Thank-You Letter to the President of Edison Council for His Support of Falun Gong

July 27, 2001

Mr. Tony Massaro

President of Edison Council

On behalf of all Falun Dafa practitioners and supporters in Edison, New Jersey, we commend your efforts in cosponsoring Resolution 461 to demand that the Chinese government stop persecuting Falun Dafa immediately.

As we embark into the 21^st century, we look forward to bright hope and optimism, a fresh new start. However, as pointed out by Irwin Cotler, Member of the Canadian Parliament and renowned human rights lawyer:

"What we are witnessing today in China is the 'criminalization of innocence.' They have taken a spiritual meditation exercise group, outlawed it and declared it illegal, then subjected all its members to intimidation, prosecution, persecution, and imprisonment, for no other reason than that they espoused the basic, fundamental values of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance."

At the time when the basic human rights of tens of millions of people are brutally violated by the Chinese government, we are glad that you and your colleagues have stood up to safeguard and uphold justice.

As you and your colleague said in the council meeting, the resolution may be just a symbolic gesture, but it is at least our first effort to rescue our fellow human beings in our sister city. We applaud your proposal of sending the resolution to Shijiazhuang City and urging our State Department to rescue all detained Falun Gong practitioners. The persecution against innocent people must stop!

To ensure our fellow human beings in China to enjoy, just as we do, the rights of belief, rights of conscience, rights of pursuing their inner peace, we have a lot more things to do. We look forward to working with you to continue this "Urgent Rescue" program.

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