The Words of the Burton Family
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The Words of the Burton Family |
A visionary keynote speech from Rev. In Jin Moon called upon activists in the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) -- Ambassadors for Peace -- to raise up today’s youth to become a true “Generation of Peace.” Speaking to 500 formally-dressed guests in the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan’s historic Manhattan Center, she drew a contrast between a generation that says, “show me the money,” and a generation that wants to help people.
“My job as a mother coming to a new position -- and it’s really our job -- is to raise a new generation of peace, a new generation of young people that are not going to look at the world and say, ‘show me the money,’ but the people who are going to look at the world and say: ‘How can I help? What is my God-given divinity that I have to tap into so that I can leave something beautiful behind? How can I leave my imprint on the world that can benefit thousands and millions of people to come?”
“These are the questions that I hope the new Generation of Peace will ask of themselves and I hope that the older generation will be right there to help them and to empower them,” she said.
Reverend Moon also used the occasion of the Seventh Annual Ambassador For Peace Awards banquet to thank her brother, Dr. Hyun Jin (Preston) Moon, the outgoing chairman of UPF for doing “a phenomenal job thus far of leading the UPF” and congratulated her other brother, Rev. Hyung Jin (Sean) Moon on his inauguration as chairman on Nov. 18, 2009. “Truly I feel that this new appointment of [Rev.] Hyung Jin Moon is in line with my Father’s understanding of what a family is, a group of people that understands that we belong to the same parent… In my immediate family, my father and mother have always encouraged and inspired us to work together as a family... With the older brother having done a phenomenal job now it’s time for him to hand over the baton to the younger brother, and now it’s time for [the younger brother] to run with this wonderful organization, UPF and with all of you, Ambassadors for Peace, ” she said.
Reverend Moon frequently invoked the words and wisdom of her parents, the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, as a guide to ways a generation of peace could be built.
She explained that the letters of the word “peace” could be an acronym to sum up five core values she espouses for parents raising the generation of peace. “P” is for parent. “We are all descended from the same heavenly parent,” she said. The letter “E” is for eternal sons and daughters, she said, pointing out that we have to realize that we are eternal sons and daughters of our heavenly parent.
The letter “A” is for living a life of altruism. “C” denotes compassion. “When I think about the letter C, I find myself resting on this word ‘compassion’ time and time again,” she said, noting that “the Dalai Lama had defined his religion as a religion of kindness, by which he meant compassion.”
The letter “E” is for excellence. “I have never forgotten my mother’s voice when I think about the letter E, I remember what my mother asked us to be and that she inspired my brothers and sisters to strive for excellence in terms of all the things we were doing in schooling, in sports, in the arts, in writing, in music, and fine arts. She has always asked of us to be excellent, but at the same time she has always asked of us to work on the inner excellence of a person, the inner qualities that a make a human being what we are, the moral character of a person, the goodness of a person, and the ability to apply compassion in our daily lives,” she explained.
As with her elaborate Lovin’ Life Sunday services that she has directed since April, 2009, the awards banquet was a family affair featuring her own children as performers. Her second eldest child, Rexton, accompanied himself on piano while singing “On the Road,” composed by his mother. Daughter Arianna and her dance partner from Harvard University’s competitive ballroom dance team performed a stunningly adroit dance routine. The Harvard dancers and the Lovin’ Life band worked their magic to get an alcohol-free crowd on its dancing feet, prompting scores of couples to glide around the parquet floor under the gilded ceiling of the Grand ballroom.
Four Ambassadors for Peace were honored for excellence in leadership. These included Pastor Leonard Smalls of the Imani Baptist Church in East Orange, NJ, Ms. Diesa Seidel, a second-generation Unificationist and founding director of United Initiatives for Peace, Dr. Halim Majeed of Queens, NY and the Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Administrative Judge for Civil Matters for the New York Supreme Court.
More than 40 newly appointed Ambassadors for Peace were recognized, seven of whom were congratulated on stage by UPF International Vice-Chair Dr. Ki Hoon Kim.
Contributed by Douglas Burton