Latest / Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries / Episode 48. Be the Change (ft. Ty Schmidt)

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Episode 48. Be the Change (ft. Ty Schmidt) · Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries

• 0:00
  Hi everyone.
• 0:00
  Welcome back to another episode of Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries.
• 0:04
  My guest today was born in Detroit lakes, Minnesota.
• 0:08
  His family moved to Audubon.
• 0:10
  That's five miles West of DL when he was about three, he grew up there and attended school.
• 0:15
  I looked up online.
• 0:16
  Audubon has a population of about 400.
• 0:20
  His dad was a member of the Detroit Lakes Police Department, served as a patrol officer, then detective.
• 0:25
  Eventually retired as a captain.
• 0:27
  Mom was a school secretary.
• 0:30
  After graduation, our guest attended the U S air force academy where he excelled militarily, but perhaps not so much academically for a couple of years.
• 0:38
  I can relate.
• 0:38
  We'll get to that, He then attended Metropolitan State University in Denver for a year before transferring back home and finishing college at Moorhead State, graduating with a B.
• 0:47
  A.
• 0:47
  In criminal justice and a minor in poli sci.
• 0:50
  He spent a total of around seven years in college, but somehow didn't become a doctor.
• 0:54
  We have so much in common on that front.
• 0:57
  Got married in 1995 has a stepdaughter and a son.
• 1:01
  His Hard to believe a second grandchild on the way.
• 1:04
  Welcome brother.
• 1:04
  Ty Schmidt.
• 1:06
  Thanks Reed.
• 1:06
  It's really great to be here today.
• 1:07
  Thanks for having me.
• 1:08
  It's my pleasure.
• 1:09
  And I'd still like to think of both you and me in like a, I don't know, 30 to 35 demographic second grandkid on the way.
• 1:17
  How exciting.
• 1:18
  Oh, it's fantastic.
• 1:19
  You became a Mason in 2017 at Nelson Lodge.
• 1:23
  That's in Buffalo, Minnesota.
• 1:24
  A monitor on the first degree in 2019, and then added the second and third degree by last February.
• 1:31
  All right.
• 1:31
  Thanks, Mr.
• 1:32
  Overachiever.
• 1:32
  That is tremendous.
• 1:34
  You served as master of your lodge in 2023 became a district rep in district nine earlier this year.
• 1:41
  I don't even know where to start today.
• 1:43
  Perhaps, why don't we dive in your first law enforcement job that was May of the early 90's, correct?
• 1:48
  Yeah, 1991.
• 1:50
  It was kind of an unusual beginning.
• 1:52
  Most people in law enforcement come in as a patrol officer.
• 1:56
  They work, you know, 5 to 7 years.
• 1:59
  And then, you know, maybe work into narcotics or investigations or something along those lines.
• 2:03
  Uh, the group that I worked for actually started us directly into undercover narcotics work.
• 2:10
  So at 24 years old, it was, it was incredibly exciting to go out and, uh, we worked, it was in North Dakota.
• 2:17
  We worked, uh, the five counties, the whole Southeast corner of the state, one county in Minnesota, and kind of unofficially into South Dakota sometimes also.
• 2:25
  we got to do a lot of great things.
• 2:27
  You know, we, the National Guard Counterdrug Unit had helicopters that had to fly, I think we've heard this a lot.
• 2:33
  We have so many missions every year.
• 2:34
  And we were one of the busier drug task forces.
• 2:36
  in the state.
• 2:37
  And so, if we needed a helicopter, we got a helicopter.
• 2:39
  If we didn't need a helicopter, they probably still sent us a helicopter.
• 2:42
  So we were in helicopters.
• 2:43
  We were on horses.
• 2:44
  We were on canoes.
• 2:45
  We were all over the place.
• 2:46
  And it was a great job for somebody at that age to jump into and really get your feet wet.
• 2:53
  And so, I did primarily undercover work for about the first year and a half.
• 2:57
  and then after that conducted more.
• 3:10
  This one was a little different in that instead of pairing you up with a confidential informant who makes an introduction, then if an officer is going to actually make the drug buys, that's how it generally works.
• 3:23
  They got the drug task force members jobs in the local communities and you really went out and made your own connections.
• 3:29
  I was not one of the original members of the task force.
