Opening Remarks for Washington DC July 23 Rally

Gail Rachlin
A spokesperson for Falun Gong

July 23, 2002

Good afternoon, and welcome! I'd like to welcome you all to our rally.

We are gathered here at the nation's capital, at the heart of the free world, as practitioners, as supporters of Falun Gong, as well as defenders of human rights. We are united today by a common belief that Together, We Can End the Persecution of Falun Gong! And I want to thank you for being here.

This week we actually mark the third long year of oppression in the People's Republic of China. It was on July 20^th, 1999 that the China's communist leadership began its official crackdown on Falun Gong.

Through the last three years we have suffered enormously from this brutal persecution. We have endured humiliation, wrongful imprisonment, slavery, torture, rape, the loss of all of our rights, vicious defamation from the one-sided media propaganda, and the murder of thousands of practitioners. Truly, the Jiang Zemin regime has totally lost its senses, and forgotten the good of China.

Through all this, however, there is something that we have not lost. We have not returned the violence, we have not returned the lies and the hatred. We have endured so much and courageously followed three simple virtues: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. For those who persecute us, no matter how violent they get, no matter how vicious and how deceitful they are, they will never be able to take our virtues and principles from our hearts.

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