The Words of In Jin Moon
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The Words of In Jin Moon |
Good morning, brothers and sisters. Thank you so much for giving me such a warm welcome in this beautiful Camp Sunrise. You know, when I saw Dr. and Ms. Kim walking in together with Rev. and Ms. Jenkins in that little cabin there, waiting, and when I saw how happy they were, coming back from spending an intimate, wonderful time with True Parents, I said, "My father really lives what he preaches. He really loves the first generation more than his children."
I called my parents several times, letting them know my schedule and wanting to come and greet them after each main event. They said, "No, go on to the next one. Go on to Washington. Washington is historically and providentially an incredibly important city." Then I called my parents again, "I would love to come and see you but I have New York scheduled, and many series of meetings with different organizations, different departments in our movement, the second generation, Blessed Family Department. Yesterday I had a wonderful meeting with the Witnessing Summit, and the evening a meeting with CARP." And Parents said, "You need to go. Stay in New York. You can come and see us later."
So when I see True Parents' heart of wanting their children to really invest and not spend time with them, but to really invest in the membership, I realize how much True Parents really love all of you. And Rev. Jenkins had a wonderful time, a wonderful opportunity with True Parents. And I know that True Parents love Rev. Jenkins for the ACLC work that you've done, and the MEPI work.
As an American brother, it's not always easy representing this country in the worldwide providence. But in his own way he has tried his best, and Parents recognize that. So they give him a lot of love. And I was so happy, as a son and daughter of our True Parents, that Dr. and Ms. Kim and Rev. and Ms. Jenkins were able to spend such wonderful, wonderful, quality time with True Parents and have the opportunity to really hear from them first hand how important this country is.
When I look out into the audience and I see many, many different cultures, and many, many new faces, as well as a lot of old faces that I've known over the years, I feel an immediate connection. This is my community, my family. In a way our True Parents have given so much to America, but I think they've given so much to all of you over the years. They've loved you more than their children. They've literally invested blood, sweat and tears, but also invested in terms of financial resources.
For just the Washington Times alone, more than $2 billion was spent to save the world from communism. Who can claim that they've done such a thing for America? By saving America from falling into the hands of communism, in a way True Parents saved the world, didn't they? And in a way they helped prepare the world for the incredible breaking down of the Berlin Wall. My older brother, Hyo Jin oppa, he preached and he walked past the Berlin Wall and he said, "One day the wall must come down." As the leader of CARP he invested so much into the young people.
As an older brother who in a way gave his life in overcoming the difficulty to play the role of an elder son, to try to represent America in a wonderful way, so that True Parents can love America -- he has really invested his heart and soul into the young people. I can never forget him preaching, or claiming that the wall will come down. And it did a couple of years later, to the amazement of the world, right? (Applause) And in a way by our True Parents' investing those precious $2 billion and more that our Japanese brothers and sisters struggled so hard to prepare, in a way Father paved the way for Gorbachev to appear and to, in a way, bring in perestroika and glasnost, and the opening up of the communist countries such as Russia and China. How incredible this is!
So when I think about America and when I think of America as the elder son nation, and as Father says, the second Israel, in a way we have the incredible responsibility to play a providential role in history. I'm sure you have many children attending college now. I was a student of political science, and in Political Science 101 they teach what the meaning of power is. What does power mean? How do you define power? In Political Science 101 they define power as the ability to influence. In a way America, as the superpower of the world, has a responsibility and an ability to influence the world.
Now the big question of the day is: How are we going to influence the world, in what way are we going to influence the world? You have stars like Bruce Springsteen in America, huge celebrities, who are in a way having their own ministry of faith through music. His music influences and touches everybody all around the world. In the '50s we had the birth of blue jeans, Levis, in America, and the Japanese young people went crazy over jeans and Levis.