• 3:31
  That task force had started in January.
• 3:34
  I came in in May and the way they brought me in was they paired me up with a female agent.
• 3:39
  And, uh, I was just her boyfriend from Fargo who came down.
• 3:43
  And so we just kind of went out and started doing our thing.
• 3:46
  So you're assigned to North Dakota, which initially wouldn't sound like the drug mecca.
• 3:51
  It's not like you're in a highly populated urban area, but I would imagine with what, meth and A lot of drug challenges going on in some of the states that are less populated.
• 4:01
  Yeah, I tell people all the time no matter where you live Uh, your police department is a lot busier than you think it is.
• 4:08
  Uh, there's a lot of things going on that the general public just never really becomes aware of and generally they're happier that way.
• 4:14
  Uh, but there was always a lot going on and, you know, some of it was, uh, was native to that area.
• 4:20
  Some of it was people that were traveling through.
• 4:22
  but, uh, we were actually one of the busiest task forces in the state at that time.
• 4:26
  had Fargo nearby, Bismarck as a much larger area.
• 4:30
  Grand Forks was a bigger area than we were, but, uh, but our task force was, uh, incredibly active.
• 4:35
  I can't imagine being 24 years old and assigned on that.
• 4:38
  That is, that had to be way better than having been in the military and sitting out on a post someplace.
• 4:43
  You were really in the thick of it as a young man.
• 4:45
  it was a lot of fun.
• 4:47
  And you know, at 24, you're bulletproof.
• 4:48
  Yes.
• 4:49
  And so you would do things that you would never do later in life.
• 4:52
  at that time, our task force was run by a North Dakota BCI agent, which is the same as Minnesota's BCA.
• 5:01
  But he hadn't worked narcotics since the early 70s.
• 5:04
  And he'd been a criminal guy, a criminal and a SWAT guy his entire career.
• 5:07
  And so he came back to narcotics.
• 5:09
  I don't know that we were operating in the safest manner, and maybe not according to best practices at the time, because I did a lot of undercover work by myself, wearing a wire with just a recorder unit in the trunk of my car, and nobody else around for backup.
• 5:27
  And I was padded down for wires while I was wearing them.
• 5:29
  I had people trying to get me into vans and take me out into the countryside after, uh, after we had burned off one of our agents.
• 5:36
  and By trying to, uh, to flip an informant and, uh, in situations that, you know, you, you really probably shouldn't have been in, but at the time, again, being young and energetic and bulletproof, you think you can do all of these things.
• 5:49
  And fortunately it all worked out first to volunteer because to your point 24, what, what could go wrong?
• 5:54
  Um, I'll be fine.
• 5:56
  So in the mid nineties, you returned to Minnesota and went to work for the Champlain police department.
• 6:00
  You started in patrol over the years.
• 6:03
  about being a police officer?
• 6:04
  Firearms and defensive tactics instructor, a SWAT officer investigator patrol sergeant deputy chief finished your career the end of May of last year.
• 6:14
  as the chief of police for a number of years, I wish we had three hours to talk about all of those things.
• 6:20
  But any highlights that come to mind in SWAT or patrol sergeant or any of the any number of all of that experience.
• 6:29
  Um, When I think back on, on my law enforcement career, people ask me this all the time, they're like, well, how much do you miss it?
• 6:36
  And, and honestly, the, the administrative duties, all, most of the chief stuff, the work itself, I don't really miss that much, but I do miss some of the real police work that I got to do when I was younger and earlier in my career.
• 6:52
  And actually, you know, and not just the exciting stuff, not just the police chases and the, and the arrests and the warrants and the, you know, we do high risk entries on the SWAT team and things like that.
• 7:02
  mean, that was all exciting, but, you know, I missed the camaraderie that you really develop with the people that you work with.
• 7:12
  I, I compare this to masonry a lot.
• 7:13
  Um, and I compare, or I, I tell people that, Masonry is probably the best organization for anyone that ever came from being a first responder or serving the military, because of those relationships.
• 7:28
  Now they're different, but I, I miss a lot of that and the real impact that you could have on people's lives.
• 7:35
  And sometimes it's just little things like, um, like responding to medical calls.
