(Minghui.org) Editor's note: Below is Senator Tony Avella's proclamation, read by an assistant, on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on July 17, 2014, at the rally marking 15 years of the persecution of Falun Gong.

Senator Avella has served the 11th Senate District of the State of New York since 2010.

Whereas, Tony Avella, State Senator of the 11th District is proud to join family, friends, and distinguished guests in honoring the Tuidang movement on the occasion of a rally by Falun Gong practitioners on July 17th in Washington, DC, and

Whereas, the Tuidang movement is freeing the hearts and minds of Chinese people, renouncing their memberships in the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Youth League, and the Chinese Communist Party Young Pioneers, and

Whereas, the people from all walks of life participate in the Tuidang movement, irrespective of social status, religion, belief, gender, and ethnicity, and

Whereas, the Global Service Center for Quitting the Communist Party, based in New York, has been coordinating the Tuidang movement worldwide, and

Whereas, the Tuidang movement began in December 2004, and the number of people who have renounced the CCP and the affiliated organizations reached 167 million in June 2014, and the number of renunciations continues to increase at almost 100,000 per day in 2014, and

Whereas, the Tuidang movement, as the largest grassroots movements in history aims to bring the CCP to its final demise through a peaceful transformation of Chinese people, and

Whereas, the Tuidang movement has brought to the international community a renewed vision of a world without communism through a peaceful movement, and

Whereas, as dedicated members of our community, the Tuidang movement and its participants have enriched our state with their presence and are worthy of the esteem of all New Yorkers,

Now, therefore, be it known that Tony Avella, State Senator of the 11th District, most gratefully honors the Tuidang movement and participants of the Tuidang movement.