More Testimony on the Helicopter Crash, pluss a good start to the month.

Before anything else, I want to share with you a link to another testimony about the helecopter crash involving the True Family (Rev. Sun Myung Moon, his wife, their children and grandchildren). This one is from someone who was actually on the helicopter, Peter Kim.

I want to thank Rev. Kalamba W.M. Kayembe of Era of Africa for sending it to me in an email. While I'm at it, I aught to thank Knut Holdhus for providing me with the other testimony by FFWPU President Rev. Hyung Jin Moon.

Now, here's why I've had a good start to the month.

It was a beautiful Friday, I woke up well rested with a clear mind and hardly any pains at all. I went to work still feeling well rested, with only a minor bit of tention in my neck wich I think was built because I planned on taking the 20 question theory exam at the local branch of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles in order to get my Driveing Learner's Permit. I was also feeling well fed, and generally had a pretty physically healthy feeling about me.

My dad picked me up at work at 12:40 and took me to the RMV. When we got there it was closed, as the RMV (on the Vineyard anyway) closes for lunch. They opened at 13:00, and while there were two people in front of me, there were also two RMV Reps. there, and I was asked to come up fairly quickly.

When I went up to the counter I explaind to the woman I had been away for a while and I've lost my previous permit and wasn't sue if it had expired. She told me it had, so I gave her my U.S. passport, Mass. ID, and a Martha's Vineyard Savings Bank bank statement with my name and address printed on it. Normally I should have had my Social Security Card with me too, but I guess they let is slide since I had done this before and I got the Mass. I.D. from their office. Come to think of it, I don't think I even remembered to fill in my SSN on the yellow form she gave me to fill out. Oh well, I guess they had that already too so they didn't bother asking me about it.

Anyway, I took the test on a computer and it was very easy. To pass the test you must get 14 out of 20 questions correct, and I got 19 of them correct. I got the fealing that the test was easyer this time than the last time - not because I had done it before, as it's been like two years since, but I honestly think the questions weren't as hard as they should have been. Oh well, it worked well for me.

So, I passed the test, she took my picture and printed it out on my new Learner's Permit, and I payed her $30 USD with my MVSB Mastercard Check Check Card. So the only thing that I didn't like is that the fee had exactly doubled since the last time I did this, and it worried me a bit how easy the test was. I don't want just anybody sharing the roads with me, I want to know that the other drivers know what they're doing too. But hey, I'm very greatful that I past so easily. The MV RMV only does road tests on Tuesdays, so the last opportunity I have to get my drivers licence is on the 9th of September, two days before I go back to Norge. That's just 40 days from now, and five of them I won't be able to practice because I'll be in or on my way too or from Washington D.C.

By the way, I also wanted to let everyone know that on Tuesday, the 5th of August, I'll be going to Washington D.C. to repare for the Global Peace Festival - USA event, which is being held on the 9th. More on that tomarrow.

Also, on the way home from work, I came up with a brilliant idea for a story. I don't want to give out too may details here, because this is something I, right now in my moment of isnpiration and passion, would really like to see published and really think could get published if I do a good job.

For starters, it will have something to do with Martha's Vineyard, Brazil, The Vatican and the Catholic Church, Christianity a whole, and a secret cult. The working title is Cross Robbers. If anyone knows of a book already of that title, please let me know so I can think of a different title. I may have to start a new writers blog for specific guests only so people I know around the world can review my work on this project, yet untrustowrthy people won't have as great a chance of finding it and plagiarizing my work.

This latest writing project of mine is much better than anything else I've come up with before. It's not fantacy and therefor it'll be easyer to discribe people, and events. In fact, I'm not even going to go too far into the future with this so I won't even have to make up much new technology. The biggest differences will be that North Korea won't exist as a seperate country, the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan will be over, and there will be a new North American Union and Pacific Rim Union in the midst of being established.

This month is going to be beautiful, though I really can't wait 'till September! Goodnight for now. I hope God is able to bless you like he has been able to for me.

Sincerely, in Liberty and True Brotherly Love,

Christopher D. Osborn - Tisbury (Vineyard Haven), Massachusetts.

P.S. I really liked the picture they took, so maybe tomarrow, as another P.S., I'll post a link to a scanned copy of the picture itelf.