• 7:39
  I remember I had one where a little girl that I, I'd become acquainted with through a couple calls that I, I'd been on, uh, was crossing Highway 169 on her bicycle, got hit by a car doing 60 miles an hour.
• 7:50
  And amazingly, and this is something else you find out in, in law enforcement is, the times that you think people are going to be dead, a lot of times they're just fine.
• 7:59
  and then the times that you think they're going to be just fine, it's fatal.
• 8:02
  but she came out of this just fine, but I remember, yeah, I'd already had that connection with her and, and to be the one there to help her, after that happened, that, that was meaningful to me.
• 8:11
  when people come into law enforcement, 99.
• 8:14
  9 of them come in for the right reasons.
• 8:16
  And they are there to help, they're there to make a difference.
• 8:19
  the challenge for the people in law enforcement is after enough things happen and you see enough things throughout the course of your career and you get treated certain ways by certain people.
• 8:28
  And that's where the challenge lies is keeping people motivated to go out and still do their job We're going to treat people well, we're going to try to treat people right, but we have a job to do, and we are still here to protect all of those other people who are victims of crimes.
• 8:43
  What influence would you say that Freemasonry has had in your experience What do you think about some of the things that you've experienced during law enforcement, whether just the day to day, the maybe an incident and you'd mentioned that earlier that there's that overlap with having been a first responder, a police officer, maybe the military.
• 9:03
  There's some parallels with Friendship, brotherhood, a sense of camaraderie and closeness.
• 9:07
  What are your thoughts on that?
• 9:08
  part of the reason I got into masonry when I did, and honestly, like many people will say, I wish I would have done it 20 years before I did.
• 9:15
  Um, I had thought about masonry for a long, long time.
• 9:18
  I had a couple family members, uh, who were masons, um, not when I was young, but a little bit later in life.
• 9:25
  I had, uh, friends that I met, in the law enforcement profession who were masons.
• 9:30
  And, you know, the thing that they all had in common was they were all great guys.
• 9:34
  They were some of the best people that I knew.
• 9:36
  Um, and so I thought about it for a long time, but, you know, never really pulled the trigger.
• 9:40
  No law enforcement pun intended there.
• 9:42
  I saw what you did with that.
• 9:43
  That was nice.
• 9:44
  but when I, uh, you know, when I finally came in, I didn't become a Mason until the same year that I became the chief of police.
• 9:50
  So I wish I would have had more of that influence earlier on, but one of the things that I had recognized earlier in my career was that in law enforcement, it's really common for social networks to really close in.
• 10:03
  You know, it, it starts off as, you know, I'm, I'm here, I'm a cop, I want to help everybody, I want to fix everybody, and then after five to seven years, you're like, Huh, you know, a lot of those people really aren't all that great, and I don't really like a lot of them, because every time I go there, everybody lies to me, there's all this stuff going on.
• 10:18
  And then, so then it's kind of an us versus them.
• 10:21
  And then after a while, it closes in even farther.
• 10:23
  Now it's, you know, us patrol guys, we're all cool.
• 10:26
  But those investigators, you know, they just, they don't do what they're supposed to do and they don't follow up on our cases.
• 10:32
  And then it becomes, well, you know, my night shift is really cool, but those day guys, they're kind of old guys and they're kind of loads and they don't really do much.
• 10:39
  And so you kind of see a lot of this progression through the career.
• 10:41
  And hopefully most people come out the other side of that and kind of expand back out.
• 10:46
  But I saw a need early on to have connections outside of law enforcement.
• 10:52
  And so, you know, one of the things I did, my wife and I used to ballroom dance for a while.
• 10:55
  That was part of why we did that.
• 10:57
  and so, uh, so you get to meet a lot of people in different walks of life, and, and, uh, people you wouldn't normally meet.
• 11:02
  but so, as I was getting closer to retirement, and, uh, and I knew that by the time I became chief, I didn't have that many years left.
• 11:08
  I wanted something to kind of replace that camaraderie that I had in the police department that I had.
• 11:14
  And so that was part of why I got into masonry when I did.
• 11:17
  and as I said, I wish I would have done it much sooner because a lot of the lessons of masonry really, really fit well in law enforcement, such as, well, you take people that are, you know, really in any, any type of first responder and you know, we're all the kind of people that are there.
