september - Grand Encampment, Knights Templar

Sir Knight Palmer:
Letters to the Editor
In response to your question posed
in the March 2012 issue of Knight Templar
magazine, I have always been curious
as to why I have seldom if ever,
seen convincing evidence of a Commandery,
Grand Commandery, nor the
Grand Encampment for that matter, really
concerned about “feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked, and binding
up the wounds of the afflicted.” I have
seen laudable attempts to provide some
medical assistance through the Knights
Templar Eye Foundation, and in certain
locales, a Knight Templar home, but that
is as close as it comes in my experience.
Not that our good works should be glorified
above all else, but you seldom see
or read anything of such activity in the
Knight Templar magazine. In my opinion,
were we to focus on fulfilling that obligation
to which we have all sworn our allegiance,
the world would be far better
off and our words would mean far more
than praiseworthy rhetoric spoken in
ritual. That is what I would change.
Modernize our uniform to be more
meaningful to the modern age and
less archaic to the public from whom
we recruit.
And on your second subject...that of
a “Mission Statement”...
“Protection of the Defenseless” I know
we pledge this at our Knighting and it
is a part of our persona, but really, is
this a practical thing to invoke on our
Mission Statement?
How do they propose that we actually
do this? We are not a para-military organization,
and we are not social workers
per se. Has the world grown beyond
chivalry? Can you really take on such a
task, and what will be the outcome if
you do? Be careful what you claim, you
may have to own it.
Sir Knight Gen. Clinton Cagle
Burlington Commandery No. 50
Burlington, WI
Sincerely,
William E. Love, EPC
Trinity No. 80, Illinois
Sir Knight Managing Editor;
From your March Issue 2012, Volume
LVIII, number 3: “If I could change one
thing about the way we do Templary in
the U.S.”...
knight templar
Dear Sir Knight Palmer,
In response to your “poll” question in
March’s “Chat with The Managing Editor,”
I’d have to say that the one thing I’d
change is the Knight Templar uniform.
Compared with the timeless quality and
simplicity of the Masonic apron, the uniform
seems very, very outdated. I’d especially
ditch the chapeau. It costs hundreds
of dollars, it looks like something
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