Ambassador James F. Moriarty Remarks for Daniel Pearl Music Day Concert

October 5, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to Kamal Kunj. My wife Lauren and I are delighted to have you in our home for a very special evening of music and fellowship. Tonight we celebrate the life Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal whose name few us knew before his brutal slaying by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002.

At that time, the world was still churning in the turmoil from September 11 and its aftermath. I was working at the National Security Council then, and I was with President George Bush at the White House when he met Danny’s widow, Marianne, just after his murder.

I remember the meeting clearly. She was very pregnant with their son, Adam – a child who would never know his father. Despite the intense personal tragedy she had to endure in public, she was not bitter. On the contrary, she was full of forgiveness and warmth.

She called for reconciliation and refused to condemn an entire culture for the violence of a few. Instead she understood that the terrorists would never win. They represented the past -- people who want to take us back hundreds of years, people who want to dictate the thoughts and actions of others, people who don’t understand humanity’s thirst for peace and freedom. Despite the brutal murder of her husband, she focused on the fact that her unborn baby represented the future -- a message of hope. I am still struck by both the tragedy and humanity surrounding that meeting in the Oval Office that day.

It is the humanity that we celebrate this evening. Danny’s life-long love of music and travel together opened up the entire world to him and gave him a way to connect with other people. In this same spirit, we are working under two themes tonight: Harmony for Humanity and Nepal-American friendship.

Harmony for Humanity is the name given to concerts that celebrate Danny’s life and legacy each year around his October 10 birthday. Peace is the driving force behind Harmony for Humanity, which seeks to bridge cultural divides through music. Our concert is just one of many in both South Asia and around the world this week.

My wife and I chose to complement this worldwide effort with an emphasis tonight on the friendship between Nepal and the United States. We will celebrate almost 55 years of ongoing relations through music – with a concert featuring both Nepali and American sounds.

I would like to thank all the musicians and others who are giving their time and talent for this event and all of you as well for joining us. I’ll now leave you in the capable hands of Robin Sharma-ji. Please enjoy the evening.

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