• 11:39
  Trying to make the world better for the people that we encounter.
• 11:44
  Um, for cops, a lot of it's our focus on our victims.
• 11:46
  We really want to try to do what we can for them and make things better for them.
• 11:50
  paramedics, they're, you know, they're taking care of you more physically, but, you know, and the firefighters, the same kind of thing.
• 11:56
  They're there to try to mitigate whatever damage can but those are the kinds of people that come into these careers.
• 12:03
  And so masonry just fits so well with that because, our lessons about brotherly love and relief and truth, those all fit into all of those professions, you know, all of those first responders are there to provide relief, um, in, in one form or another, people get into those professions because they care about the, uh, about the people around them.
• 12:25
  and certainly truth has a lot to do with, you know, police work.
• 12:28
  And I say every time on this episode, on these episodes, truth speaks for itself.
• 12:32
  Yeah.
• 12:32
  Right.
• 12:33
  so I just think a lot of that is, is already, these are already the kind of people that feel the same way.
• 12:41
  A lot of Mason's feel.
• 12:42
  if you look back into, uh, you will find annual reports, uh, from the Champlain police department that say things like.
• 12:49
  times change and circumstances, but virtue and duty remain the same, and in department meetings and, and trying to keep our police officers motivated and, and trying to get them to focus on, on really what's important, the lessons of masonry are, are really helpful in that.
• 13:07
  And I wish I would have had it when I was still.
• 13:10
  Working as like a patrol sergeant where you're working with a bunch of young cops and you're actually out there on the street with them, uh, doing all of those normal interactions that they have.
• 13:19
  And you get, because that's when you really get the opportunity to, to talk to them and to really mentor them.
• 13:24
  Uh, you know, when you become the chief, you're a little bit separated.
• 13:27
  Um, so I wish I would've had the opportunity to share some of those Masonic lessons earlier in my career than what I did.
• 13:33
  You touched on something about the, where the majority of the people that you knew.
• 13:38
  And still know that join law enforcement, become a first responder of some variety.
• 13:45
  It sounds very much of a, correct me if I'm wrong, but I hear that as it's servant leadership.
• 13:50
  It's the giver's heart.
• 13:52
  It's wanting to be a positive force.
• 13:55
  And I always think of officer Jamal Mitchell, and that was his intent when he decided to be the change.
• 14:02
  As we look back with 2020 hindsight, is it possible that if anything particularly positive came out of some of the incendiary situations of the last handful of years with law enforcement that perhaps there's been a call to people that have the heart Um, and I'm not sure if there are people out there like that of say, like of a Jamal Mitchell or of yourself or the people that you know that I want to be a force for good change.
• 14:30
  An influence in a in a positive way serving as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, paramedic, what have you?
• 14:37
  Yeah, that that is absolutely happened.
• 14:40
  You get the people coming in that have that same type of belief they want to be.
• 14:43
  that is engaging not just a positive force in their society, but a positive force within those police departments and within those professions, and we're certainly seeing that now and honestly as scrutinized as the profession is right now and as hard of a job as it's become um I have the utmost respect for all of these young people that are coming in right now.
• 15:07
  you're getting people coming in who are much more committed.
• 15:09
  Now, unfortunately, it's a much smaller number, so it's a lot harder to fill those positions.
• 15:13
  Um, I'm not going to go into too much detail on this, but those who are coming in right now are really dedicated to the profession and really dedicated to upholding the ideals that go along with that it's probably a cliche and.
• 15:25
  It's a, it's a recurring theme for so many.
• 15:27
  If we get back to the topic of Freemasonry of, I wish I had joined sooner in life for, and you shared some interesting perspective on where that was for you.
• 15:36
  However, everything in our lives happens timeline wise for a reason.
• 15:41
  And you have served in quite a rockstar capacity in the time that you have with your.
• 15:47
  I wanna put this in a, in a term, a little more relatable for Anon Mason, who's listen, who listens to our podcast, that you're proficient in the ritual very, very much.
• 15:56
  You've learned all of it, and it becomes certified in that you're also a district rep.
• 16:01
  You're involved at the, the Grand Lodge.
• 16:02
  You're contributing to a greater Masonic mission outside of your home lodge.
• 16:07
  How has that been so far?
• 16:09
  It's been really interesting.