I often say to the second generation who are sitting here, it's kind of interesting. As the eldest son Hyo Jin oppa had incredible power to influence the second generation, and he tried his best. To his last breath he tried his best. And despite all the difficulties that life might have brought, he was victorious in the end, in that to his last breath he was absolutely dedicated and obedient to True Parents. (Applause) And because of the passion that he had, because of this incredible desire to somehow move the young people of America through multi-media -- and many times when you're passionate, that passion can be misunderstood. I know that many people might have misunderstood his passion. But at the core of what he was all about, he was really about trying to give young people a way to exercise their ability to influence, to allow a way for American young people, especially the American young blessed children, to exercise their ability to influence their peers, their country, their schools, their societies. That's what he wanted.
I was joking with CARP yesterday, saying, "You know, all of you are wearing blue jeans. You've really got to thank your older brother because before he came along we couldn't wear blue jeans. It just simply was not allowed." I said, "Perhaps I love wearing pants all the time because simply we could not wear pants. The girls in the family had to wear skirts all the time." I said, "The incredibly powerful thing such as rock and roll was just not allowed."
We had a family dinner shortly before he passed away. Actually two years before he passed away he kind of called the family one by one and he said, "You know what? We're getting older and we kind of need to come together and have annual or maybe biannual dinners together." So actually it was my brother who initiated and invited all the members of my family to come to a lovely Chinese dinner. We kept that up a couple of times before he passed away. I said, "You know, hyung, it really takes an older brother to kind of call this kind of a dinner and a meeting. I thank you from the bottom of my heart because before you came along rock and roll was a sin. But now all the second generation, and even the Christian churches, are realizing the importance of music in worship, the importance of music, because music is a universal language, that not just speaks to the head but to the heart."
When you study Johann Bach's music, you realize the mathematical perfection of his composition, and yet when you hear it and you experience it in the heart it's just something so profound and so moving, and you forget about the analytical aspect of it.
That's what's so beautiful about our True Parents. You can throw the Divine Principle book at our upcoming blessed children as many times as you want, but at the core of who we are is this: We have come together as a community and as a society and as this representation of America because we love True Parents, and because they have touched our hearts and they have given us hope. They have given us hope where we had no hope. They gave us hope that we can love, that we are worthy individuals to be loved eternally by somebody that understands our value, and vice versa, by somebody that believes in the sanctity and the beauty of ideal families.
You know, we all want ideal families in our daily lives. But many Christian ministers said, you have to be careful what you want. Because we joined wanting ideal families. And over the years many of us had to deal with our ideal families, right? I deal with my family. I deal with my spouse, I deal with my children, and I deal with my in-laws. These are things that I never really thought I fully understood until I experienced it. But whenever I dealt with each obstacle or difficulty that God put in my path, I realized this: If we decide to just stop fighting with the suffering aspect of life and embrace it, if we can embrace suffering as a process in which we can grow and we can develop, then in a way all our sacrifices, especially those of the first generation, the sacrifices you've made, giving up your home, giving up your schooling, giving up everything to come and follow this message of true love and win incredible victories along the way -- Washington Monument, Yankee Stadium.
Every time I'm scheduled to speak and I see a rainy day, I always remember how so many young brothers and sisters were cheering on and trying to get the audience motivated even though it was raining and it was so windy, and really quite depressing. But it's just really the human spirit that, despite whatever, we're going to stick together and we're going to make this a wonderful day. That was really your spirit!
True Family was growing up in America. And I firmly believe that True Parents, deciding to raise their family in America, wanted to love you this way, because our mother tongue is your tongue. We feel in this language. We understand America. We're one of you. (Applause) In a way, by allowing us to grow up in this country, we have naturally come to love this country. We realized that our True Parents are really, really awesome people. All of you are literally hand-picked by God to come and be a part of this community, are really quite awesome people.
Whenever I spend time with the second generation, I try to encourage them. I say, "You know, your parents may not be the most handsome, they may not be the most successful. They may not be the most financially well-off people, but they're rich in spirit. They had the courage to dedicate their lives for something greater than themselves. That's how you define a hero."
In a way the first generation of this movement, the ones that are sitting here with us today, you are American heroes. And as a member of the second generation, I want our second generation and the third generation and the oncoming generations to live our lives in a way that we can honor your sacrifice, and therefore validate everything that you have done until now.
I'm hoping that the young people of this movement, realizing how much self-sacrifice and dedication had been laid down, can in a way step on the shoulders of giants, on the shoulders of the first generation, like Dr. and Ms. Kim, like Rev. and Ms. Jenkins, take what they have done, take what they have planted, and in a way harvest it for God.
I've been working at the Manhattan Center for the last couple of years. Because I'm an Asian and a woman, I'm somewhat of an anomaly in the media and entertainment world. So everybody is kind of coming around and wanting to meet with me, spend time with me, just check out what Rev. Moon's daughter is all about. But you know, as I get to know them, and as I get to know and interact with different second generation, I say the same thing to the second generation that I say to them. I say, look, my father is a visionary, he's a prophet, he's a teacher, and he’s a believer. He's not some kind of a cult leader that is brainwashing the young people of America today. He's really all about love. He wants to teach and give people the hope to love.
A friend of mine recently sent me a video clip of a 22-year-old young student, having graduated from college, looking toward applying for a graduate program, and realizing her financial situation, that she had no money to pay for graduate school. Somehow she made the decision to basically say, "You know what? I'm a virgin, and maybe I can turn my virginity into a valuable asset to pay for my graduate education." So she came on CNN, on national TV, basically seeking highest bidders to the right to have her purity.
I had a sad conversation with the friend who sent me the video. That friend said, "Is this what my country has come to?" In the course of the interview, one of the CNN journalists was asking this young lady, "Where's the notion of love? What happened in your life that made you choose to do this?" She said, "You know, when I was a young girl I was totally inspired by the stories of Cinderella, and all the happy endings, and when I became 16 and 17 I still believed in the possibility of romantic love. I still believed that maybe I might find that special someone that I can share the rest of my life with." But she said going through college she realized that what she thought was valuable didn't have market value. She realized that maybe it's just too ideal or too visionary, and, "Maybe this precious thing that I'm holding for somebody is not worth that much. But if it can be made into a marketable commodity then I want to use it for me. I want to use it to pay for my education."
So she had to go through this whole process where she was a Cinderella -- knight in shining armor, awestruck girl, believing in happiness forever after -- going through adolescence when you start being interested in the opposite sex. And she started asking, how possibly she might be able to find that special someone, while seeing the brutal reality that she faced in her life, basically saying, "I'm not going to find that special someone." And she made that decision to give up the most precious thing that she has to offer to somebody.
I was talking to my friend about it, but also sharing with my three college-age kids. I said, "This is the reason why your grandfather and grandmother came to America. This is why they were just so misunderstood and so abused by the media in this country." I said, "What they really wanted to do was to basically say, 'You can still dream of having a wonderful relationship, a wonderful family. These are the steps to how you can achieve what you want to believe and what you want to be, and therefore have the happiness and fulfillment that an ideal family would provide.' "
The only thing that your grandfather and grandmother are saying is, "We're doing this because Jesus Christ appeared before your grandfather when he was 16, on Easter Sunday morning, and basically asked him to fulfill what Jesus could not fulfill. What is that? Creating ideal families, right? That is finding a loving wife and having loving children."
I said, "If you really take a moment to think about the level of morality in this country and what your grandparents are all about, it's really about giving hope to America, about saying that by being strong individuals, with the unity of mind and body, by creating wonderful ideal families, by having the common denominator of a singular goal, you believe in the same things, you believe in wanting to be the true parents for your family and for your country. Then in a way, step by step, my father, your grandfather, my mother, your grandmother, wanted to see America fulfill its true destiny. That is, for it to be an incredible country that can exercise its rightful ability to influence the world in a powerful, powerful way."
Many of the second generation growing up are kind of confronted, "How do you make sense of the inner and the outer, how do you make sense of the external and the internal? Do I need to choose?" And I've always encouraged them, "You need to be both. We need to be internally excellent. We need to have a strong moral fiber. We need to have a strong character education. And we need to have a strong belief in who we are. And yet at the same time we have to manifest what we're all about by striving for external excellence."