A Presidential Speach, the sort of wich we could really use today.

Address to the Nation on the Federal Budget and Deficit Reduction

April 24, 1985

My fellow Americans:

I must speak to you tonight about a serious problem that demands your immediate attention. I need your help.

Today the United States Senate began a rendezvous with history. The threads of our past, present, and future as a nation will soon converge on the single overriding question before that body: Can we at last, after decades of drift, neglect, and excess, put our fiscal house in order? Can we assure a strong and prosperous future for ourselves, our children, and their children by adopting a plan that will compel the Federal Government to end the dangerous addiction to deficit spending and finally live within its means?

Throughout our history, we Americans have been willing to meet great challenges and do what is right when our destiny demanded it. Just 4 years ago this week, I asked your support for our bipartisan recovery program. That was the program the spenders said wouldn't work, and they called it Reaganomics. You might remember April 1981: a time when our defenses were weak, inflation still in double digits, and economic growth almost dead from a government that taxed too much and spent even more than it taxed.

We knew it would take a great effort to turn that around. We knew that letting you keep more of your earnings to get our economy moving again would be resisted by the old guard in Washington. But we also knew the answer to a government that's too fat is to stop feeding its growth. We wanted America to rediscover opportunity. We asked for your help then, and you gave it to us.

You turned America around -- turned around her confidence, turned around her economy, turned around over a decade of one national nightmare after another. We're into our 29th straight month of economic growth, with inflation staying down and more of us working than ever before -- that's 8 million new jobs. Now that our program is working, you may have noticed they're not calling it Reaganomics anymore.

Once again, the United States is the flagship economy for the world. A new generation of entrepreneurs is coming up, pointing us toward a 21st century full of amazing change and vast new opportunities.

We must seize this historic moment to shape America's future -- to completely overhaul our tax code, changing it from a source of confusion and contempt to a model of fairness and simplicity, with strong, new incentives for even greater growth.

So many good things lie ahead for America. And yet all our progress, all the good we've accomplished so far, and all our dreams for the future could be wrecked if we do not overcome our one giant obstacle.

The simple truth is: No matter how hard you work, no matter how strong this economy grows, no matter how much more tax money comes to Washington, it won't amount to a hill of beans if government won't curb its endless appetite to spend. Overspending is the subject we must now address -- how budgets got so far out of balance and, yes, what together we can and must do to correct this.

You know, sometimes the big spenders in Congress talk as if all that money they spend just kind of magically appears on their doorstep, a gift from the Internal Revenue Service. They talk as if spending were all giving and no taking.

Well, there is no magic money machine. Every dollar the government spends comes out of your pockets. Every dollar the government gives to someone has to first be taken away from someone else. So, it's our moral duty to make sure that we can justify every one of your tax dollars, that we spend them wisely and carefully and, just as important, fairly.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone could honestly call Federal budgets wise, careful, or fair. Is it fair to ask one small business to help subsidize its competitors? Is it fair to ask workers in the private economy to pay for civil service pensions that are much more generous than the retirement benefits they receive? Is it fair to ask low-income families to help pay for the college education of children from families with incomes as high as $100,000 a year? Is it fair to ask taxpayers to help pay billions for export subsidies to a handful of America's biggest corporations?

Well, it isn't fair, and you know it. But that's the law of the land right now, just part of the legacy of 50 years of trying to do good things for all by treating your earnings like government property.

The time has come to decide what benefits we can properly expect from the Federal Government for ourselves, our neighbors, and those in need; and what government can take from us in taxes without making everyone worse off, including those who need our help. The one thing we cannot do is stay on the immoral, dead-end course of deficit spending.

...

If we want to continue trying to make these the best years of our lives, if we want to protect our retired and disabled, boost small business, create jobs, strengthen our farm economy, our exports, improve our cities, and help your families send your children to college, there is one sure-fire way to do it: We're all going to have to pitch in together. But if we refuse, if we go back to the old pattern of business as usual, then let there be no mistake: Business as usual will eventually destroy our prosperity and all the blessings it has given us.

My fellow citizens, you remember the words of young John Kennedy, words of challenge to America in 1961: ``Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.'' In those days Federal spending was only a fraction of what it is today. Since then government programs have grown to the point where they touch almost half the families in America.

