Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, 33°, Grand Cross
President, The George Washington University
2121 Eye Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

Tonight's Gala Banquet, at which I have the honor to serve as Master of Ceremonies, has a special distinction: the fact that it is the last Biennial Session Gala Banquet before we find ourselves immersed in the 21st century. We probably underestimate the amount of soul-searching that's underway right now in our nation and our world. The end of a millennium can so easily be read as the departure of one's hopes. The beginning of a new millennium can be seen, just as easily, as the dawn of a bright new tomorrow. Whatever the effect may be in a particular case, this is the perfect moment for people to ask themselves questions about who they really are and what they really believe.

In the Scottish Rite, we can face the new millennium with certain confidence. Our membership in this group says to the world that we share an ideal of service where our fellow human beings are concerned. We represent the ideal which says that human organization can serve the needs of the other members of our species, all of whom are precious to us.

We live at an amazing moment in time, the moment when we are developing a truly global consciousness. The remarkable fact is that human beings whose parents were utter aliens to each other short years ago now look and feel like cousins to each other.

The traditions of the Scottish Rite encourage us to pay attention to this dramatic human development. Our tradition is that of a shared belief without ethnic or religious divisions. The new world now being built all around us will be one that Freemasons can uniquely appreciate!

This article consists of remarks by Ill. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, 33°, G.C., as Master of Ceremonies, introducing the Supreme Council's 1999 Biennial Session Gala Banquet on Tuesday, October 5, 1999.
  Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
is President of The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and a Professor there of Public Administration. A member of Benjamin B. French Lodge No. 15 and the Scottish Rite Bodies of Washington, D.C., he has been instrumental in expanding the Scottish Rite Scholarship Program at GWU. For his outstanding service, he was invested a K.C.C.H. in 1991, coroneted a 33° in 1993, and elected a Grand Cross in 1997.