Brother Thompson was honored with the Medal Of Valor By President Donald Trump

Congress passed The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act in 2001, which created the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer.

Freemasonry Squared reported on the events during the atrocities of the Dallas shooting during a protest that day.

Brother Brent Thomason, 43, Member of DeMolay Gold Chapter, Master Mason of Corsicana Lodge No. 174, Corsicana, Texas and nearly a seven-year veteran of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit agency(D.A.R.T.) was called to the celestial lodge above after his heroic actions during the Dallas shooting on July 7, 2016. Brother Thompson was honored with the Medal Of Valor By President Donald Trump.

“He gave his life while engaging a mass shooter and saving the lives of countless civilians and fellow officers during a protest march in Dallas on July 7, 2016,” DART said in a statement.

The work of a Master Mason

The Work of a Master Mason

As a Master Mason, you’ve been recognized to be proficient in the perquisites necessary for advancement. Along the way, you were initiated an Entered Apprentice Mason and shown what your objective was, drawn on the masters trestle board. After completing the proficiency in the proceeding degree, you were then “Passed” to Fellow Craft. Although, this is not technically where your Masonic Journey begun, it is however where you are will begin “your work”. As a “Freemason”, you’re charged to continue your work until you drop forever the working tool of life. Later on your advancement, you’re granted the distinct honor of being raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. The highest honor a man can obtain in our beloved fraternity.

Thus, you’re a workman in the quarries.

So why is it, you see men, stagnate? Sitting Idol on the sidelines or to put it frankly, doing nothing? Without going deep into ritual or symbolism, a Master Mason is charged and obligated to continue his works until the day he receives the most divine initiation into the most sacred of mysteries. There’s a common lesson within all 3 degrees that some seem to oversee or simply forget over time. From the moment a man steps in a lodge, he’s required to transcend a current position, state, condition etc. Before even inquiring, you were required to gather the courage to contact a lodge.  Some obstacles being more subtle, for example: getting to know two brothers and get them to vouch for you, for admission. You were required to overcome the condition of being a stranger and prove your character. This DOES NOT STOP at your Master Mason degree.

A Master Mason is never to become stagnate but is an inquirer; an investigator of Truth, transcending your mind and heart; one step at a time, towards another state of being. Investigating the Arts and mastering the modes of data collection. Faith, Hope and Charity must be brought forth from our beloved fraternity to the common man. This doesn’t mean we need every man to join the fraternity but instead we should strive to be leaders of light through the dark periods of time when humanity most needs us. History has provided more then enough examples of those brothers and fellows who have gone this way before. Capitalizing on the use of the final working tools presented on the third degree. Encapsulating altruism and then sending it back into the world through our thoughts, actions and Craft. 

A Master Mason should never be stagnate but should be always working on himself. To understand a concept that escaped him before or his personal work with the Compass. Ever striving towards the ultimate divine Truth and Wisdom.

This is the work of a Master Mason, so if you’ve found yourself not doing much of anything. It may be time to reflect on your own work and the masters trestle board.

 -The Freemasonry Squared Team 

Masonic Right to Appeal

The right of appeal is an inherent right belonging to every Freemason, and the Grand Lodge is the appellate body to whom the appeal is to be made.

Appeals are of two kinds: first, from the decision of the Master; second, from the decision of the Lodge.

Each of these will require a distinct consideration.

1. Appeals from the Decision of the Master. It is now a settled. doctrine in Masonic law that there can be no appeal from the decision of a Master of a Lodge to the Lodge itself. But an appeal always lies from such decision to the Grand Lodge, which is bound to entertain the appeal and to inquire into the correctness of the decision.

Some writers have endeavored to restrain the despotic authority of the Master to decisions in matters strictly relating to the work of the Lodge, while they contend that on all questions of business an appeal may be taken from his decision to the Lodge.

But it would be unsafe, and often impracticable, to , draw this distinction, and accordingly the highest Masonic authorities have rejected the theory, and denied the power in a Lodge to entertain an appeal from any decision of the presiding officer.

The wisdom of this law must be apparent to anyone who examines the nature of the organization of the Masonic Institution. The Master is responsible to the Grand Lodge for the good conduct of his Lodge. To hi6m and to him alone the supreme Masonic authority looks for the preservation of order, and the observance of the Constitutions and the Landmarks of the Order in the body over which he presides. It is manifest, then, that it would be highly unjust to throw around a presiding officer so heavy a responsibility, if it were in the power of the Lodge to overrule his decisions or to control his authority.
                                                                                                                         
2. Appeals from the Decisions of the Lodge. Appeals may be made to the Grand Lodge from the decisions of a Lodge, on any subject except the admission of members, or the election of candidates; but these appeals are more frequently made in reference to conviction and punishment after trial.

When a Freemason, in consequence of charges preferred against him, has been tried, convicted, and sentenced by his Lodge, he has an inalienable right to appeal to the Grand Lodge from such conviction and sentence.

His appeal may be either general or specific. That is, he may appeal on the ground, generally, that the whole of the proceedings have been irregular or illegal, or he may appeal specifically against some particular portion of the trial ; or lastly, admitting the correctness of the verdict, and acknowledging the truth of the charges, he may appeal from the sentence, as being too severe or disproportionate to the offense

(W.B. Albert Mackey, The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry)