Their goal is to reestablish the defamed reputation of the Pit Bull as America’s premier companion animal, war hero, and therapy dog.

Thank you
Mike Ohr Jr.

Regular Communication Tuesday November 3rd, 2009. Dinner will be at 6:30 PM, please call, email, or text Mike so we have enough food for everyone. Regular Business, balloting if necessary, closing and refreshments

Emergent Communication on Monday, November 30th, 2009 for the conferral of the Master Mason Degree. Dinner 630 PM, Opening 7:00 PM, Degree: 7:30 PM

By Order of Worshipful Brother
Roger D Bohn Sr., W.M.
Attest: Frank Dominiano, Sec.

Feel free to contact Brother George Niessner w/ orders and questions!

President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in Tuesday will incorporate several elements out of America’s Masonic past.

One-third of the signers of the Constitution, many of the Bill of Rights signers and America’s first few presidents (except for Thomas Jefferson) were Freemasons, a fraternal organization that became public in early 18th-century England.

Although it became fabulously popular in America, at one time encompassing 10 percent of the population, Pope Clement XII condemned Freemasonry in 1738 as heretical. The latest pronouncement was issued in 1983 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – who called Masonic practices “irreconcilable” with Catholic doctrine.

Still, as the first president, George Washington had to come up with appropriate rituals for the new country. He borrowed many of them from Masonic rites he knew as “worshipful leader” of a lodge in Alexandria.

His Masonic gavel is on display at the Capitol Visitor Center. Until this inauguration, Washington’s Masonic Bible – on which he swore his obligations as a Freemason – was used for the presidential oath of office. President-elect Barack Obama will use Abraham Lincoln’s Bible.

The worshipful master administered the Masonic oaths. This was adapted to the president vowing to serve his country in an oath administered by the top justice of the Supreme Court.

I learned all this from Garrison Courtney, a 30-something government worker who gives Masonic tours of the District in his spare time. He is worshipful master at the Cincinnatus Lodge in Georgetown. Contrary to public perceptions of Masons being older white guys, current local membership is a racially and religiously mixed group of Gen-X men, he says.

They have, he adds, gotten a bad rap as a secretive organization.

“If people have questions, we will tell them,” he says. “We’re pretty open as an organization.”

Calling themselves a “spiritual organization,” Masons need only believe in a Supreme Being. Masons have grown nationally in recent years, he said, with 38 lodges in the District alone.

The late President Gerald R. Ford was the last presidential Mason.

“We actually had a Masonic procession to his casket while he was lying in state at the Capitol,” Mr. Courtney said.

The inaugural parade, he tells me, began as a Masonic procession [a parade of Masonic notables] from the still-unfinished White House to Capitol Hill, where Washington traveled on Sept. 18, 1793, to lay the cornerstone for the Capitol. Lafayette Park was the site of a makeshift Masonic lodge, in which the Scottish stonemasons – then working on the executive mansion – lived.

Washington also ensured the boundaries of the District – each 10
miles along – formed a perfect square, which symbolizes ultimate virtue in Masonry.

“The whole idea behind the building of Washington was to convey the message about the new experiment, a new way of thinking the Founding Fathers had in mind,” said Akram Elias, past  randmaster of all the District’s lodges.

Whole books have been written about the Masonic imagery on buildings around the District. Many of their cornerstones were laid with Masonic ceremonies involving oil, wine and corn.

“All five statues in front of the White House are Freemasons,” Mr.
Courtney said. “Every single one of the statues on Virginia Avenue are as well. Masonry is ingrained in the city and in the American culture.

masonic, Barack Obama

Thanks!

Masons chip away at secrecy to build ranks | Courier-Post:

Masons chip away at secrecy to build ranks

The Courier | Voice of the Bayshore:

Masons hosted chili cook off, heated things up

A few weekends ago, I was strolling down my street in D.C. when I noticed something odd. No, not the massive Masonic temple adorned with a pair of stone sphinxes and an eerie ziggurat. (The temple’s certainly odd, but D.C. residents quickly stop noticing it.) Rather, what caught my eye was the scene in front of the temple: On the wide steps, beneath the sphinxes’ unnerving gaze, there sat a bright blue, NASCAR-style race car, looking entirely out of place—as though it had magically teleported to this spot from some tobacco-stained test track in North Carolina.

On the car’s hood—where you’d expect to find the logo of a famous brand, like Home Depot or Budweiser—there was a painting of an eagle with two heads. On the car’s side was a strange little glyph: a drafter’s compass crossed with a set square. On the rear bumper was written “ScottishRite.org.”

The Scottish Rite is a worldwide organization of Freemasons—the centuries-old fraternity that is sometimes accused of controlling “like, everything, man,” and counts among its members several founding fathers and a slew of presidents (including George Washington, both Roosevelts, and, more recently, Gerald Ford). The Rite’s global headquarters are housed in that giant, intimidating temple on my street. The compass with square is a traditional symbol of Freemasonry. None of which answers my real question: Why on earth are the Masons advertising on the hood of a stock car?

Worshipful Master John F. Daugherty
Senior Warden Sid Kaplan
Junior Warden Dave Johnson
Secretary W.B. Donald C. Heritage
Treasurer W.B. Peter Buchert
Proxy to G.L. Mike Ohr Jr.
Trustee (1yr.) Harry Verna
Trustee (2yrs.) George Cohen
Trustee (3yrs.) W.B.James McFarland