So in a way what the first generation gave up in terms of a great career, great schooling, is what the second generation must fulfill. We must be the ones getting straight A's at school. We must be the class presidents, we must be the ones urging our community, the importance of giving back, the importance of finding a way to help the other countries of the world. It's the young people that can make a difference. (Applause)
So in this stage of specialization, I often ask my kids, "What do you want to be known for?" I think that we as a movement need to ask ourselves, "What do we want to be known for?" Do we want to be known for putting on incredible events in a matter of hours? We're really good at that. We're excellent at that. Do we want to be known as people who are basically businessmen and who use this religious teaching as a front for Rev. Moon being a multi-billionaire? Is that how we want to be known? Do we want to be known as pathetically miserable people, who live a life of self-flagellation, Calvinistic tradition, and who feel so bad for our past sins that we cannot move forward? Or do we want to be known as financially struggling people who are forever struggling? I don't think so.
I think, in a way, the most precious gift that we have, right here, is living and breathing. I feel that the most precious gift that we have in our movement is our second generation, is our children. And if we invest in our children, they will become your greatest ambassadors. They will become True Parents' greatest ambassadors. I don't know how many countless stories I've heard.
I just spent some time with STF members at Unification Theological Seminary, and I heard one story of a boy named Matthew who is on STF now. A resident of Barrytown heard about True Father's trail and she was trying to find it. She approached Matthew with a group of his friends, "Where is Father's trail?" Not only did Matthew show her where Father's trail was, but he went out of his way to love this total stranger in a way she had never been loved by the young people of America. So much so that she had to ask, "What kind of people are you? Where do you come from?" So Matthew naturally witnessed about who he is.
All those mass weddings that you saw in the '70s and '80s, well, we're the product of those mass weddings. If we're different, or if we know how to honor our elders, it's because we were raised not in a homogeneous culture, but in a beautiful tapestry of cultures, where East and West can be appreciated. The finer qualities of Eastern tradition and Western tradition can be appreciated. A community where there's interracial harmony, a community where there's inter-religious dialogue. And most importantly, a community where there's intercultural appreciation. It's in the context of this community that the second generation were born into. That's why they're different from other young people.
You know that despite whatever all of you go through, you know you're different. You know you're special. So as somebody who has been given this opportunity to serve the first and second generations of this country, it's in a way my job to make sure that there is an investment, not just a heartistic investment, but also financial investment in the different projects for second generation, as well as for the youth of America.
I feel like this is just the beginning. As I'm touring and going through my own fact-finding and learning about different things that have been going on over the years, I'm realizing that we really have great young adult ministers who are just ready to step up to the plate. Maybe a lot of second generation felt disillusioned because there was no place for them to go within the church organization. But I am here representing my family and representing my parents to tell you, your time has come. (Applause) And the True Family cannot do this by ourselves. We need your input. We need your leadership. We as a community really have to come together and in a way invite back the ones that are lost, the ones that are struggling, and the ones that have given up hope in this community. (Applause)
It's our job to remind our fellow youngsters that there is still hope, and that hope starts with them, with their decision to decide what they're going to do today. What am I going to do today that's going to make my first generation parents' lives better? Is what I'm going to do today a way to honor their sacrifice, or is what I'm going to do today a way to throw away their sacrifice? We have this incredible responsibility within our hands, and each of us independently must make this decision for ourselves.
I know that coming to that decision is a process. Some come to it earlier, some will take time, but I firmly believe that all of us will come to that decision because what we have is not something that can be found elsewhere. What we have is something really incredible. Every child born into this movement is uniquely gifted, uniquely talented, and uniquely blessed. I always emphasize the third part, uniquely blessed, because most of us would not be here without True Parents asking you to come together as a couple, right?
Those of us who are uniquely blessed in a way have this moral obligation, if you will, to be responsible with the blessing that we've been given, to be responsible with the talents that we've been given. I spent a great deal of time doing a lot of work with the second gen. department in Japan. Whenever I meet the second generation I realize not only are they better looking than their parents, they're better equipped, and they're so talented. These individuals are so sensitive, so creative, so musical, and so artistic. I think that comes from the purity of heart.