• 16:10
  It, it's fun.
• 16:11
  challenging at the same time, but I'm really enjoying getting out there and really getting to know more of these brothers and these lodges where I maybe knew one or two, but I didn't know very many of them.
• 16:21
  as you know, as the district rep, you can't really solve their problems for them.
• 16:25
  Um, the lodge needs to solve their problems.
• 16:28
  But, you know, you provide resources and you provide additional ideas and you're there to support them and help them in whatever way you can.
• 16:35
  to become a more successful lodge.
• 16:37
  And whether that's in membership or whether that's to get better at ritual.
• 16:40
  I'm very happy when they, when they ask for ritual help because I love our ritual.
• 16:44
  And so, if that's their issue, I'm their guy, everything else, I'm just going to try to sort it out the best I can as all the rest of us do.
• 16:50
  If you don't have the answer, you know, the person who might, or he can refer them on to another resource, that's such a huge.
• 16:58
  Perhaps overlooked components of even in our work, our usual advocation corporate setting, even, but especially in a volunteer organization.
• 17:06
  Leadership's not always about having all the answers all the time.
• 17:10
  Leadership is influence.
• 17:11
  It's encouragement and it's listening.
• 17:14
  I've always found you to be an exceptional listener.
• 17:17
  And take in all of the information that must be your obviously your professional background coming into play.
• 17:22
  that's a very.
• 17:23
  Important skill and quality and attribute to have, especially in this day, the world we live in now, where we're trying to, we talk over each other.
• 17:33
  We're so eager to just everything's so fast.
• 17:35
  Everything is such a rapid fire pace all of the time.
• 17:39
  What advice would you give a brother Mason, who's thinking about getting involved beyond their lodge setting, whether that's pursuing, well, it could be a number of different things.
• 17:49
  Yeah, I would say it depends on what their interest is.
• 17:52
  There are a lot of things that you can do.
• 17:54
  There's appended bodies.
• 17:55
  You can get more involved, whether it be at a Grand Lodge level, as a district representative or a monitor.
• 18:01
  really what, you know, it depends on what interests you.
• 18:04
  If you are into the ritual, we need monitors, and we need people that are really going to dedicate the time and the effort To learn our ritual because our ritual is the heart of what we are as masons, and our lessons are contained in our ritual.
• 18:18
  I hear people talk a lot about, um, what it means to be a mason.
• 18:22
  And, argue with brothers, and I don't mean that in a negative way.
• 18:25
  I mean, I have a spirited discussion.
• 18:27
  but what it comes down to is if you don't know what our ritual says, do you really know what we're about?
• 18:32
  and so, if that's something that you're interested in, by all means, we need people that do that.
• 18:36
  And you can certainly start small.
• 18:38
  when I first became a monitor, my intention wasn't to become a monitor.
• 18:41
  I, you know, made it through my proficiency, and I thought, oh, I guess I can kind of do this memorization thing.
• 18:47
  It went pretty well.
• 18:48
  and I thought, well, you know what, I want to memorize one lecture.
• 18:51
  Because we didn't have anybody in my lodge that knew the third section of the EA lecture.
• 18:55
  So I thought, I'm going to try to memorize that, and I did.
• 18:59
  And after I got that done, I thought, you know, I bet I could do the rest of this degree too.
• 19:03
  And so it just kind of snowballed from there.
• 19:05
  And so, you know, take a piece at a time.
• 19:07
  If you're interested, learn a lecture.
• 19:09
  Learn a role in a degree.
• 19:11
  if that's not your thing, and you want to, um, kind of broaden your Masonic knowledge, you know, look at going to the Royal Arch.
• 19:19
  Look at going to the Scottish Rite.
• 19:21
  there are so many things you can become involved with, uh, within masonry.
• 19:26
  you know, one of the cliches you hear said is, uh, in masonry, it, you don't get out of it what you put into it, you get out of it way more than what you put into it.
• 19:34
  And that is absolutely true.
• 19:36
  It's absolutely true.
• 19:37
  I want to share one, one little story from while I was still working as a, as the police chief.
• 19:42
  When we were going through the Kim Potter incident and You know, threats to burn down the house, and that sort of thing, and we were monitoring all of these, um, all the protests, uh, online, and, you know, we spent, I think I was working 16, 18 hour days in our emergency operations center.
