C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander

Each of us can, if we choose, be a hero.

It has become a "dot-com" world. Even at the Scottish Rite headquarters, we talk computer to computer for many matters. The Internet has changed how we learn, buy, and communicate. One can do almost anything over the Internet, even find out how to join Masonry. We have just posted that information at the Supreme Council website. If the Masons using the Internet in chat rooms and Masonic forums were all to belong to one Grand Lodge, it would be one of the largest jurisdictions in the United States.

It has become a dot-com world. But hero.com? In some ways it would certainly be easier. It would be convenient, when danger threatened, to access the Internet and order a hero as you would a book, cheese, or pair of socks. But we’re not that lucky. Heroes are not mass-produced items, nor instantly available. Each is unique, each is handcrafted.

There are many kinds of heroes. There are the great mythic heroes, men like Ulysses, Gilgamesh, or Galahad who represent their entire culture. There are military heroes like George Washington, Sam Houston, or Dwight Eisenhower; moral heroes like Ghandi, or Black Elk, or Joan of Arc; or religious heroes like Martin Luther, or Zoroaster, or Moses. There are also heroes of compassion and enlightenment, justice and mercy, toleration and education. Each is handcrafted and unique.

Heroism happens when men or women decide that they, personally, are less important than the job to be done, the cause to be defended, or the wrong to be righted. Most heroic men and women had no intention of being heroes or heroines. They simply did what needed to be done and, in doing so, changed part of the world. Their determination, dedication and, sometimes, stubbornness made the difference. In that sense, perhaps there is a hero.com after all. For each of us can, if we choose, be a hero.

Obviously, the majority of people do not choose heroism. Most of us would rather complain than act. We would rather bemoan the injustices of life than strive to correct them. We would rather fume about the oppressions of big government than become politically active and work to correct those wrongs. We would rather lament that children today are not receiving a quality education than get elected to the school board and fight to improve education in our area.

The decision to be involved is, like heroism, a choice.

This special "Masonic Heroes" issue of the Scottish Rite Journal contains articles about persons who have chosen to make a difference, and that choice has made them heroes. They are, in many ways, people like us, with the same hopes, doubts, fears, and limitations. But they decided that something—righting a wrong, defending a nation, helping solve a problem—was more important to them than ease, the approval of friends, or even safety and survival. When they are driven by a dream, ordinary men and women do extraordinary things.

This, of course, is one of the great lessons of the Scottish Rite. In Degree after Degree, we are encouraged to honor duty for the sake of duty. We are told how important it is to put the needs of others ahead of our own. We are reminded that we come last, not first.

Yes, it is a choice. Sometimes I wish it weren’t. It would be much more comfortable to say, "I wish I could do something to help, but there’s nothing I can do." Heroes don’t say that—heroes just do it, and if you tell them there’s nothing they can do, they just don’t listen.

So there is a hero.com after all. You can find it in the Scottish Rite. You can find it wherever good and true men and women learn and understand that life is about giving, not taking, that we only keep what we give away, that the Fatherhood of God means every man and women on earth has a claim on each of us.

We can each become a handcrafted, unique hero.com—if we choose.