I’m usually one of the first to rail against the media in our State for reporting on the news only from the Utah Connection. I do so because it is cheap and lazy and divisive.

And yet, here I am writing a letter based on the Masonic connection, and to prove a point I’ve previously made. I don’t know how to reconcile that, but I still despise the Utah connection.

We lost two Brothers yesterday. We would never be able to sit in Lodge with them, but to their murders our sovereign differences matter not. They were Freemasons, and that is all that mattered. For that reason, amongst the other obligations we have taken, the bonds of our Craft extend into their hearts and make us one band of friends and Brothers with them.

They died because Masonry means something. They died because the obligations we take are real. They died because our principles and our efforts against the oppression of man’s heart and mind are real. They died because they committed their lives, their fortunes, and their honor to liberty of conscience. They died because they believed that someone else’s life and dreams are equal to their own.

They died because they were Freemasons.