You can begin to live your life in a way that promotes liberty and freedom and fair trade, and begin to educate yourself, your brothers around you and your children and those who are younger than you, those who are coming up, and we can do that one person at a time. We have a network of lodges all around this country, all around this country, and we could access that network and begin a movement. Like I said, does Masonry have something to offer to this hurting country?
Speaker 2:I think we have, and I think we do what I suggested that we do in government in our lodges in Florida. If you want to get to an elected position, you have to do a certain amount of education and prove that you are educated enough to get the basic information you need to be one of those elected officers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah, it's not a popularity contest. We've got to get away from that man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a cheery note to end on.
Speaker 1:Cheery note to end on. Well, all right, so.
Speaker 2:You know what's cool, though? Going back to the DC trip, we saw the. When we toured the Capitol, we actually saw the display case that the Washington Devil sits in in the Capitol building here. Just tourists can come and see it and it's on loan from Potomac Lodge to the Capitol. And this is a Masonic artifact, but it's also a government relic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a national treasure.
Speaker 2:Correct With the people as masons and we saw the trowel belongs to another lodge in the area and they also give their relics the Capitol to display to the people.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So we're visible. We're right there in front of everybody. It's just crazy that people just still have no idea what's happening.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, but that is our call and mission right there. There it is. So if you are, in fact, a brother listening to the On the Level podcast with Fred and Chris, then you know what to do. You know what to do. Go back to your lodge and get involved, educate yourself. Come to the symposium. If you're in the state of Florida, if you're anywhere within the sound of our voice and you could make it, please come and begin to get charged up, Get yourself excited and get passionate about educating yourself about this country's Masonic history, and then prepare to do something, to get out there and do so.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we offer to the young men of this country is a moral code. We are a system of morality. We have a system of living your life in such a way that is productive and beneficial to yourself and all those around you, and that's huge. We lack that in this country. Our young men are lost. They have no moral compass, they have no direction, and Masonry, in a very real way, offers that to the young man who comes in. We hold ourselves accountable. Generally speaking, we're men, we're flawed, but we hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard, and that is something that's very much lacking and that is something that Masonry does have to offer to this hurting country. Again, you're going to hear me say that on the show over and over again. That's our theme for 2024. Do we have something to offer? And if we do, how do we get it out there?
Speaker 2:right, I think we've been saying from day one you have to fix your house before you can go out a side of it and start trying to fix anything else.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:It really for us as a fraternity starts with fixing ourselves. I think We've been bleeding out through time a little bit and maybe a lot, and we need to reconstitute ourselves. And it starts at each individual lodge, not any grand lodge. No jurisdiction is going to do this. The Grand Lodge of Florida helped by sponsoring a program for the lodges, but ultimately it's the lodges that decide to do it or not do it. And a lot of lodges are merging and some are going under, and that's going to be your lodge too if you don't get on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:You've got to start fixing your own house. You've got to build up your membership, fix up your lodge, get yourself financially healthy and then you'll be in the place to actually do some good and help people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:But most lodges are just trying to help themselves at this point. They themselves need charity. How can you do charity when you need charity?
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, first when the mask, like they say on the airplane, you know when the mask comes down, secure your own before you help somebody else with theirs. The assumption there is that you're going to be helping somebody else with their mask. That's the assumption. But the task at hand is make sure yours is first on correctly, so you don't die.
Speaker 2:Even your baby. They're like leave the child alone, put your own mask on, get your own mask on and then the imperative.
Speaker 1:The imperative in that statement is then you will go help others, right? It's not a suggestion. It's not a suggestion, and that's the way. I love the way it's worded. You know, it's always. It's always. It always struck me whenever I'm on a plane and they say that I'm one of the geeks who are listening to them, because I'm always listening for that. But I'm a geek anyway.
Speaker 2:You're one of two people on the plane listening.
Speaker 1:I'm one of two people on the plane listening because that's what they say. The assumption is that you will be helping others, but first secure your own mask, and that's exactly what you were just talking about right there.
