UPF Anchorage, Alaska Peace Road 2021 - Invitation, Backgrounder and Flyer

UPF is an NGO in General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Alaska Chapter ⬧ Tel: (907) 351-2080 ⬧ awjootp@gmail.com

Dear Friend, August 9, 2021

You are invited to a particularly unique webinar this Friday, August 13, 2021, 11 AM to 1 PM, at PeaceRoadUSA.com/events, where we will discuss the Bering Strait: the secret it holds for world peace, the viability of a railway tunnel across it, and why you should know about it.

At one point, Alaska is but 53 miles from the Russian shore. So the question gets asked, “Why haven’t we connected the continents there yet with a tunnel and railway?” Frankly, we haven’t thought about it much. But it’s time to do so for several reasons, one being world peace, and another being mutual prosperity.

Our briefing, called “Peace Road 2021,” will highlight the Bering Strait crossing as the pathway to an interconnected world of harmony. Please watch the live-stream at PeaceRoadUSA.com/events.

Our host is Dr. Michael Jenkins, the UPF North American President. Participating speakers include:

• Mead Treadwell, Vice Chair Alaska To Alberta Rail, Former Alaska Lt. Governor *Invited • Joe Henri, Co-founder of the Inter-hemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel and Railroad Group • Scott Spencer, Chief Project Advisor, InterContinental Railway • Lou Cerny, International Railroad Consultant and Engineer • Vladimir Petrovskiy, Chief Researcher, Institute of Far Eastern Studies

At the briefing, you will also hear a special message from Alaska Congressman Don Young and see a preview of the soon-to-be-released documentary film called, “The Strait Guys.”

Our objective is to inspire our nation’s leaders to begin to think about this idea. The technology is available. It is the political will that must be cultivated.

But before that, an internal impetus for cooperation must be ignited. Remarkably at the outset, this project urges former foes to cooperate, Russia and America. At this briefing, we plan to show you what that means. We are drawing nations and peoples together as neighbors.

The sponsors, The Washington Times Foundation and the Universal Peace Federation Alaska Chapter, encourage you to dream with them about this global railway for peace that connects the continents across the Bering Strait. At a time when the world is begging for unity and hope, Peace Road 2021 offers a valuable contribution.

Eugene Harnett, Executive Director, UPF Alaska

Watch at PeaceRoadUSA.com/events

Peace Road Background: In support of the International Peace Highway, The Intercontinental Railroad through the Bering Strait Bridge and Tunnel

A plan for constructing a highway circumscribing the globe, was presented by its co-founders Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and his wife Dr Hak Ja Han Moon in 1981 in Seoul, Korea at the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences.

In the words of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, “The vision is for a high-speed transportation artery linking the entire globe. On the day of its completion, much of our world will become one village linked by one road. The process of constructing the highway itself provides the world’s peoples and governments a common purpose. The transnational lines of commerce and recreation that open up will stimulate inter-ethnic exchange of culture and goods, and draw us to live in harmony as neighbors.”

Peace Road was created as an educational initiate to raise public awareness of the vision of the International Peace Highway and two of its key components: an undersea tunnel between Korea and Japan, and a Bering Strait tunnel to connect Alaska and Siberia. The focus of Peace Road 2021 is the tunnel that would connect the U.S. and Russia, running under the Bering Strait. Already, experts with the support of the Russian government have laid substantial groundwork for this important Bridge and Tunnel to be completed. So many are interested in the United States as well. An Intercontinental railroad will allow for a global revolution in economy and trade. Connecting Russia and America by the Bering Strait Bridge and Tunnel will open up enormous trade, economic development and global tourism. At the same time for it to happen Russia and America must come to a cooperative and peaceful relationship that will surely be advanced through this incredible endeavor.

In the words of Rev. Sun Myung Moon: “This tunnel can help make the world a single community at last. Think of how much money the world is wasting on war. The time has come for nations to work together, pool their resources and, as the prophet Isaiah taught, beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.”

Physically linking these two nations by tunnel and road would be just the beginning of a profound alteration in how we perceive each other, encouraging a realization on both sides that we truly are neighbors.

The History of Connectivity

Humankind’s desire to reach out to other peoples is one that goes back to ancient times.

Trade routes and infrastructure have been vital to the growth and stability of civilizations since the dawn of human history. Until roughly 9,000 BCE, a land bridge connected Siberia and Alaska, allowing humans to cross from Afro-Eurasia into the Americas. Around 114 BCE, the Han Dynasty of China expanded its Central Asian trade network, creating the “Silk Road,”

Peace Road Background: In support of the International Peace Highway, Page 2 of 2 The Intercontinental Railroad through the Bering Strait Bridge and Tunnel

which contributed to the economic and cultural interconnectedness of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania for millennia thereafter.

The Romans built a massive network of roads throughout their Empire, connecting Western Europe to the Middle East and North Africa, many of which are still in use today, after thousands of years.

The Peace Road vision

The vision of the Peace Road Initiative goes beyond the materialistic desire for the economic and political benefits of an international road, and champions the spiritual dimension, which aims to tear down the walls that have historically divided us – racism and cultural differences, prejudice and fear – and bring humankind together as one family under God.

Until today, there has never been a road or highway specifically conceived and built as a highway to world peace. The International Peace Highway and Intercontinental Railroad epitomizes Rev. Moon’s conviction that humanity is one family under God and that if people could meet each other in daily life, through culture, trade, and travel, the historic fears and misunderstandings that often divide us from our closest neighbors would break down in the face of our increased mutual familiarity.

In her 2020 memoir, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon expressed the dream as a basic human desire. She wrote: “I want everyone to be able to travel the International Peace Highway by car or even bicycle from Cape Town to Santiago, from London to New York. I want taking a trip you’re your sweetheart through any country around the world to be as easy as visiting your hometown.”