craving

Bro. Harris, this is my first post here, but I feel I must post as you have moved me. I am a newly raised Master Mason in the Prince Hall Lodge. Before becoming a Mason, I never knew of the struggle between "regular" Masons and Prince Hall Masons. I am an inquisitive person by nature, so after becoming a Mason I felt I needed to do even more reseach than I did before joining. I have seen this issue debated ad nauseum, and agree with you. I have Brothers of all races and religions in my lodge, to include white, latino, slavic, african, and european. I had five cable tows that were white, one was a Buddist. Their color or religion never came into play, we were simply Brothers linked by a common goal-to better ourselves and become Master Masons. I am proud to say that we all made it and we are all the better for it. I have made friendships that will last a lifetime with these men whom I now call Brother. This issue you speak of tears at my heart. It goes against everything being a Mason stands for, as you so rightly put it. I am not sure I should speak on this, being a new Mason, but I feel that more people must speak out against this or it will only continue to be the status quo. If we as MAsons sit back and do nothing then we have failed, failed as men, failed as Masons, and failed human beings. I too haved deceided that I will stand up and speak out against this, from my side as well. There are some Prince Hall Masons that feel they do not want to be "included" with other groups of Masons, the reasonong being "if they don't want us, then we don't want them". This too is simply wrong. I have had a conversation with an older Master MAson with this opinion and I simply asked him, "doesn't that go against everything we are taught as Masons?" He had no real answer other than, "just give it a few years, you will see what I am talking about." I don't want to give it a few years, I want to address it right now, whenever it shows it's ugly head. This must be stopped. We must do our part if we expect others to do the same. All it takes is one to start, thne it will spread like a fire, from one Brother to the next and befoe you know it this issue will be a non-issue, something future Masons can look back on with disbelief and say, "can you believe that's how things used to be?"