Speaker 2:And we have the. We have a plan for any lodge to help themselves. The oxygen mask is here. It's falling right out of our website.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:It's got to put it on and do it.
Speaker 1:Secure it first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just do it. Start fixing your lodge. You know you've got to strengthen your numbers and it will happen. It will happen if you just start the steps today. You will start to get new members. Those members are going to be extremely zealous. They're going to want to learn more about what pre-masonry is. And where did all this come from?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then they're going to want to teach it, because that's what you do once you have knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:You teach it to people coming up. And now you've got a strong lodge and you're in a place where you can start your base money, where you can have influence and do things. So we hope that you take all of that desire to change the government we just talked about and go change your lodge with it first.
Speaker 1:Change yourself, change your lodge, change your community and maybe, just maybe, if we're work by the grace of God and by a lot of hard work, maybe, just maybe, we could change the direction of this hurting land. That would be an amazing thing to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great truth, man. If we can start fixing our own selves and building up our membership in our lodges, we will have influence again.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:Everybody will know who we are again, finally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like, I hear people all the time who say you know, my grandpa was amazing. He was such a good man. You know, he was such a good man and I really loved him, respected him. Yeah, and he didn't talk about it much. Right, he was probably something we need to change. We need to talk a little more about it, but I get the point for the old timers out there who are yelling at me right now.
Speaker 1:The point is is that if you live your life, if you live a life of integrity, uncompromising integrity, if you're an honest, hardworking person, people will know that about you, that stands out in this world, and people will trust you and you will earn the right to speak into their lives. And that's the bottom line. Each person living the life of integrity and honesty and praying that God would turn this country back to the kind of men that originally founded it would be an amazing thing. So, anyway, let's talk a little bit about you, my brother.
Speaker 2:Oh geez.
Speaker 1:I know, right, so this is. Last Tuesday was your last stated meeting as Worshpill Master of the Mighty 147, Sarasota, Florida. So now you've got what we've got one more meeting the day after Christmas. You and I will be the only ones there, so that'll be your actual final gavel. Right, that's it, You're done.
Speaker 2:Well, we have a call of communication on January 5th.
Speaker 1:What's the installation?
Speaker 2:That will be the installation of the 2024 officer line, so I will open the lodge there, okay.
Speaker 1:So that's officially it.
Speaker 2:I will get to say some last words and then I won't get the gavel down, but I will get to pass my gavel to the next man.
Speaker 1:To Zach.
Speaker 2:Shout out to Zach there, zach, you're meeting me.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's awesome. So now a lot of people are asking, a lot of people are wanting you. You sold your home. We talked about this on the last podcast. You sold your home here in Sarasota. Good on you. It was a dream that you had and a dream you fulfilled, and I'm so, I am so blessed to know a man who actually did it. Well, I shouldn't brag too much.
Speaker 2:I did it too, but anyway, you did it, you did it, you did it. Probably do it again.
Speaker 1:You did it, and then you and you bought a really beautiful property something that you and your wife really desired up in South Carolina. That's where you are now. Yeah, I have heard you say more than once that you will always be a member of Sarasota 147 for the rest of your life. So how's that going to work? Tell people exactly what's your plan as far as that goes.
Speaker 2:Well, my business is headquartered in Sarasota. All of my employees are there.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Directors in my employees, and so the company still has regular meetings, and I'll be going to those meetings. I'm only a one hour flight.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Right, and so I've already got three planned, three flights in the next, in the first month, to come back, and one of those is coming to our installation and another is a degree at another watch for our brothers, and one is for this education symposium. And so it's my hope that I can make it to at least one stated meeting a month and sit as a past master quietly and enjoy, so hopefully, to watch the fruits of some of my labor and my predecessors' labor.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well and we're going to need you. So you're going to sit quietly, but we're definitely going to need your help and your leadership. Now, as far as the reimbursement program goes for Grand Lodge, John Schaefer, myself and you we're committed for 2024 to be a part of that.
Speaker 2:So and I know that will continue to move forward- so, for our lodge, I'm going to go back into making those calls and scheduling appointments which I have been able to do all year.