I encouraged eight years ago the blessing department, you know, that the cultural aspect of worship in a religious life is so important for young people. "So why don't we create an opportunity for the young people to come together once a year and perform?" So we kicked off this thing called Youth Concert for World Peace and Ideal Families eight years ago, when my son and daughter had to be in Tokyo anyway because they were invited to perform with one of the best philharmonic orchestras there. I said, "Since you're going to be in Tokyo anyway, why not do something for the blessed children?"
We had a wonderful experience of heart coming together. It was great for the blessed children and it was great for my children, too. Over the course of eight years I've seen these children grow up, these children who could not even sing in a choir. After eight years they became an incredible choir worthy to be invited to the different embassies in Tokyo. Can you imagine? (Applause)
Japan is a country where True Father still cannot go, and our movement is so maligned and feared. But even the embassy row in Tokyo has to acknowledge there's something beautiful in these children. Not only are they beautiful, but they're doing incredible outreach programs, visiting the old folks homes, honoring the people, honoring the elders, honoring their country's ancestors, who don't have much to live for, who are literally waiting to die. Can you imagine the awe and the love that they feel in these beautiful Japanese children who come and perform for them, to honor them, saying, "You've lived your life well and we're here to remember our ancestry, not just Unification ancestry, but Japanese ancestry, and celebrate it."
We have hundreds of choirs now in Japan and every year we get together. We compete with each other and after the first seven-year course of the foundation building -- and this is something my family started as our way of tithing to the movement. I know that tithing has kind of like a bad stigma attached because many times when we give to our church we don't have the transparency to know where our funds are going. So many of us might feel "Why are we tithing?" But in a way I wanted to encourage the Japanese movement. This fund is something that I never touch. This is run by the education department, your department, and all I do is help facilitate and make sure that the event is a good one.
So in the course of seven years we've built up quite a nest egg, and because a member of True Family is involved, even though there's always a constant need for donations, it's something that the church organization has to respect, that they cannot use for something else because I've specifically asked them, "This is for the second generation."
In a way, the second generation is realizing that all that we do in the course of one year is for them, to support their education, is to support their talent, is to support their expression of love. It has grown into an incredible thing, almost like a movement. And I just started out with a handful of mothers. One in particular I need to name and honor, Midori-san. She together with just two or three other people of the education department, that is how we started.
But when we built up this foundation, we invited headquarters to be a part of it. Kicking off the eighth year, the second seven-year course, we started giving out scholarships to the second generation. We announced at the end of the seventh Youth Concert for World Peace exactly what we're going to do. And then I heard that throughout the course of the whole year there was a great deal of debate, "Are you kidding? Usually money gets taken out of Japan. Money is never given to Japan."
Actually I heard there were bets between different departments -- is there really going to be a gift of a scholarship? The eighth year came, which was this last April. We went and I invited all my family to come. Everyone wanted to be there. I called Hyun Jin and said, please come. He really wanted to be there and be a part of it, but he had a prior engagement. I invited Kook Jin and Hyung Jin to come, and they really wanted to be there but they also had a prior engagement. But Sun Jin's couple, and Kwon Jin and Jeong Jin and Yeon Jin were able to attend. So it was really like a True Family celebration of second generation's effort for the last eight years. It was really a time when the True Family could give something back to the second generation, to say, look, we really appreciate you and we really want to work with you, and we really want to help you to become great.
It was a heartfelt moment, but at the same time, the second generation of Japan was incredibly excited about next year's event. One of the things that I would love to do in the American movement is to invite music to be a part of our worship, to be a part of our culture. (Applause) We have wonderful talented singers like ___ and different choirs, but I would love to see a second generation choir, which not only sings holy songs but maybe gospel, maybe songs of their own, songs of worship, of suffering, of inspiration, of heartache, all these things that make us human. (Applause)
Whenever I'm spending time in different districts and regions, I'm encouraging the young people to form bands, if that's what you want to do. If you play the guitar, play in a band with your fellow members. If you love art, study art. I can point you to the best teachers in New York, in New Jersey. If you love history, study history, be the best historian. Study the history of your community in the context of providential history and understand how special this is.
