(Clearwisdom.net)

As the Chinese Consulate is under orders to organize a big lineup of welcoming groups for Jiang's visit to the US, the local Chinese groups and Chinese students are faced with this choice: should I go and welcome Jiang, or should I stay silent and maintain a neutral stance? Perhaps some have not thought too much about it -- or think, "I can get a free trip and free meals if I join the crowd just for the hype!" However, do you know what kind of a person you will be "cheering" for?

One monument of the Boston Holocaust Memorial carries a message from a Protestant pastor named Martin Niemoller, once a victim of Nazi persecution. This poem has touched many people's hearts. Speaking his repentence in his old age for the moral blemishes of his early years, the message applies equally today.

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one left
to speak up for me.

How painful was the penitence! But it was too late, for he had already found himself in a concentration camp. Being audience to injustice without acting to correct it is complicity in the crime! Albert Einstein once said," In long intervals I have expressed an opinion on public issues whenever they appeared to be so bad and unfortunate that silence would have made me feel guilty of complicity." Whenever something that appears to be "so bad and unfortunate" happens, it is precisely because we stay silent over and over again that the vicious behavior is encouraged and runs rampant in the human world. In this way, we are not only the victims. There is a saying: "silence is not neutral".

For each cycle of political campaigns in China's recent history, the ruling government has always successfully implemented the "5% vs. 95%" psychology: At any time, in any political persecution, only 5% of the people are targeted, and the other 95% are safe. This brings out the very worst of human nature--clinging to the 95% side at any cost, even at the expense of others, and closing their eyes to the rights of the 5%. That 5%, of course, was rotated so often that the whole nation was suppressed into submission.

A Chinese writer once said, "During the Cultural Revolution in China, when it was time to stand up (for justice), every citizen kneeled down in submission. After the Cultural Revolution, however, when it was time to kneel down (to repent for their silence in face of the persecution), everyone stood up and claimed to be a victim!" After the Cultural Revolution, everyone blamed the "Gang of Four" for everything. Seldom would one reflect upon what he himself did when facing persecution and injustice like Niemoller. The whole nation has been audience, but only the writer, Mr. Ba Jin, had the courage to set himself on trial for his crime of "complicity" in the moral court.

Today, for the first time in Chinese history, Falun Gong practitioners have courageously broken out of this pattern. Thousands and thousands of them are not afraid to be that 5%. They stand up for their beliefs, and for a society with justice, regardless of whether they are on the side of 5%, 1%, or alone!

Throughout thousands of years of Chinese history, the response of the Chinese people to persecution has been one of two options: Armed uprising as with Chen Sheng and Wu Guang; or keeping in silence, sometimes even helping the persecutors. The Falun Gong practitioners' persistent and nonviolent resistance to persecution is creating a new choice and new history in China. They refuse to submit to tyranny and violence and they refuse to tell lies. In the face of persecution, they hold their heads high in order to let people know that "Falun Dafa is good", fully aware of the high price they may pay for doing so. They endure political persecution for their belief. But, telling the truth does not mean participating in politics; rather it is the moral action that all human beings should take. This is not about politics, but about justice, about freedom, and about every human being's dignity and conscience.

In detention centers, forced labor camps and prisons, each and every Falun Gong practitioner has been faced with the same choice: They could denounce their belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" -? just sign their names on the so-called "guarantee statement" against their conscience - and be immediately released or significantly reduce their sentences. They could have kept their status as registered students, their benefits from being a member of the Party, or their jobs. They would not have been arrested or put into various detention centers. They would not have become destitute or had to endure the hardships of eating in the wind and sleeping in the cold and damp. They would not have been tried or cruelly tortured in prison. They would not have been crippled or killed by brutal beatings. While the price for telling the truth is high, and the temptation to lie is strong, they chose the to pursue justice, never turning back.

The following was written by a Ph. D student currently studying in the US, on the eve of Jiang Zemin's visit to Texas. Before he leaves for Texas to protest the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang's government, this student would like to share with you these words from his heart:

"Indifference in Conscience of a Nation"

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/10/23/14940.html
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