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Peace Road Cyclists to Rally at Pasadena City Hall
News Jul 22, 2015
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Pastor George Kazakos instructs bicyclists outside of Pasadena City Hall before their two-mile bike ride as part of a Peace Road rally on July 18, 2015. The international effort is striving to build a symbolic highway to world peace in honor of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. – Photo by Trevor Stamp
Peace Road Aims to Connect Have-Not Nations With Haves
A small number of cyclists rode for peace on the morning of Saturday, July 18, beginning with a program at 11 a.m. at the rotunda of the Pasadena City Hall following the annual Parents’ Day event. Bicyclists rode through historic downtown Pasadena for two miles to the Pasadena Unification Center at the top of Holly Vista Drive.
“Although it once seemed utterly impossible, a continuous highway passing through the Bering Strait and from Kamchatka Island to London could happen within our lifetime,” said Kazakos. He added, “Think about the benefits to the have-not nations of the world if we could bridge cultures for peace through increased trade, dialogue, exchange of products, services, ideas and visitors.”
Peace Road rallies on the West Coast started in Pasadena July 18 and will include celebrations in San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Anchorage, Kodiak, and Nome, AK. Cyclists will rally at the United Nations on Aug. 4 and on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 6, 2015.
Throughout recorded history, humanity has built roads. Some, like the famed Silk Road from Europe to China, were created to foster trade, exploration, and cooperation. The Roman road system was built to allow the Roman legions to administer a vast empire, leading to the saying “all roads lead to Rome.”
In 1919, Dwight D. Eisenhower, then a lieutenant-colonel in the U.S. Army, was appalled that a military convoy from Washington to San Francisco took two months to complete a journey that today takes less than a week. Later, as President, he signed legislation to create today’s interstate system. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, British and French engineers toyed with the idea of a tunnel across the British Channel for almost 200 years before finally completing it in 1994.
Yet, until today, there has never been a road or highway specifically conceived and built as a highway to world peace. It was one of the great visions and dreams of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and his wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. Sun Myung Moon was controversial for many reasons, but primarily his Messiah complex.
In life, Rev. Moon was known as a complex and controversial religious and spiritual leader who led an energetic and unorthodox new religion but was also an early champion of interfaith unity, dialogue, and understanding.
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