On September 8, 2001, Bay Area Falun Gong practitioners organized an SOS: RescueWalk from San Jose to San Francisco as part of a worldwide effort for rescuing Dr. Teng, and Jianhua Lu, a former San Jose resident who is currently detained in the notorious Masanjia labor camp. The approximately 60 mile distance from San Jose to San Francisco has been divided into six separate sections, each having separate press conferences and walkers, in order to complete the entire distance in one day. This report is focused on segment #2 -- Sunnyvale to Palo Alto.
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| Practitioner read the press statement at the kick-off | Walk on the main road |
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| Hongfa at a football pre-game party | Finish at the Palo Alto City Hall |
A press conference was held at the Sunnyvale Community Center to kick off the walk. Quoting part of the press statement: "When good people are persecuted for their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, it is not only our concern, but your concern, humanity's concern. And when these good people stand up to resist the evil that attacks them, as the Falun Gong practitioners in China have so courageously done, it is our job -- our moral duty--to help them. And when this persecution has even harmed the families and lives of people here in the United States, as you will hear from two Falun Gong practitioners in a few minutes, we cannot just stand by."
After the press conference, approximately 30 practitioners started the walk on the main road, El Camino Real, and began handing out flyers to people. Many people were happy to receive the flyers and asked how they could help. Practitioners walked on both sides of the main road, passing flyers to pedestrians, stopped cars, shops, dealerships, parks, etc. on the way. In Mountain, an art and wine festival was taking place. Falun Gong did reserved a table and had posters, flyers, books, videotapes, and other things available to the public.
As the group approached their destination in Palo Alto, we noticed a large Stanford Football pre-game party. We went in and passed out flyers and clarified the truth to many more people. The walk came to its conclusion at the Palo Alto City Hall.
Even though the walk was over 10 miles long and 4 children (age 6-9) took part, no one stopped. Even though the children were tired and were told towards the end of the walk that they could ride in the support van behind us, they wanted to continue walking, and finished the entire course passing out flyers and talking to people.
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Category: April 25 Events