Speaker 1:Nice yeah.
Speaker 2:John Schaefer is going to get some much needed help. Yeah, and we brought in I think 16 entered apprentices this year and we raised 18 master masons.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Something like that was our numbers, yeah, so next year planned for more like 25 or 30. Right Entered apprentices and a healthy amount of master masons, and so our lodge is in a place where it's starting to become easier, finally, after a few years, yeah, and we're getting more used to the growth and we have so many. I wish I could express to you the level of quality of men that we're bringing into the fraternity through this program.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:These are excellent men, young men. Both of them are in their 30s. Yeah, and really, really good men. I just see them. Wow, you really do see that. It's true that you're made a Mason in your heart before you were in a lodge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very true, that's very true.
Speaker 2:We didn't do anything other than stay visible. I think that people need and want what the fraternity has to offer right now.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely true. We just need to be visible. Yeah, no, it's absolutely true. You're right. We were last year up in Hillsborough and that was one of our talks. You know Masonry. Now what and that was one of the things is that we're not sparking interest that isn't already there. All we're doing is we're making ourselves available to men who have already raised their hand and said I need something in my life that's bigger than me. I need something in my life that's reliable. I need this and I want this.
Speaker 2:It's a place to feel safe and explore Right. You know my own thoughts and feelings.
Speaker 1:And like for me, I just I didn't have any friends. I literally didn't have any friends. I worked and I came home.
Speaker 2:Possibly the same for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And now I have thousands of friends all over the world who I can call my Masonic brothers. I mean all over the world, who would do anything for me and I'd do anything for them, and that's what the reimbursement program is doing. We're not. We're not creating interest where there is no interest. We're making ourselves available to those who already raised their hand and said I want something more in my life, and Masonry is there. We're right there to say, hey, check this out, this might be what you're looking for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and 2024 is going to be all about that because you me and John are going to kill the reimbursement program this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want to just make every lodge aware of it, make sure everyone's tried it and if they're trying it, if they're doing it right, so that they see success and just watch our state grow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:And numbers and influence and hopefully save some lodges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:And if we don't do something we are going to lose lodges. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:It's just a fact. There's a lot of lodges out there that just there was. Who was telling the story about a lodge in Florida where leadership just kept ignoring the pleas of the secretary over and over again. Guys, we can't keep going this way, we can't keep going this way. And then finally, at a meeting, the secretary got up in desperation and said we need to pass a hat tonight, guys, because if I don't pay the water bill on Monday, they're going to turn the water off to the lodge on Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got themselves in a place where they literally had to pass a hat around the house.
Speaker 1:But here's the point of the story Nobody, everyone, was shocked. They were shocked what? I had no idea, we had no idea.
Speaker 2:It's like you know, it's like no one's listening?
Speaker 1:No one's listening. Yeah, so, and you're right, there's a lot of lodges that are going to end up closing and we're going to lose them. They're going to sell off those buildings or do whatever they're going to do, and it's a shame that we're not going to let that happen, and it doesn't have to happen. If you're passionate about this fraternity and you want to see it available to your grandsons because I do then get involved. Get involved this year. Make 2024 the year that you take at least one step forward towards helping Masonry get back to the place where it used to be in this country.
Speaker 2:That's the key. And if you're in a place of leadership, in a lodge or at a grand lodge, your job isn't to preside over the selling off of everything you own and making as much money as you can as it's on the way out. Your job is to save all that crap. Your job is to stop it from being lost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:So you've got to get off your butt and work hard if you're in a position of leadership, and do your job and start saving things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Preserving things right, Like bringing them back. All right, so to recap.
Speaker 1:To recap, everything's good. If you're out there thinking Chris Warshifell Burns is going to abandon us for South Carolina, you're wrong. You're wrong as a matter of fact, the way you and I have talked about this. I'm thinking it's going to be even more productive because when you're here, we're going to have a limited amount of time face to face. We're going to have to get all of our things done. Right now, we have a luxury of time where we kind of take advantage of it when we're supposed to get together and do some business. We don't. Well, that's not going to be an option anymore. When you come into town, we're going to have a limited amount of time. We're going to have to do business. We're going to have to get things set and working, get our action items going and get out there and get things done. So I'm looking forward to that. It's going to be a great year. It's going to be a good year for OTL.