So in a way instead of young people wasting their time, or using music or bands as an excuse just to socialize, why can't we produce the next Eric Clapton? Why can't we produce the future Jeff Beck, or Santana, or the next U-2, if music is your thing? And if journalism is your thing, I invite one of you to run the Washington Times. Why not be the editor-in-chief of your campus newspaper in preparation to be the editor-in-chief of the Washington Times? And if broadcasting is your thing, why not go and work at NBC and ABC so that you can come back and work for Atlantic Video or Manhattan Center? Go out and be the best that you can. In a way, young people, we don't have time to be confused. Life is long, but in a way life is short and we only have one opportunity.
Instead of living a life of being lost and just wasting time not knowing where or who or what you are all about, it doesn't matter what kind of a family you come from. Some of the greatest men and women of this country have come from more dire straits than us second generation. Many of the great men and women of history have been abandoned by their parents; have had no food on their table. I don't think when Martin Luther King was giving that incredible speech, "I Have a Dream".... I know that Dr. Abernathy and Rev. Lowery, who are good friends of mine, I don't think they thought the day would come this soon when an African American is running for the presidency of the United States!
I don't think Rosa Parks, who ignited the Montgomery bus boycott and inspired the civil rights movement, ever thought that something like Obama's candidacy would happen this soon. I don't think that a lot of women who have struggled throughout centuries, throughout 6,000 biblical years, being misunderstood and treated like second-class citizens, ever thought we'd see a day when because of True Mother's victory of absolute unity and devotion and dedication to the True Father that she can restore the position of Eve to that of a True Eve and usher in the Pacific Rim era, where women have this chance or opportunity to play an active role in our life of faith.
I know for a fact that my friend, who I went to divinity school with, when they heard that my father asked me to step into this role, as a woman and as an American woman now, they said, "Your dad is making history again." In a way, you know something is right, you know something is providential in the air when you know that the external follows what happens internally. Father gave the women of America this blessing. Who would have ever thought that the GOP, of all parties, would nominate Sarah Palin to run as the vice presidential candidate?
You see, my fellow Americans, things are moving, things are changing. My brother Dr. Kim talked about confusion. There is no time for confusion. It's not a matter of what is what, what is higher, what is lower. It's like the right hand fighting with the left hand. It doesn't matter because sooner or later we have to come together to honor God. That's what it's all about. (Applause)
It's truly my honor to be standing here. As a mother, not just as a sister but as a mother, I encourage all the mothers in the audience to look within. Just as the founding American mothers were the ones behind the scenes, supporting the Yankee soldiers to win their victory, we have to, in a way, support and invest in our children so that they can accomplish great things for God, great things for America. The Martin Luther Kings, and the Rosa Parks, and the Gandhis that the world has enjoyed, I believe are sitting within our midst, sitting next to you. It is our children.
In a way what I would like our movement to be known for is just like what this woman experienced coming face to face with Matthew. It's the natural witnessing. It's not what's spoken, it's what is done. It's not what is preached, it's what is lived. It's how we live our day to day, it is the action points that we decide for ourselves today, that is going to determine what our children's lives are going to be in the future.
We've been a church which has done many incredible external things, external events. But what I would like is to invite the mothers to kind of concentrate on the internal aspect. We have to strengthen from within before we can kind of reach out. I'm hoping that we can use this as an opportunity to strengthen our communities within, to in a way remember what drove us, or what invited us, or what attracted us to come and follow this message of true love, and reinforce that spark of life that each of us has felt, and transfer it in a loving way to our children.
I think if we can live our lives in a way that's attractive, meaning that if we live a life that people want to know and be a part of, where people are asking, "Why are your children different, why are they so special? They're so different from teenagers who are shooting each other on the street. They're so different from kids who are just wasting their lives on drugs. What is it that makes them different?" then in a way the foundation for sharing has already been laid.
