California, USA: San Diego Practitioners Participate in Martin Luther King Day Parade, Spectators Deeply Moved by Anti-Torture Exhibition (Photos)

By a San Diego Falun Dafa practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net) The annual "Martin Luther King Day Parade" was held on January 15 in downtown San Diego, California. To commemorate this renowned civil rights leader, a national holiday has been established in his honor each year on the third Monday of January. This year, a number of "Martin Luther King Day" events were held on January 15. There were commemorative activities all around the nation. In order to use this opportunity to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa and save sentient beings, San Diego practitioners joined the parade with an "Anti-Torture Exhibition."

The Falun Gong procession was composed of two banners, a decorated float, a flat-bed truck with an anti-torture exhibition and a large section of practitioners holding truth-clarification posters. Practitioners carrying a banner with the words, "Falun Dafa" led the group, followed by a float with practitioners demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises. Their movements were smooth and graceful and won a lot of praise from the spectators.

Behind the float, four practitioners carried a banner printed with, "Please help stop the persecution in China." On the truck behind them were three sets of torture re-enactments: Being locked in a small cage, the "Tiger Bench," and brutal force-feeding. Behind the torture reenactments came the truth-clarification section. Informational posters told the history of Falun Dafa and its wide spread throughout the world, how practitioners have benefited from Dafa physically and morally, and the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in 1999, including details about numerous practitioners being jailed, tortured and murdered.

Displaying truth-clarification posters to spectators before the parade

The Falun Gong procession

A spectator takes a photo of a torture re-enactment

The exercise demonstration, torture reenactments and informational posters told the story of Falun Dafa from a number of different aspects, and drew a sharp contrast between the compassion of Dafa and the evilness of the persecution. The spectators were deeply moved. Wherever the Falun Dafa procession went by, the spectators first praised the elegance of Falun Dafa. But when they saw the anti-torture exhibition, they turned silent and occasionally one could hear, "Oh my goodness," or "It is so cruel." Most of the spectators were shocked and could not say a word.

Clarifying the truth of the persecution to spectators along the street

Lives were touched and the air seemed frozen. The practitioners displayed the beauty of Falun Dafa, the inhuman persecution in China and the practitioners' persistent and peaceful efforts to clarify the truth and bring an end to the persecution.

People learn the truth of the persecution

People learn the truth of the persecution

People learn the truth of the persecution after the parade

The spectators asked for truth clarification materials. Many of them asked why the Chinese Communist Party wants to persecute a group of good people and they wanted to know how they could help the Falun Gong practitioners. One Spanish-language media reporter followed the procession the entire parade route and took a lot of photos. He asked a lot of questions and in the end he said he wanted to learn the exercises. One spectator said, "You did the right thing! You ought to expose the evil." Another spectator offered to contact human rights organizations for us.

The practitioners participating in this event said that this was the first live anti-torture reenactment exhibition in San Diego, and they felt that the truth-clarification effect was very strong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/1/18/93748.html

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