Speaker 2:It's going to be an amazing year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to hit it hard. And also we are dedicated to helping Three Ruffy and Cigar Company take its place amongst and be successful this coming year. We currently have a fundraiser going. Liberty Lodge is doing a fundraiser and I don't know where they're at on their ticket sales. But if you're local, well, local or not, it doesn't matter. But if you want to participate and help out, Liberty Lodge 31,. Right yeah, Liberty Lodge here in 412.
Speaker 2:Liberty Lodge, number 412. Manatees 30. Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 1:Same building different lodges.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same building, yep.
Speaker 1:But they're doing a fundraiser. For a $20 ticket, you can enter the fundraiser and help Liberty Lodge out, and the payoff is a box of Three Ruffy and Masonic cigars which are custom made just for Three Ruffy and Cigar Company, and they're really good. Everyone's raving about them, so shout out to us, email us, we'll get you in touch with them and you can buy one of them. I think you can do it on their Facebook page, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2:But just shout out to us. You can go to our website. Oh, the raffle tickets? No, you can find somebody in person, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So shout out to us if you want to help out and buy a few tickets. Maybe you want to buy 10 tickets? Sure, we'll sell you 10 tickets.
Speaker 2:If you want to buy, we'll be selling them at the symposium, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:And then we'll be selling them at the symposium. The drawing is January 31st and you could be one of two winners to receive a full box of Three Ruffians cigars. It is 10% of the proceeds of that company go to Shriners International, of course, and it's a great company and we really want to see it explode. Full disclosure. I am part of that company, so yeah, and so is Chris. We try to keep OTL and the cigar company separate, but full disclosure is that we are part of it. But it is just another way for us to advance the cause of masonry in this country. And we do love cigars.
Speaker 2:We like premium cigars and sometimes a little premium, and then we send all those sales to Shriners International.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like I said yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Something we care about.
Speaker 1:It's just another way. A fundraiser, you know. If you're a mason you understand fundraisers. We're always getting the bite for a dollar here or $20. They are put on us as masons to try and help out the different causes that we're all involved in, and this is just another one. So if you're so, inclined, shout out to us. You can reach us by email Fred at onthelevelwithFredandChriscom or Chris at onthelevelwithFredandChriscom. Shoot us those emails I still for the last year, I've been threatening to do. We have been threatening to do an episode, just reading the emails that we've gotten over the year. I'm going to put that together because I've gotten some really encouraging emails lately from people from literally all over the world, and it's just so encouraging and humbling to think that you guys are out there listening to us. You're taking back to your lodges a lot of the education and a lot of the stuff that we've been getting into and really fueling your passion for the fraternity, and we just appreciate it more than we can say. That's for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, I know that people really like the Morgan Assert episode that we did. Blue up man. I would love to do a Taxel Hoax episode.
Speaker 1:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:Or we're going to get into maybe gritty it's that whole thing, Because I think a lot of people aren't aware of how influential that was and how much BS it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like I didn't know If you've ever seen that picture of the goat man sitting on a throne with a bunch of children at his feet and the. Masonic emblems, the Masonic emblems. That's part of the hoax. That's where that came from and a lot of people think that picture is actually a Masonic document and we get. But it comes from a hoax called the Trexel Hoax which, yeah and there's one of our brothers who's going to be at the seminar teaching at the seminar did a talk on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, daniel Molina did a talk on it. It was really informative. Yeah, let's do it, I'll pull up. We'll pull up some of Daniel's stuff. Maybe we'll even talk to him a little bit about it and we'll get everybody into it and learn more about it.
Speaker 1:It's more Masonic education. You can't learn enough about this stuff and, at the end of the day, if it makes you a better man, to your wife, to your children, to your parents, your church, your job, then Masonry is working, because that's where it starts. Making good men better, making better men in the world to change the world for the better. That's really what this fraternity is all about. And if you're listening to this and you're not a Mason, well, god bless you. We really thank you for that.