Today his question is more relevant than before. All of us are being challenged again to ask what we can do for our country, challenged to work together -- 237 million strong -- to build a secure and lasting foundation for the American dream.

Even with all our cuts and reforms, our plan still provides $560 billion for nondefense programs next year -- the highest level in history. Congress has before it a budget that doesn't mortgage our future to higher taxes and expanding debt. It is a fair program; it is a balanced program; it will protect the neediest among us; it will stop the worst abuses of overspending; and it not only deserves your support, it must have your support to pass.

So, let me stress as strongly as I can, this shared effort we're asking you to make now will be our best assurance of avoiding painful hardship down the road.

We stand at a crossroads. The hour is late, the task is large, and the stakes are momentous. I ask you to join us in making your voices heard in the Senate this week and later in the House. Please tell your Senators and Representatives by phone, wire, or mailgram that our future hangs in the balance, that this is no time for partisanship, and that our future is too precious to permit this crucial effort to be picked apart piece by piece by the special interest groups. We've got to put the public interest first.

My fellow Americans, I hope history says of us that we were worthy of our past, worthy of our heritage. We can seize the moment; we can do our best for America to keep our future strong, secure, and free. Our children will thank us, and that's all the thanks we'll ever need.

Thank you, God bless you, and good night.

Note: The President spoke at 8 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House. His address was broadcast live on nationwide radio and television.

- President Ronald Reagan, April 24th, 1985

Click here to read the whole speech.

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967-1975).

For European FFWPU/HSA-UWC members: 33rd European CheonSong Condition

Also, a reminder to all FFWPU/HSA-UWC members. True Parents have given the blessing of inheritance to Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim in which they received copies of the Divine Principle, Cheon Seong Gyeong, and Pyungha Hoongyeong (The Peace Messages). We should unite with them and pray sincerely for their success, that they may equal, even surpass True Parents in their connection with God, their accomplishments on earth and in the spirit world, and in their ability to lead our movement.

I encourage all who can to

participate in this Cheon Sung condition, which I imagine is not just for Euorope, it's ju

st different for each region. However, perhaps even more importantly, I think we should all put in prayers for Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim. If they do not succeed, our movement as a whole will fall apart the same way Islam did, and Christianity before them, and Judaism before them.

I am very thankful to True Parents for naming an heir to the throne before they passed on to the spirit world to insure our unity. We should look to the Bahá’í Faith for inspiration, for the Bahá’ís have remained so very united through such terrible strife. Their home nation, Iran, still treats them as second class citizens, yet they are still able to stay united, strong, and close to God all over the world. I pray that we can do the same.

Hyo Jin Moon

I've been struggling lately with so many things to post about and not knowing what to choose. Then 45 year old Hyo Jin Moon dies, and the decision is made.

Hyo Jin may not have lived an ideal life, but his position as the older brother of the True Family still effected the whole Unification movement to some positive degree. I'll be taking a week off from posting anything here as a sort of moment of silence for him.

I pray with all my heart for him to have a good afterlife, for him to become an even better person and better leader in the spirit world. I also pray for his family, that they can reamain close to him and be strong so they may be relieved of their grief.

Words of Hyo Jin Moon

Son of Unification Church founder dies
Published: March 18, 2008 at 12:21 PM

SEOUL, March 18 (UPI) -- Hyo Jin Moon, the oldest son of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, died of a heart attack in Seoul. He was 45.

The younger Moon, who died Monday, was born in South Korea and grew up in the New York area, a church statement said.

He ran Manhattan Center Studios, a New York multimedia facility used by musicians and orchestras for recordings and broadcast events. He was also the founder of MC Korea and MC Japan.

Moon was a musician, performer and multimedia executive producer, producing more than a dozen albums and creating a composition catalog numbering in the thousands. He continued to perform during concerts in Asia each spring up until his death.

Before running Manhattan Center Studios, Moon worked for a decade as first president of the World Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles.

Moon spoke regularly during Sunday meetings in upstate New York, drawing on his experiences for a particular topic. His last speech, "Commitment," was delivered March 9 before he left for South Korea on a business trip.

Moon is survived by his wife, Yun Ah Choi, and four children, and five children from a previous marriage.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon is the founder of News World Communications Inc., a media company that owns UPI.



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