Inheriting the Vertical Tradition
Mr. Hyun Jin Moon on the Value of UTS

On July 16, President Shimmyo and Dr. Mike Mickler traveled to the University of Bridgeport to attend a dinner in honor of Mr. Hyun Jin Moon, the newly appointed Vice-President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The dinner was hosted by UB president Dr. Richard Rubenstein and he was joined by various administrators and members of the faculty of UB's Business School. The latter were present in recognition of Mr. Moon's graduation this year from Harvard University where he gained an MBA. Dr. Rubenstein, a fellow Harvard graduate, offered welcoming remarks to Mr. Moon and in reply, Mr. Moon expressed the hope that there can be some way in which UTS and UB can work together, possibly in the area of management.

Mr. Moon has a keen interest in UTS as he plans to attend the Seminary from January 1999. At a meeting following the dinner at UB, he urged those Unificationists who had recently graduated from UB to make a commitment to attend UTS. The audience of 70 was made up of members of the Bridgeport community but the primary focus was the recent graduates. Mr. Moon spoke of the new millennium as a time for the second generation. The members of the first generation have worked hard, he said, and their result should be passed on to the second generation who should have the same level of hard work in order to inherit that result. He described that result as "the vertical tradition which True Parents have established." The remembrance and inheritance of that vertical tradition is, he said, vitally important and this is why UTS fulfills an essential role because "there you will learn this vertical tradition."

This, he said, is why those Unificationists who graduate from UB should plan to attend UTS but so far, few are planning to go and therefore "True Father is alarmed." Mr. Moon then explained his own situation. "I am a Harvard graduate," he said, "and so I have many opportunities. Many people would want me to work with them but True Father said I should go to UTS. My course is to carry on my parents' work and so I will go to UTS." Mr. Moon then spoke of the UTS education as providing a great opportunity for those who experience it. "You will have a tremendous future if you go to UTS," he said. "To be a core leader in our movement, you have to study at UTS. The future is ours. The first generation constructed the bone but we now have to add the flesh." He stated that there is currently some confusion among the second generation with various views and traditions being expressed but he urged those present to "inherit the true tradition which is a vertical tradition."

Mr. Moon then asked the recent graduates of UB to stand up and he addressed each of their situations in turn. One young man, for example, said, "I don't have the ability to be a leader and I don't want to be a leader." In reply, Mr. Moon suggested that this young man would surely hope to raise a family one day and that, in the role of a father, he would be assuming leadership responsibilities. Thus, he said, we are all called upon to be leaders and we can all benefit from the education which UTS can provide. By the time the meeting concluded, many of the young men and women had indicated their commitment to enroll at UTS.