(Clearwisdom.net, September 28, 2003) At the City of Evansville, Falun Dafa practitioners expressed their appreciations to Mayor Russell G. Lloyd, Jr. for his safeguarding justice and preventing the persecution of Falun Gong from extending to the United States.
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| People are attracted to the photos | áA practitioner addresses the opening remarks. |
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| U.S. Senator of Indiana Richard Lugar sends a representative to express his support. | People sign petition letter to support the rescue of Charles Li. |
In 2000, Mayor Lloyd received some materials slandering Falun Gong sent by the Chinese Consulate. Because of the Mayor's public support of Falun Gong, the Mayor's office also received harassing phone calls. In face of the pressure from the Chinese government, Mayor Lloyd sent out a reply letter, in which he expatiated his reasons to support Falun Gong and considered that as his responsibility. Later, Mayor Lloyd persisted in his standing point and continuously issued proclamations to honor Falun Gong from 2000 to 2003.
To express their gratitude to Mayor Lloyd, Falun Gong practitioners from Indiana presented him a beautiful gift of their appreciation. They also held a photo exhibition and a news conference on September 13, 2003 in the City of Evansville. U.S. Senator of Indiana and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar sent his district director in the area of Evansville to deliver a copy of his public address on September 11 this year. He said in his address that the control of the spread of SARS, the persecution of Falun Gong, the suppression of minorities in the name of anti-terrorism were all very important issues that needed to be handled immediately.
The photo exhibition and the news conference were held at the Evansville's visitors' center. The Americans who came to look at the photos were deeply impressed by the photo showing the giant Chinese characters of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance and the Falun emblem, which were formed by practitioners. The Evansville administrator was moved by practitioners' sincere greetings. Later, practitioners demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises. A practitioner also performed an ancient music piece from 7,000 years ago in China with his flute . Major local TV stations interviewed and reported this activity.
