Thanksgiving Day is a traditional American holiday over a long weekend. On the occasion that American people gathered to celebrate the holiday, Florida's Tampa City Falun Gong practitioners decided to bring the Truth of Dafa to more people over this long weekend and started a 5-day long SOS Urgent RescueWalk on November 21, 2001. The practitioners walked from Tampa City to Disney via 3 counties and over 10 cities for a total of about 90 miles.

The workshop at the University of South Florida

In the evening before the walk, a workshop with a theme of "Peace, Compassion and Tolerance" was held in University of South Florida. State representatives, air force generals, diplomats, religion specialists and professors, general editors newspapers were specially invited to form a specialist group. Several hundreds people and many local media attended the workshop. The local Dafa practitioners took advantage of this opportunity to distribute Dafa materials and hold banner reading "SOS! Walk for Peace and Justice" in front of the conference hall. The members of the specialist group and media accepted Dafa literature. The practitioners also had a friendly talk with the president of the University of South Florida. The president expressed her concern about the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China and highly praised the righteous action of the practitioners participating in the walk. She wished the success to our walk and advised us to bring enough water. In the workshop, the specialists discussed the topic of "the State Terrorism carried out by Jiang Zemin's Regime" and thought that the whole world should unite to fight state terrorism.

The Walk Initiation Ceremony and the Meeting by Chance with TV Reporters

In the afternoon on November 21, 2001, the walk initiation ceremony was held on the Martin Luther King Square symbolizing freedom and equality located in the University of South Florida. The Director of International Students and Scholars Affairs Office of the University of South Florida was invited to the ceremony. The practitioners demonstrated the exercises and distributed truth-clarifying materials. They also displayed posters exposing the persecution against Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's regime and the photos of Western practitioners being beaten on Tiananmen Square on November 20, 2001. At 12:00 p.m., the practitioners read their statement of the SOS Urgent RescueWalk. At the end of the statement, it read, "When you unite with your family to celebrate the Thanksgiving Day, please remember that on the other side of the Earth, tens of thousands of families are forced apart. We walked to Disney World to meet people from all over the world and seek their help. Let us join together, we can make the world more peaceful." Afterwards, the director gave a speech and highly praised the peaceful movement of Falun Gong. He left his cellular and home phone numbers, "Contact me any time when you need help."

By chance reporters and photographers from ABC TV station went to the campus to cover another activity. When hearing about our walk activity, the reporters went to the square, videotaped the group practice and interviewed some practitioners. At 1:00 p.m., the Florida SOS! Urgent RescueWalk started. The participants of the walk included young Ph.D. students, middle-aged research scientists, and near 70-year-old elderly man. In order to let more people to learn the truth, the practitioners intentionally selected a longer route to cover more cities.

The Walk Receives Support from Kind-Hearted People

On the way, the practitioners held the banner reading "SOS! Walk for Peace and Justice", distributed flyers, clarified the truth and sent forth righteous thoughts. The cars passing greeted us by honking their horns. Passengers in some cars applauded. A kind Mexican family voiced their support to our walk and wanted again and again to donate money. A lady with an infant stopped beside the road, inquired about the situation of persecution and offered to actively help. Passersby and shop workers all expressed their support of our walk and condemned the atrocities of the Jiang Zemin regime's persecution against Falun Gong. Some innocent children surrounded us to listen to our talk on the truth of Dafa. After making sure everyone got the truth-clarifying literature, they left reluctantly and said they would let their parents know the truth.

From the second day, some practitioners got blisters on their feet and some had cramps. We walked over 30 miles in one and a half days. All of us were very tired, but nobody withdrew. The practitioners also shared experiences, listened to the Fa, and sent forth righteous thoughts during the walk. Throughout the walk, the practitioners became clearer on their responsibilities as Dafa practitioners. Everyone was resolute in deterring interference and held righteous thoughts at all times, "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it."

Posting date: 11/25/2001
Original article date: 11/24/2001
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2001/11/24/20252.html

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