Miami is a beautiful harbor city in Florida; it's also a famous travel place in America. On February 10th, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo declared this day to be Falun Dafa Day. On this day, several practitioners came from many cities in Florida to promote Dafa in Friendly Torch Square.
Practitioners demonstrated the five exercises several times around the burning torch. There were many Dafa banners hung around the square. We also displayed pictures of Falun Dafa practitioners from around the world and photos of the persecution of Mainland China practitioners. The silence and peacefulness of the practitioners encouraged many passengers to stop to watch. For most of the western visitors, this was their first time to meet Falun Dafa practitioners and many people asked questions. There were also a few who posed in front of the practicing practitioners to take pictures. Now, having seen Falun Dafa practitioners face-to-face, it became more than some far away news report. It is now not so strange.
The Miami Herald interviewed several practitioners. The journalists were shocked to hear about the horrific and tragic experiences of practitioners in China. They felt sick when learning about how the Chinese government engineered the "self-immolation" only to defame Falun Dafa. It was interesting that one of the photographers, who merely came to take pictures, decided to be a reporter this time and wrote everything down, as he was apparently moved by the event.
The next day, Sunday, we stayed in Miami to promote Dafa. We heard there would be a Chinese New year celebration in Miami-Dade Community College at noon. We got there in time and stood in front of the entrance to hand out materials clarifying the true facts. This event attracted around 1000 people. In the noisy, busy atmosphere of this holiday celebration, Dafa practitioners handed out Dafa newsletters and flyers one by one into people's hands. Both Chinese and Westerners were very glad to accept our materials. Many people said that they were looking for "Falun Gong". They finally found it today! By the time the event concluded, we'd handed out all of our Dafa materials.
The two days' activities are now over and everything that happened seemed normal, but we know that this was a wonderful opportunity that our merciful Teacher gave to us. Master said in the US Western Falun Dafa Experience Sharing conference, "I'd also like to take this opportunity to really thank the various levels of government in the United States and Canada for the honors they've bestowed upon us and upon me. Under this special circumstance, I can't thank them individually, but I will bring them a wonderful future. On the surface, we're seeking public support for Dafa. This is the thinking of the worldly human side, manifest in this human place. Yet it's reversed on the other side. Whoever supports Dafa or advocates for Dafa is establishing for himself his being's existence in the future and is laying a foundation for obtaining the Fa in the future." As a Dafa particle, we should do whatever we can to let people know the truth about Falun Dafa and we also hope all kind-hearted people will chose a beautiful future for themselves.
Reported by Florida Practitioners
February 12, 2001
