Traveling Freemason upset to discover lodge with no American flag

Like many Freemasons, Worshipful Brother John Gozer travels for business, and enjoys stopping in at lodges when he's out on the road. This past, week, however, a visit to a lodge left him confused and upset. He contacted The Past Bastard to let us know about it.

"We just opened up some new sales territory, and I was up there for a few days. I found a lodge that met right near my hotel, so I stopped in early to meet the members. They were all nice, very polite and welcoming. We had some snacks, the Master and the Tiler checked my dues card against the list, and we went up for the meeting. We opened, but something felt 'off,' if you catch my drift. I couldn't put my finger on it until partway into the meeting."

That's when WB Gozer realized that the lodge had not said the Pledge of Allegiance during the opening.

"At first I thought it was just an oversight, but after I settled in, I started really looking around. That's when I discovered that the lodge didn't even display the American flag. That was really disconcerting, you know? I mean, I've been visiting lodges all over the place for the last twenty years, and I've never run across that before. Sure, every lodge has different customs, but there are some things that you can't overlook, or it's not a masonic lodge, know what I mean?"

Though shaken, WB Gozer did not want to make a scene, and decided to not mention this oversight in front of the lodge.

"I mean, what was I gonna say, right? Sure, I was a little mad, but I didn't think it was my place to say anything. I will, however, write an email to my Grand Secretary and let him know, and maybe our Grand Master can let their Grand Lodge know that they've got lodges that aren't displaying the American flag at their meetings."

"Maybe the next time I'm in that sales territory I'll bring up a nice flag for them to properly display," WB Gozer added. "Or maybe I'll just have to hunt around for another lodge. I checked the Grand Lodge website, and there seemed to be a few others in Toronto that I can visit, instead."