• 20:00
  my lodge, uh, came to my house, did all my yard work.
• 20:03
  and then, because we were working so many people, you know, it was really an all hands on deck at our department at the time, Um, and not just our department, we had three other police departments staged at our building, rapid response forces, uh, mobile field forces so that they could go out and help, uh, in case things did happen at the house.
• 20:21
  And so, um, while that was going on, my lodge came in and, uh, bought about 600 worth of groceries, and then a bunch of our wives did something similar.
• 20:30
  So we had, we had so much food in that place because people really didn't take time to leave.
• 20:35
  Uh, the officers that were on the scene couldn't, uh, you know, couldn't really leave their squad cars.
• 20:39
  And so, they were making bag lunches and sending them out with everybody.
• 20:43
  but my lodge went way over and above what I ever expected they would do.
• 20:47
  and that's just with the little bit of time that I had spent there and, and being involved.
• 20:52
  And these guys were willing to come out and do all of that.
• 20:54
  there are, there are times when that lodge will be there for you.
• 20:57
  And those brothers are going to be there for you.
• 20:59
  in ways that are way more than what you probably really deserve.
• 21:02
  We talk a lot about our core values on this podcast and we hear a reference made frequently the tenets of our profession.
• 21:11
  That's our core values, brotherly love, friendship, connection, relief.
• 21:16
  We talked about that a lot today again of helping those in need, seeing and identifying someone who has an issue, needs a resource.
• 21:26
  What a tremendous story.
• 21:27
  And you didn't ask for that.
• 21:29
  You didn't stop and say, Hey everybody, stop what you're doing.
• 21:32
  Help us.
• 21:33
  It just happened.
• 21:34
  And it's a beautiful thing.
• 21:36
  In my role, I often get asked as a lead in question, Well, what do you guys do?
• 21:40
  You're Freemasons, what's the point?
• 21:42
  And sometimes as an organization, we answer that as, Well, we make good men better.
• 21:49
  Or, we're a group of like minded men who do the following things.
• 21:54
  I want to get into that a little bit better.
• 21:56
  Because, first of all, I Well, we make good men better.
• 22:00
  And it's, it's such a abstract phrase to me.
• 22:03
  We are committed, yes, to becoming a better version of ourselves, but that's through a journey, a personal journey and accompanied by our friends and brothers and family.
• 22:13
  But we don't make good men better by simply proclamation or saying, welcome to our organization.
• 22:18
  I now declare and hail you as being a better version of you or the, the like minded thing I get tripped up on because.
• 22:28
  To me like minded sounds like we all think and act the same or we have some ideology that we Have this allegiance to but it really is quite the opposite of that if there's how about we have a thread that binds us of a commitment to core values of Servant leadership or of the giver's heart or owning the kindness space in Life at home at work or outside in art We're not like minded.
• 22:58
  We, in fact, we're very different.
• 23:00
  We are an organization of men who profess a belief in a supreme being.
• 23:06
  As a result of that, our members are Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Deists.
• 23:12
  Very different.
• 23:13
  A huge difference in disparity of backgrounds and where we've all come from.
• 23:19
  But we do embrace and have that thread that binds us of Maybe the golden rule is that, what's your take on this?
• 23:27
  I want to unpack this with you.
• 23:29
  All right.
• 23:29
  So I think you've hit that right on the head because that, uh, the like minded term, I've never really liked that.
• 23:36
  It kind of puts me off a little bit.
• 23:38
  because it implies that we, as you said, that we all have the same beliefs that we all think the same way.
• 23:45
  And one of the great things about masonry is that we don't, you meet brothers from every walk of life.
• 23:50
  Um, every political view, every religious view, and the great thing about masonry is even with all of those differences, we commit to treating each other as brothers and to still have those relationships.
• 24:03
  I've been in some pretty spirited discussions at the Scottish Rite where guys were on completely opposite ends of the spectrum on whatever the topic happened to be.
• 24:13
  But at the end of the day, we're all still brothers and we all still treat each other well.
• 24:18
  And we put that first and we make sure that we all know that that's far more important than what our differences are.
• 24:23
  What binds us is way more important than what divides us.
• 24:27
  so, yeah, I, I agree.
