Lessons from Tun Tavern

As we ponder and extend our appreciation this Veteran's Day to our generations of military veterans, let's look at a lesson we might take away from this year's annual tribute. What can we learn that might help our fraternity?

I wrote last year in my article "Freemasonry in a Changing Culture" about membership trends in masonry versus the trends of various fraternal organizations that are typically prominent in our many communities - particularly veterans' organizations such as The American Legion and the Veterans of the Foreign Wars of The United States. In my research I discovered that our fraternity is suffering in a similar manner from low "recruiting" numbers and declining memberships. In fact, because they actively and openly recruit and are suffering similar effects from recent generations that seem to be disinclined to join organizations, it may be likely that they are in worse shape than we believe our fraternity to be in.

But perhaps on this Veteran's Day of 2023 there is a shimmer of light for us. As we consider

our armed forces in terms of those who have served, and we look at the recruiting trends throughout the military today we find a growing crisis in recruiting similar to that of the veterans' organizations with our services failing to meet their annual recruiting goals - with one exception; the United States Marine Corps.

Masonic membership seems to be declining, college drop-out rates are soaring, fraternal organizations are in the midst of a nationwide recruiting crisis, and the USMC is hitting their recruiting goals - without lowering standards and while still turning away the unqualified. What are we to make of this? Is it a fluke? Not likely. The Marine Corps is 248 years old this year and they're still going strong, so what can this possibly mean? Here's what I think, I believe it's their very exclusivity and tough entrance standards that make them the most desirable of our armed services. They are open and they boast in their recruiting that not everyone can make it through the door and those that do find it challenging, tough, and for many, impossible to complete boot came to claim the title United States Marine.

What do you suppose the Marines know that we might be missing and what lessons might we learn from Tun Tavern? Let us ponder these questions and, while we do, lets wish a Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps and thank them for their ideals and their leadership that prohibit them from lowering their standards in the face of swirling societal and cultural forces that seem to be re-making our country in front of our eyes.

Travel on my brothers!

BroBill