Speaker 1:And, like we say all the time, go down to your local, go down to your local lodge.
Speaker 2:Just Google Free Mason Lodge near me and you'll find one, go down there and talk to them.
Speaker 1:You heard these two knuckleheads on a podcast called On the Level and they told me to come down here and talk to you because apparently you got something I need, so do it. Do it today.
Speaker 2:It was great, great to keep this going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so we'll still drop them.
Speaker 2:You need some semblance of home, which I needed.
Speaker 1:Like I told you last night, you did not lose a home, you just gained a second one man. So you're a blessed man, you got a home here, and you got a home there, man.
Speaker 2:So you are truly blessed. Lucky.
Speaker 1:I'm lucky. I'm even luckier because now I have a friend, a brother, who lives in a beautiful place in South Carolina, so I can come up and visit you and hang out. Yeah, oh yeah, I'm ready. So whenever you're ready, you let me know I'm coming up.
Speaker 2:Buy this lot right next to me yes.
Speaker 1:My wife is on my. My wife asks me about that almost every day, so I'm ready, I'm going to start making my inquiries Do it, do it, man, let's do that, let's get that done that way. That way we can, we can impact two states because South Carolina look out, baby, we're, we're, we got our eyes on you next man.
Speaker 2:South Carolina, texas. Oh yeah, texas, yeah, what's it.
Speaker 1:Any update on the Texas situation. I know we can't really talk about it or talk to anyone about the Texas situation until after their installation or after January one.
Speaker 2:I know we will be doing an interview with the primary person that said that that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:I want to see Texas go from this, this tangled up web, or this mess that they've gotten themselves into if that's what it is, we don't really know the truth about it yet, but I want to see. I want to see them go from this to being just absolutely on fire and passionate about the fraternity going forward. They got a lot of young men wanting to get up in there and and affect some positive change for the fraternity and I'm I say bring it on, man. I'm, I'm ready, I'm ready to help. Otl is ready to help in any way we can to make that happen.
Speaker 2:Let's hope they take this situation and use it for positive change in the state of Texas.
Speaker 1:Use your superpowers for positive change. Baby.
Speaker 2:Great responsibility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. That's right, all right, man, well, I enjoyed it. We're, you know we're. We're 500 miles apart, but we're really not apart. We've got technology. When it works, as long as we don't have any Mac OS involved, the technology works well. We'll fix that and we're going to fix that. That's right, all right, so you're flying down, you're flying down.
Speaker 2:Saturday morning yeah, yeah, I'll be there all day.
Speaker 1:If you, if you need anything from me, you just let me know. You need me to pick you up, you need me to drive you around, whatever you need, just holler out, I'm always available to you, brother.
Speaker 2:You know that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've got it. I've got it. I'm looking right at it, man. It's right here at my bar.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow so early.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, no, no, I'm not drinking it, I'm just looking at it. Okay, sure, but yeah. So, brother, it's, it's always a privilege, always a joy to do this with you. I'm looking forward to 2024. And if you've listened to the end here, you are definitely one of our rock star heroes. We really appreciate you hanging with us to the very end.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you Take what you've learned, take what you've heard back to your lodge. Talk to your brothers, talk, tell them about the podcast. We would like to be able to speak to as many masons as we can, and we'd like to be able to hear from as many masons as we can for this new coming year, 2024. Does Masonry have something to offer to this hurting country? We worship for, chris Burns and myself. We believe it does and we're going to do all we can to make that a reality. Chris, what do you got on our way out?
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to talking some more about the taxal hoax and getting some more interested people on this symposium to come and join us in person. I can't wait to be back in Florida doing a master Mason degree, doing another lecture. We have a lot going on. It's holiday season. We're just really ready to end this year with a bang and then come into next year stronger than ever. So buckle up and please join us in the adventure next year.
Speaker 1:You got it, man. I will see you on Saturday. My brother have an awesome day and you guys listening, you too, have an awesome day. Get out there and make a difference. See ya Please.