Speeches
Remarks by Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli, Holiday Lighting Ceremony
U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh
November 27, 2007
Your Highness, Excellencies, friends and colleagues.
Welcome to our embassy this evening for the second annual Christmas lighting. We are delighted you are all here with us today, and we are especially delighted to have our very special guests—the children from Friends and from Little Folks. Frankly this event would not be the same without the children. In fact, without the children this event wouldn’t be worth having at all. So we are grateful that you kids so generously are allowing us this chance to spoil you rotten.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that the toys being given to children tonight were donated by our military men and women who are visiting us from the USS Essex. And not only have they sent us enough toys for all the children, but they have also sent us a wonderful military band that you have been listening to for the last hour.
Last Thursday was America’s Thanksgiving celebration. From Friday to Sunday we celebrated Cambodia’s magnificent Water Festival. Today we begin the Christmas season. But what draws us here tonight is that one aspect of Christianity that overlaps with and also defines Buddhism -- compassion. This is the great virtue and principle of life that all great religions share in common: kindness, a concern for the weak and the poor, a realization that while even one other person suffers, our own happiness is incomplete.
But you know I have always felt that compassion alone is not enough. That compassion for others doesn’t get us anywhere unless we are also committed to doing something about it. There is no value in shedding tears and complaining how lousy the world is, if we aren’t willing to do anything to make it better.
And even commitment combined with compassion is not enough. More important than both of these is the importance of being cheerful, even as we recognize all the sorrow around us and all the misery that needs fixing. So I think it is especially appropriate that as we gather tonight to celebrate the season, we be cheerful and happy, and enjoy ourselves.
