C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander

If you would realize just how fortunate we are as Americans, consider the plight of the people of Kosovo.

Photograph of stairs ©Maxwell MacKenzie, Washington, D.C.
Each year, the Supreme Council sends a beautiful calendar to every member of the Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, and to many friends of our Order. The 1999 calendar’s cover features the massive bust of President and Brother George Washington in the gardens of the House of the Temple, and the photograph for the month of July shows the turning of the Grand Staircase as it ascends from the Atrium to the Temple Room in the House of the Temple in Washington, D.C.

The turning of the stair is a fitting image for July, the month we most associate with patriotism. For the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the founding of the United States of America, was in every sense, a turning of the stairs.
Until then, the history of the world had followed a more or less straight line—a set of variations on a theme. But then, in Europe, the Enlightenment movement of the Eighteenth Century grew from a tiny spark to a glowing coal, to a roaring flame, casting new light on man’s social, religious, intellectual, and political status. And Masonry was at the forefront of that movement. Margaret Jacob has traced the importance of Masonry to the spread of the Enlightenment in Europe in her book Living the Enlightenment. Steven Bullock, in Revolutionary Brotherhood, has shown the importance of Masonry in the founding of the United States. Both books should be a “must read” for all Masons.

The Enlightenment brought new ideas into the world. They seem commonplace and obvious to us now—we are, after all, children of the Enlightenment—but they were truly revolutionary at the time.

Paraphrased, among these ideas were the following: Man has both the right and the ability to control his own destiny. No one has the right to tell anyone else what to think or believe. The right to govern comes not from divine right but from the consent of those being governed. Each person has the right to meet with others any time and any place he wishes. Each person has a right to an opinion and to express that opinion, even if it is contrary to the wishes of government, the teachings of the church, or the values of the others. The state is the servant of the people—the people are not the servant of the state. Anyone can own and read any books he wishes. Every person has a right to security in his or her home.

We hardly need to think about those great ideas. They are so much a part of our daily lives and experiences that we simply accept them as “the way things are.” Recent events, however, tell us that things are not that way, at least not everywhere. If you would realize just how fortuna

It seems that the stair is turning again, and turning toward an inhuman cruelty we thought had passed forever into history. But there are some turnings of the stair that history cannot be allowed to take.

And should you ever doubt that the teachings of the Scottish Rite are important to the world today—pressingly, desperately relevant—consider Kosovo. If you doubt that there is still need in the world for dedicated and informed men to champion toleration and political freedom and the rights of men and women to be secure in their own homes, again consider Kosovo. Freedom is never free. But the loss of freedom costs more than anyone can afford.

The world stands, again, at the turning of the stair. And now, as always, we will need patriots to guard the stair and keep nations free.