| OCTOBER 17, 2012 -- It is now autumn in our communities, on our farms, and in our homes.
As we pause during this busy time of year, amidst the harvest and preserving our abundant harvest for winter, we are assaulted by the chaos of political commercials.
The messages in these announcements loudly seek to shake our sensibilities
and shape our vote.
It is also the season of elections in our Order.
Many Granges have elected new officers and installation of officers ceremonies are taking place at this time. The installing officer shares these noble words about our elected Grange officers, “Nor does our Order interfere with his religious or political views, but in morality it seeks the highest standard. Honesty is inculcated, education nurtured, temperance supported, brotherly love cultivated, and charity made an essential characteristic. Thus our Order binds us together in fraternity, and, by encouraging education, will advance to a higher state of perfection the science of agriculture.”
How different it might be if we could share this messages with those seeking public office in our community, state and federal governments.
Many politicians could take heed from these words in our Subordinate Grange Manual.
At the close of the installation of officers, we hear these closing words, “And now, Patrons, cherishing in our hearts every kind feeling toward all other orders and associations which seek to promote human welfare, let us strive with them, working hand in hand, for the good of our fellow beings. Let us remember that amid all that is bright and beautiful in Nature there is nothing that blooms with such unfading colors, there is no perfume on earth fraught with such fragrance, as the flowers of good works, and the sweet-smelling savor of that pity which feels for the wants and relieves the distresses of our Sisters and our Brothers.”
I encourage you to use the underlying principles or our Order to invite others in your community to join your Grange. Impress upon them our sense of local activism, while maintaining civility in the process of local governance. |
