I am the founder of the Widows Sons of Texas. It is time for the HONEST truth about this organization and it's history. Our original by-laws clearly stated that we required our members to be Master Masons in good standing. During PGM Boyd Patterson's year, I was advised that we were in violation of Article 506.29 of the Grand Lodge Constitution which prohibited any Texas Mason to belong to any organization which predicates it's membership on being a Mason. Several discussions occurred between myself and members of the Committee on Juris Prudence. I sought their advice on how we might structure our by-laws in such a way as not to be in violation of Grand Lodge Law. It is important to point out that we had over 100 members at that time and were 16 months into building our membership. The long and short of it was that our only alternative was to open our membership to anyone and remove all Masonic references from our by-laws. Simply, we were abiding by the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Texas as we had sworn to do in our obligation. Now, the references made here regarding our website are valid with the following explanation. The website was constructed prior to the afformentioned incident and is a part of my personal Verizon account. It has never been updated because for some reason Verizon stopped providing that service and I have never been able to take it down because there is no access available. Sorry, but I have tried to correct that situation and am stuck at this point. Moving on to 2007. I am not certain as to the year but it was either 2005 or 2006, Grand Lodge passed an amendment to Article 225 which provided for organizations to offer Resolutions for recognition which would be kept on a list at the Grand Secretary's office. At least, this was how it was explained to me. Seeing this as our first opportunity to get our Masonic by-laws back in place, I conferred with Juris Prudence again on how to prepare the Resolution in "proper form". The total text of that Resolution was written for me by a member of Juris Prudence. It is important to state that Juris Prudence authored the Resolution because some of the content of that document is now being used against us. It was that document which identified us as the Widows Sons Masonic Motorcyle Riders and not the name in our existing by-laws at that time. Now, that is the name we were hoping to go to should we be recognized through this process. Lawyers, go figure. Everyone should be advised that we received recognition on the first vote to that Resolution. Unfortunately, I became sick and left after the vote. About two hours later, I was advised that there was a Motion to Reconsider the previous vote and because I was not present to defend the accusations presented, the original vote was overturned. The two objections were that our bylaws were open to anyone up to and including "the Ku Klux Klan, Bandidos, Hells Angels" etc and our logo depicted a "stripper dancing around a stripper pole". As to objection number one: We would have been in violation of Grand Lodge Constitution had our membership requirements been predicated on being a Mason as previously stated. Number two: You may argue that our logo is not to your liking; however, it is nowhere close to depicting a stripper dancing around a stripper pole. One final important point. In August or September prior to the 2007 Grand Lodge Communication, a group of Masons from Harris County petitioned me for a chapter charter in the Widows Sons. Long story short, they did not want to abide by the by-laws and rules of the organization and I obviously was not willing to give them free hand to do whatever they wanted to do. I POLITELY apologized to them and offered my assistance to get them in with another organization which might be able to accommodate their needs. I began to receive phone calls and emails from this group threatening to discredit us at Grand Lodge in December. After numerous pleas to my Brothers to not engage in that type of endeavor, I was assured that they would not follow through with their threat. The rest is history and the derogatory statements at Grand Lodge were made by a member of Holland Lodge. Take a guess as to what Lodge the majority of this group belonged to. You got it, Holland Lodge in Houston, Texas. Now you tell me who is acting against the teachings of the craft.
It is not my intention to disrupt "peace and harmony" within the Fraternity but right is right and the truth is the truth. Respectfully submitted for your consideration.