• 24:28
  I think, and when I see that in print, it worries me a little bit when we talk about people wanting to come into the fraternity.
• 24:34
  worry that people will see that and like, well, what does like minded mean?
• 24:37
  Is it, at worst case scenario, is it some kind of a cult thing?
• 24:40
  best case scenario, maybe it just means that they think differently than I do and I'm not going to fit in.
• 24:45
  So I, I worry a little bit about that terminology.
• 24:47
  certainly we are like minded in the sense that we all want a better world.
• 24:53
  We all want a better place.
• 24:54
  We all want.
• 24:55
  to really have that fraternal relationship with each other.
• 24:59
  So in that case it's true, but I just think we have to be a little careful with that.
• 25:03
  We are apolitical, we are non sectarian, and that's how we've stayed in business for hundreds of years.
• 25:11
  Yes, our members still have their convictions, their opinions, their feelings, but if we're doing this right, we are not Um, let's just, uh, focus on our differences only, and that's really the way of the world these days.
• 25:24
  Let's just focus on our differences, be divisive, and then ground and pound until somebody wins or calls a truce, it's such a refreshing place to go, to lodge, to Scottish Rite, to the number of different Masonic, parts of the Masonic family that we might be involved in.
• 25:43
  we have a lot of differences.
• 25:45
  Yes, but sometimes we fail to acknowledge that we have a lot more in common than we realize, because we're surrounded by this world that is just focused on differences and extrapolating our opponents and just getting into that octagon on a daily basis, whether it's social media Freemasonry is such a gift where we can get together, get to know each other as friends, as brothers, knowing that we do have differences, but we can still respect and love and show kindness to one another after all of that.
• 26:18
  How in the world do we go about getting back to that in the world today?
• 26:22
  Is it, is it up to us to be the change, to be the starting point of that?
• 26:25
  Or where, where does this fit into the bigger scheme?
• 26:27
  if it doesn't start with us, where is it going to start?
• 26:30
  And, yeah, everybody has their own responsibility to make the change that they want to see.
• 26:38
  And, At this time, you hear it all the time, there's no better time, or there's been no other time where Freemasonry is more needed than it is right now.
• 26:47
  And it's interesting because that's come up several times throughout history, where people think this is the most divided we could ever possibly be and now we need Masonry.
• 26:55
  But here we are again, very polarized, uh, politically, ideologically, and this is the time where we really need Masonry.
• 27:02
  And I think that's our duty, it's our core values are to really be that change and to be the people that we want to see others be in this world and we can't change somebody else, all we can do is start with ourselves.
• 27:23
  And if we make that change and we make that effort.
• 27:27
  To go out and treat others well.
• 27:31
  I thought the, uh, the three young masons you had on, uh, I think it was the last episode or maybe two episodes ago, did an excellent job of explaining how they felt about this and they hit it right on the head.
• 27:42
  if we just do the little things, you know, the opening doors, the greet people with a smile, all of those things could have an exponential result if we do that as Masons, and at this time when Masonry is really needed.
• 27:56
  If we don't need to go out and pontificate to others, but if we just be who we are supposed to be, in your Grand Lodge oration, I thought that was a great topic.
• 28:06
  Are we who we say we are?
• 28:08
  And if we behave as the people who we say we are, that's going to have a positive influence on those around us, and a ripple effect that can help much farther down the road than what we probably even believe.
• 28:20
  couldn't agree more, and perhaps some of the challenge around that is that it's become so easy on, say, social media that we put out there, we press post or we press send on how we feel about a certain topic or how things should be in the world.
• 28:36
  it's so easy to stand on that moral high ground through a social media platform, but I recently heard another podcaster influencer type asked the question that well, you're a you're a paragon of best practices or of a moral high ground But where's the proof the work proof the sacrificial aspect?
• 28:56
  Doing things that are extremely difficult that indicate your commitment it can't just be morally superior gesticulating.
• 29:04
  And then that's easy because that's just, we just put it out on social media.
• 29:07
  I feel a certain way about a certain thing, but that's missing a real indicator of commitment to something.
• 29:14
  the solution is not complex.
• 29:15
  You just hit on it.
• 29:16
  It's, it's very simple.
• 29:18
  It's getting back to you.
