(Clearwisdom.net) The Florida "Car Tour to Rescue Charles Li" successfully concluded on Friday, September 19, 2003 after a one-week journey. The car tour set off from Tampa, traveling through about a dozen major cities in Florida, including Bradenton, Fort Myers, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Melbourne, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Gainesville. The entire journey was more than 2,000 kilometers. With Dafa practitioners' righteous thoughts and cooperation as a whole body, the rescue tour achieved good effects clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa.
A press conference at Daytona Beach |
Press-photographer from Melbourne takes pictures |
Local newspaper in Gainesville interviews practitioners |
Members of the car tour and local practitioners in Gainesville |
Florida is a large state with a scattered population. Dafa practitioners live all over in different places. The car tour fully demonstrated the strength of cooperation as a whole body.
The car tour was comprised of three practitioners, but we received support and cooperation from practitioners in different cities we visited. When the car tour traveled to cities without practitioners or with only a few practitioners, practitioners from other cities would help make phone calls to make appointments with the media, and apply for sites for activities.
Some practitioners drove several hours to offer support, hold press conferences or visit Mayors' offices. Florida practitioners overcame all kinds of difficulties, cooperated with each other and formed an effective unified body. Western and Chinese practitioners cooperated quite well when meeting the reporters and visiting city governments. When preparing Dafa truth-clarifying materials, delivering letters to city government officials and the media, the Western practitioners fully displayed their advantages in language. Chinese practitioners assisted them, offered opinions to supplement and made suggestions.
All members of the car tour gradually formed a whole body. Righteous thoughts became stronger, wisdom was enriched, and the effects were better and better. In the first one or two days, there were few media outlets attending our press conferences. The practitioners had to visit them one by one. In the following cities we traveled to, we had more interviews with the media; sometimes, several media attended the press conferences. On the final day of our car tour, four media outlets in Tallahassee, the capital city of Florida, attended our press conference. Several more media outlets also wanted to interview us. In the afternoon, at our final stop, Gainesville, a reporter interviewed us for about one hour. The next day, the largest local newspaper published an in-depth report on us.
When we had a meal at a Chinese restaurant near Orlando, the owner heard about Falun Gong, and said gladly, "Well, welcome Falun Gong." He said they often watched NTD TV programs, and were quite familiar with Falun Gong. He also asked us if we had materials for exercise instructions, because his friend wanted to learn but hadn't found it for a long time. Regarding Jiang's persecution, his comment was "stupid."
We also met some interference on the way. Car repairs were required even before we set off. In Jacksonville, four media outlets scheduled to interview us at 3:30 p.m. but changed their plans at 3:00 p.m. due to an accident occurring locally. The practitioners treated all interference with righteous thoughts, and finally achieved a good result.