SOS LA Trip: Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee - July 14, 2001

We began the day with a press conference in front of the capitol building in Little Rock. When we arrived, there was slight rain, but after we began practicing the exercises, it cleared up. We were joined by a television station, a radio station, and later a newspaper reporter from the associated press. We greeted people passing by with SOS flyers and information about our cause.

Afterwards, we went to go eat at a near-by Chinese buffet and afterwards when we went out to the car, our battery was dead and the rain had started again. This was the second time our battery had died that day. Luckily, a family was courteous enough to stop and give us a jump-start. We gave them SOS flyers, told them a bit about our trip and thanked them for their help.

We then began our dive to Memphis, Tennessee where we stayed with a local practitioner. From there we went to the Christian Brothers University where we had a workshop hosted by Gandhi's grandson at the Gandhi Institute. He gave some brief opening words about Gandhi's life and the principles he stood for. The approximately twenty people in attendance were quite concerned with the issues in China and Falun Gong. Four practitioners spoke of their personal experiences of the persecution of Dafa in China and people reiterated their feelings and concerns.

We shared experiences that night with other Memphis practitioners over some Chinese food and went to bed after some late night computer work. We hope the city of Memphis is a bit more conscious and aware of the atrocities that occur and what can be done.