• 29:19
  The basics, the little things of life like our our young guests talked about.
• 29:24
  They really were dialed in to they were wow to be that age in the perspective of.
• 29:29
  not underestimating the small gesture of restraint of kindness of consideration listening more than we talk or not taking the bait on social media to get into that scrap out there Less is more perhaps as far as the use of social media goes, leave a little mystery to your life.
• 29:48
  if you're so worked up about something and there's a lot of things to be excitable about in the world right now, call a friend, text a friend.
• 29:57
  Don't put it out in a way that's going to alienate 50 percent of your friends, or if you're Lodge Brothers, or of the place where you may go worship.
• 30:05
  It's, it's just not worth it.
• 30:07
  Then maybe that's a great place to start.
• 30:09
  Absolutely.
• 30:10
  if we just make that commitment that we're going to behave on social media, the way we behave with our friends and with our brothers, maybe we can avoid some of that.
• 30:18
  And just like If those small gestures have a large impact in a positive way, it's the same thing in a negative way.
• 30:27
  another favorite lecture of mine says the word once spoken.
• 30:31
  The act once done is spoken or done forever, and its consequences whether good or evil are immortal.
• 30:37
  that's absolutely true.
• 30:38
  And, and the big things and the small things.
• 30:40
  and I think that as dialed in as these newer masons were.
• 30:45
  Sometimes those of us that have been masons for a little longer need that reminder.
• 30:49
  Also.
• 30:50
  it's very easy to be, uh, the, the cranky past master and lodge that it either knows everything or knows how everybody should act.
• 30:59
  But maybe sometimes we need a little reminder that, yeah, listen, we need to behave that way.
• 31:05
  Also, we can't just talk the talk.
• 31:06
  We have to walk the walk.
• 31:07
  And that plays into your comments about learning our ritual, learning our.
• 31:13
  basically our rule and guide to life.
• 31:15
  It's not just memorizing the words and delivering them word perfect, but it's also the meaning behind all of it that really can be the powerful and impactful blueprint for us personally, but then contributing to a more harmonious society in a place of tolerance and tolerance.
• 31:37
  Getting to know one another on a meaningful level.
• 31:41
  and putting others first.
• 31:42
  It's such a great foundation for our daily lives in how we can go out each day and actually be that better version of ourselves and being cognizant of knowing will never be perfect.
• 31:54
  It's impossible anyway, but never seizing and striving to be that change for positivity to be that person that exemplifies.
• 32:04
  And like you said earlier, not a showy, not a self aggrandizing or type of look at me, but just a quietly influencing that beacon of what the world needs right now.
• 32:15
  Ty Schmidt.
• 32:16
  It's been an absolute blast talking to you today.
• 32:19
  Now I know since retirement, you've been working toward a second career as a pilot, your flight instructor.
• 32:25
  You're going to ultimately be in a jet.
• 32:27
  Is that in the works?
• 32:28
  Yeah, it's in the works.
• 32:30
  but I have to say as a second career, this is so nice in law enforcement with, with all the, all the scrutiny, you know, where everything you say and do is, is criticized.
• 32:39
  be able to do that.
• 32:40
  Um, as a pilot, I just have to bring everybody back alive.
• 32:43
  As long as everybody's still alive.
• 32:44
  It's all good and listen to the tower, right?
• 32:46
  Listen to the town.
• 32:47
  Yeah, you really have one person you truly answer to in that That's that's exciting.
• 32:53
  I think we should get together again later down the road, and I'd like to hear more about Your pilot endeavors.
• 32:59
  You're getting certified As we wrap up, I want to sincerely thank you for your many years of service in law enforcement and first responder.
• 33:07
  How do we even say thanks?
• 33:08
  It's a debt of gratitude that there's really no words for that.
• 33:11
  thanks, Rita.
• 33:12
  I appreciate that.
• 33:13
  And it's really been my pleasure to be here today.
• 33:15
  people don't get into that line of work, for the thanks or for the gratitude.
• 33:19
  honestly, it was my pleasure to serve all of that time.
• 33:22
  Ty Schmidt, Thank you for all you're doing.
• 33:24
  I look forward to us resuming our conversation on this podcast.
• 33:28
  In the very near future.
• 33:29
  This has been another episode of Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries.