(Clearwisdom.net) When Dafa practitioners from different regions of the world went to Washington, D.C. to participate in the parade, to protest, and to engage in other various activities, I was fortunate enough to be able to join them. While I was moved by the fellow practitioners' enormous contributions, I also felt the need to make several suggestions.
First, I want to talk about the parade. During past parades that were organized by Dafa practitioners, the participants just walked silently in the parade while accompanied by the Pudu and Jishi music. Thus, the scene was solemn and respectful. I could not help feeling moved to tears at these events. The non-practitioners who were watching could feel the goodness of Dafa. Recently, we started to hold parades to support the Chinese people's withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and we started to shout slogans because there were also non-practitioners who joined us in the parades. However, in the current parades, we are combining the contents of Dafa with that of supporting people's withdrawal from the CCP. So should we shout slogans during these parades? If we do need to shout slogans, how should we do it and what should we shout?
The meanings of the slogans that we feel the need to shout should be clear to people who hear them. However, some of our slogans do not seem to meet this criterion. For example, there was one slogan, "No More CCP," where people and even many fellow practitioners did not know what "CCP" meant when they shouted the slogan. So how could the passers-by know its meaning? I noticed that when we shouted "No More CCP," the passers-by did not show any reactions. But when we shouted "No More Chinese Communist Party," many people immediately turned around, indicating that they had understood what we had shouted. Although many practitioners did not speak English well, we must still let people understand what we were shouting if we need to shout.
Similar situations also occurred regarding the contents of the banners we used. Many banners did not at all clearly convey what we wanted to say. For example, there was a banner that read, "Millions are dying, what are we waiting for." When I read the banner, I felt odd and thought: "Who are dying? What are we waiting for? What should we do?" If a passer-by, who had not known any facts about the situation, saw this banner, could he understand it? There were also cases where practitioners rushed to make many banners and made many mistakes. For example, "Luo Gan" was spelled as "Luo Gen," and "We want the truth" as "We want to truth," etc.
Furthermore, because the number of Chinese people who have withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations has been continuously rising, our banners need to show the number changing. However, the number change was not done well, so the newly placed numbers peeled off multiple times during our parade and assembly. The cause was very simple. The updated number was attached with clear tape, which could not withstand the wind.
I know that practitioners were busy and had little time. However, this situation happened at all of our activities. I feel that during every activity, we did not give the issue enough attention, which negatively impacted those activities. I really hope that we can make progress in this regard.
Second, I'd like to talk about how we protested. It could be said that our manner of protesting in Washington, D.C. was hectic. We shouted continuously. We were in a duel-like state with the "welcome crowd" (those the CCP had brought in to welcome them). Both sides wanted to overpower the other by using loudspeakers. I saw that some of the individuals in the "welcome crowd" were in a state of high excitement. When we shouted, they did not listen at all. They appeared as if they were playing a very exciting game and wanted to get the upper hand and overpower the opponent during the game. How about us; how did we present ourselves? I realized that I felt the competitive mentality rise up within myself at the time.
The greatest impact occurred when we broadcasted the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. At that time I stood on the roadside and held a banner. The "welcome crowd" stood behind us, and they intentionally tried to squeeze forward. One of them was obviously an agent of the CCP. He intentionally squeezed in and then stood in front of three practitioners, who were from three generations of the same family - a lady who was about 70 years old and a lady in her 30's who was with a three or four year old little practitioner. The agent frightened the little practitioner, and the child sat on the ground holding her mother's leg. At that time all the practitioners around started to denounce the secret agent. I also got angry and denounced him for his brazenness. However, this agent said that he had tried to avoid the child, and that we were using the child as a political tool. It did not matter what we said to him; the more we talked to him, the more rampant he became. One man in his 40's even went so far as to curse Dafa and Master. At that point, one practitioner solemnly said to him, "Aren't you afraid of receiving karmic retribution?" He, to our surprise, did not answer back and remained quiet. It seemed that this person knew the truth and felt guilty, and he seemed especially afraid of receiving karmic retribution.
There were also many practitioners who clarified the truth and gave out the Nine Commentaries to the "welcome crowd." However, these people neither dared to accept the Nine Commentaries nor did they dare to listen to the truth-clarification. The situation had obviously become better after we started to read the Nine Commentaries to them through a loudspeaker. Both sides calmed down. Many of them started to quietly listen to the Nine Commentaries, and their facial impressions changed. I believe that the Nine Commentaries had entered many of their minds, so they got to know the truth to varying degrees. I also personally saw that the man in his 40's who cursed Dafa quietly listened and his hands were slightly shaking.
Later, I thought about this issue for a long time, and I also exchanged thoughts and insights with fellow practitioners. When we protested in front of the White House or when we waited for Hu to come, what was our objective? Showing Hu our banners, shouting slogans, and letting him listen to our voices? Were these our true objectives? Dafa practitioners should do the three things no matter where they are. So these occasions were obviously suited to our clarifying the truth. In fact, Hu already knew the truth. So to whom should we clarify the truth? We should clarify the truth to the passers-by, the police, and the "welcome crowd," who had gone there under the influence of the evil's deception. What a good opportunity! The evil had brought us so many precious Chinese people. Under normal circumstances, we would not have the opportunity to see so many overseas Chinese people. Now the evil had brought them to D.C. for us!
On the other hand, is it true that the evil is afraid of our truth-clarification? So if all these Chinese people (that the evil had brought to D.C.) had known the truth, would the evil dare to include them in the welcome crowd next time? I suggest that Dafa practitioners send forth righteous thoughts silently, and, at the same time, broadcast the Nine Commentaries through loudspeakers.
Third, regarding the overall organization, we also had shortcomings. For example, as practitioners rushed here from different parts of the world, many of them came directly from their flights to the sites of assembly and the parades. Their luggage was not properly handled. Many of them followed instructions and put their luggage on the lawn, assuming that someone had been specifically assigned to take care of the luggage. As a result, many people could not find their luggage after the activities were over. If their lost luggage had contained some important documents, such as passports, this loss would have created a big problem for these practitioners! If local practitioners had prepared for a truck or van to carry the luggage, it would have been really helpful for the practitioners who came from other regions. Then, if they could not immediately find their luggage, they could locate it later.
On April 19, practitioners were told to go to the front of the White House and the hotels to hold banners. The local practitioners gave the coordinators from other regions the addresses and let the practitioners from other regions find these places on their own. After they found the locations, the practitioners did not know where they should stand to hold the banners and what requirements they needed to follow. If there had been at least one local practitioner who could lead these practitioners to the pre-determined places and coordinate the relevant arrangements, we would have been able to assume better positions, and there would not have been the need for us to adjust our positions after the "welcome crowd" came. Although the local practitioners were very busy, we would have been able to solve the issue if we had two local practitioners present. (There were only two sites.)
During the assembly and parade, we found that there were so many photographers and reporters. We did not know where there came from, as they showed no identification. Especially during the forum when the two witnesses could be interviewed, these reporters came directly up to the witnesses. If one or two dangerous individuals were intermingled into the crowd, we could not identify them and prevent them from doing anything inappropriate. So this meant that the two witnesses had been put into a dangerous situation. I suggest that during future activities, our hosting (city or state) organization should think about how to handle such issues well.