I feel that in a way the floodgates can be opened, and the laying down of sacrifice and the tears and sweat and blood that was shed in this country from my Father and Mother on down can be harvested. A couple of years ago there was a book called "The Tipping Point." It talks about many great things that happened at history at a crucial juncture, or what is called the tipping point. Many people think it's the flavor of the month or flavor of that moment. But no, it's the preparation that has been laid up to a point where we reach this tipping point, where a whole new way of understanding, or a whole new way of living can be ushered in.
It is my firm belief that the suffering that was laid by the first generation was in a way the preparation of taking the second and third generation to that tipping point. It's just a matter of time. And I know firsthand when I talk to the different CEOs in the entertainment industry, they have children, too. At the end of the day, what do they want more than anything? They want their children to have great lives, at the end of the day. It's no different from you and me. When they start asking me questions because my kids are wonderful people, then in a way it's an invitation for them to understand how incredible True Parents are. When I can testify to them that our religion is not that different, we are not that different, we all want the same things, and it's really my father's desire to want to give this gift of love and gift of life to the young people, then they really have nothing to say.
Really this is a time for the second generation to proudly say, "We've got nothing to hide, and what we are is incredible." We're awesome, and you're awesome, and my kids are awesome. And we have a right to be proud of who we are. Because what our True Parents have done is lay the groundwork to really be known as the parents of peace, right? That's what they're all about.
So our second generation and third generation need to be that generation of peace. Young people are so lost. They named and branded themselves Generation X, Generation Y, Z, and now we're up to the millennials, where the young people are saying, it's basically the show-me generation, give me the money generation. But basically our True Parents are saying, "No, we must be a generation of peace. We must be a generation where we acknowledge our religious, racial differences, but we celebrate it in a way that makes God beautiful. We need to live our lives in a way where violence is not a part, violence to an individual, violence to the family or to the society. We need to be a generation where we're going to put our foot down and say, 'You know what, my Muslim parents might have fought with my Jewish or Christian parents, but I am no longer going to be that person because I belong to a generation of peace, where I am going to look at my young brothers and sisters, inside and out, as my family. That's the only hope for world peace.'" (Applause)
So instead of just thinking of ourselves inside the box as second generation, we have an incredible responsibility to exercise this ability to influence, and not just be a second gen but be a peacemaker generation. We have to do that not just for ourselves but for our friends and for our colleagues. We have a lot of work to do, but really I am here to say that True Parents invested and really gave their lives for this country. So as Dr. Pyung Hwa Kim said, basically it's from Alaska that Father is ringing in a new time. From the small state of Alaska we're enjoying an incredible time when somebody like Sarah Palin could be running as a vice presidential candidate.
This is an incredibly progressive time, when things will be happening very, very quickly. If you think that the Dalai Lama is hip or cool because he is constantly surrounded by Hollywood celebrities, you just wait and watch. There are many, many good people who realize what True Parents are all about. So don't lose the opportunity to say, my parents, my True Parents were hip and cool first, before the floodgates opened, before the tipping point happens, so that you can be the ones ushering in a new generation to the land of Canaan.
So brothers and sisters, thank you for this beautiful Sunday. I'm going to kind of take this day to meet with you personally, but also my parting remarks will be: Those of you who are interested in music and those of you who are interested in becoming musicians, please practice hard. Don't just socialize and hang around and do other things that you should not be doing.
If you want to be dedicated to music, be a virtuoso. And when you think you have a great demo, come and see me at Manhattan Center and I will promote you to the best in the recording industry, as well as the entertainment industry. But you have to do your part, and that is you have to work at it, just like the way Hyo Jin oppa did. He used to practice guitar until his fingers bled. That's how passionate he was. And I know that his children sitting here in the front, they're just as passionate, too. Speaking as an auntie, you need to know your dad was awesome. (Applause)
So thank you, brothers and sisters. Please have a great week, please have a great month, and hopefully I can catch up with you again. Let's create a generation of peace. Let's be known as the people who gave birth to a new generation of men and women of God, who will unite this world into one family under God. Thank you.