Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
sive Masonic pathway that Hartung desired . This is reflected in Lane Startin ’ s comments on the GOUSA leadership , when he said that ‘ all they wanted to do was run a boys club and smoke cigars in their building [ the Halcyon building ]… they actively drove away anyone who didn ’ t share their Frat House mentality ’. Indeed , by 2011 , the Council of the Order included Jeff Peace , Tom Coste , Chris and Joel Michalek , Dale Brown , and a few others . However , the Executive Board seemed to have the same core members , with Peace , the Michalek brothers and Tom Coste all featuring as Board members , thus the leading Halcyon members formed part of the central core of the GOUSA leadership .
Years of being attacked on the internet had also began to take its toll , especially on John Slifko ( who had tried to distance himself from his GOUSA activities ) and in particular on Jeff Peace . The members of Halcyon Lodge had also been attacked on Masonic blogs and websites , and any attempt by GOUSA at expansion was met with ridicule and a barrage of anti-GOU- SA publicity by regular Masons . After Peavy ’ s and Slifko ’ s exit , the anti-GOU- SA lobby had developed a stance of exploiting the infighting and mistrust that had supposedly developed in the organization , and according to Slifko , he had approached Ed King and Chris Hodapp in an effort to remove himself from the melee . Peavy also stated that he had contacted Ed King after he had left in an effort to straighten out the truth . The atmosphere was not well in the GOUSA camp , and after Tamayo informed the GOdF about the issues within GOUSA and how they had given up on the democratic process , the GOdF decided to pull its Charter and wrote a letter informing the Masonic world of their decision on the 29 th August 2011 . 27
As Slifko indicates :
‘ The Grand Orient wrote a public letter to tell the world about the Charter being pulled . And he [ Peace ] would not return it to France . I tried to tell France they would never see that Charter again . The Grand Orient and Jean Francois Mefort in Washington DC finally stopped asking for the Charter .’
The various members that were interviewed refused to comment on the current whereabouts of the Charter , although John Slifko did have a full-size copy . As Chris Michalek states ‘ GOU- SA was being pulled in different directions and there had been some radical changes . The Grand Orient in Paris was
27 The letter from the GOdF indicating its Treaty of Amity was nullified was not sent to the Officers of GOUSA , it was posted publically online and quickly spread around the internet . In response to the public letter from the GOdF , GOUSA issued their own letter dated 1st October 2011 , which not only questioned the manner in which the GOdF issued their letter , but declared that the Treaty of Amity between the two bodies was to be nullified , even though the GOdF had already nullified it . The GOUSA letter however , claimed that the GOdF , in publishing the letter , had violated Article 8 and 9 of the Treaty , and had not given due notice of their intention to nullify the Treaty . I was not informed if there was any reply . The GOUSA letter was supplied by Jeff Peace .
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