MW Cameron M. Bailey

“The lapse of time, the ruthless hand of ignorance, and the devastations of war have laid waste and destroyed many valuable monuments of antiquity, on which the utmost exertions of human genius had been employed. Even the Temple of Solomon, so spacious and magnificent, designed and constructed by so many celebrated artists, escaped not the unsparing ravages of barbarous force.”

Those of us who are Freemasons have heard the above quote many times. I think that it, and the larger passage surrounding it, speaks quite directly to what we are seeing across the United States in this negative period of our history.

We have all watched as our statues have been ripped down. Statues of our nation's Founding Fathers, statues of both Confederate and Union soldiers, statues of our Presidents, statues of abolitionists and slave owners. Not even Masonic statues have escaped the destruction.

Personally, I do not honor the lives nor supposed accomplishments of many who have been immortalized in statuary. In cases, I wonder why it was ever thought that such were worthy of that tangible form of memorial.

It is certainly reasonable for one man to admire someone from our shared history whom another man does not. Such is the natural situation faced by any group of 330 million diverse and unique individuals.

That said, more importantly, it is never wise, nor proper to attempt to erase history. Indeed only totalitarians and totalitarian systems of government make such attempts, not free people and free governments.

It is a timeless truism that if we allow our history to be erased, we will be bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. We ignore this lesson from history at our own peril.

It is a fact of history that no man was ever created perfect. All people have flaws. Our Founding Fathers made mistakes in their lives and held some misguided beliefs. Our Generals and Presidents have all been far from perfect, just as all people are far from perfect. The Freemasons we admire from our fraternal past were likewise flawed people, just as I am a flawed man today, despite the lofty title my Brothers have given me.

Today we are allowing statues to be ripped down, burned, sledgehammered. I fear that if we allow this to continue, tomorrow we will see books being burned in our public squares. When the mob burns books, tries to wipe whole ideas from society, well when that is allowed to happen, then civilization dies. This is not my opinion, history has proven it to be fact, over and over again.

Civil Society and Civil Debate. These are cornerstone principals of Freemasonry. We are called always to support them.

#Lectures #History #CivilSociety #CivilDebate

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

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