Re: George Ryan


Brother Crane states the process correctly. The local lodge should
lbe left to decide if the crime that the Brother committ4ed is worth
prosecution. The Grand Lodge need not get involved. The fact that we
made provision to protect our Grand Masters from haivng to decide such
matters dates to 1845. Your post, being from the State of Kansas is
important, as the decision in Illinois was made following our mutual
trouble dissolving the lodges associated with Nauvoo (Qunicy) and
Iowa's Keokuk. Kansas, not achieving Statehood until 1859, had similar
settlements for the same kinds of claimant Masons and Illinois decided
for each to distance their Grand Lodges from the fray. (Thanks to the
helpful and wise intervention of an opinion by Grand Master Nye from
Vermont). The last Grand Lodge to distance themselves from that problem
being Utah as late as 1984.
Brother Kosener further pointed out that the subject of amnesty for
George Ryan or any other Mason facing discipline goes beyond the
discussion of any Grand Lodge Codes. He is right, the Book of
Constitutions and By-Laws for any jurisdiction, Ahimon Rezon, is not
intended to be split apart and picked at, neither is it any measure of
the collective conscience of the Craft. Under another thread we
discussed developing a definition or "sound bite" to describe to
the outside world who we are as Masons and what it is that we come to
lodge to do. The thread never crafted an adequate and satisfactory
answer because what lodges do, for their members, or for a select and
privileged few, is as varied and different as Masonry can be practiced
across the nations and throughout time. No Mason can rely on their
Constitution and By-Laws for a definition because its first part uses
too much space saying what Masonry is not. The book is organized to be
a dynamic instrument reflecting the character of the Craft as its
current and local members choose, supporting each individual
generation's sensibilities and goals. An old man's dream is to define
for future kinds of men how they should operate their fraternity. The
better application is to leave the Book, along with our other
documents, the proceedings, the minutes, our structures and monuments
to reflect the context of the Craft's topical and dynamic character.
For the first one hundred and twenty-nine years of this second Grand
Lodge in Illinois, no Grand Master had the power, nor an obligation, to
expel a member convicted of a felony especially when the dispute was
between him and his employer. George Ryan's employer, of course,
being the people of the State. Such squabbles are not the kind of
dispute that instructions found in our Masonic Disciplinary Code, says
that we should take cognizance. The powers of the Grand Master are
clearly enumerated under Article 11 and discipline is not included as
any part of his job.
In 1975 a motion was made to make discipline his personal business.
The arguments against the By-Law inclusion were well founded and proved
corerct by our recent experiences. In 1979, a provision was passed for
Grand Masters to use their discretion to separate a member. So
troublesome was the new Code, that it could not get a number of its own
and was passed as a subsection (a) of the existing Code 469 which
prohibited Grand Masters from degrading their office by involving
themselves in such worldly considerations.
Since that time, only one Grand Master, Larry Inglis, being a retired
Appellate Court Justice, has had the experience, fortitude and
education to render good judgments. The others who have dabbled as
tribunal jurists have made a muddle of our reputation for charity, fair
play and justice.
Would not our aspiring Grand Lodge Officers and future aspirants
prefer not to spend their time going up the line being tasked by grumpy
old men to degrade other members? The criminal code in Illinois has not
been refreshed or updated since 1961. What was considered felonious
crime and suitable punishment then does not reflect the standards of
this generation. What will take a while to correct in the real world,
can be fixed quickly and easily in our Craft. If it is strong enough,
then Masonry in Illinois can again serve as a model for the rest of
society to adjust its negative tendancy to punish, and impose the
penalties so easily perverted by mob mentality on its contituents. My
conviction is that what we have done with discipline these last fifteen
years will be considered by future generations of Masons with the same
abhorance that school children view the Witch Trials of Salem.
Let us instead be excellent to each other and do away with the
process all together spending our time and recources on better purpose.


Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Senior Deacon
Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 - Crete, Illinois
PM Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 - Lansing, Illinois

.

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