United States: Mayor of West Hollywood Stands Firm in Defending Proclamation for Falun Gong

On August 16, 2003, a celebration was held at the Echo Park branch of the Los Angeles Public Library to commemorate Falun Dafa Week in Los Angeles County, California. Mayor Jeffrey Prang of the city of West Hollywood made a speech at the ceremony, and also presented one of the 40 proclamations issued for the Falun Dafa Week. Following is a transcript of Mayor Prang's interview with a third party media at the ceremony.

Interviewer: I enjoyed the story in your speech about how you were first introduced to Falun Dafa. Could you talk about it?

Mayor: We received a letter from the followers of Falun Dafa requesting a proclamation a number of years ago. We get a lot of these requests and it seemed a perfectly reasonable, acceptable thing to do so we issued a proclamation commending Falun Dafa week.

It was followed by a letter from the Chinese consulate saying, please withdraw this proclamation, this is an "evil cult." They used the term "evil" kind of like children--it was very odd. They sent me some materials; they sent me a video, and I watched all of the video and I looked through the materials, and I actually found the Chinese government's propaganda against Falun Dafa to be childish, and it didn't look legitimate. And it made me a little bit angry; it made me upset that they were--what I felt--attempting to oppress people's freedom of expression.

I'm not an expert on Falun Gong, but it seems that the practice is benevolent; it's peaceful; it focuses on the best of humanity--on virtues of peace, love, happiness, tolerance, forbearance, etc.--and all types of good things that we want for people. Why would they oppose this?

And this year I received a letter from the Chinese consulate, once again telling me how "evil" Falun Gong was, and this time I was more outraged, and I wrote them a letter back. I said, "I reviewed all of your materials and I found your materials to be childish." And I said, "They were not persuasive, and indeed the more information I get the more it persuades me that your government is wrong. Coming from a city, West Hollywood, where we put a high priority on acceptance, on tolerance, on civil rights, on human dignity, I think the Chinese government has fallen down on their obligation to their own people, and I invite you, the consul general, to join me in the city of West Hollywood and lobby your government in Beijing to change its policies toward Falun Gong."

And then, I received an invitation to come here today and to speak. So I think there are many religions, and there are many practises of spirituality and meditation that people use to make their lives better, and Falun Gong is one of those, and I have a lot of admiration for what it has done for people and the quickness of its rise in popularity throughout the world. Those are things that should be encouraged and enhanced, and to see this coordinated, orchestrated effort by a government to oppress, to torture, to kill, and to try to influence another government--and I said, I'll have nothing to do with that.

They inspired me to not only not do what they asked but to work against them because I thought it was so outrageous, what they had suggested. And I'm hoping that others--West Hollywood doesn't have a large role to play in statecraft at the international level--however, I'm hoping that other cities like West Hollywood and states can encourage the President and the Congress to take more affirmative action toward the relationship we have with the government in Beijing, and maybe we can influence them to back away from their policies.

Interviewer: Has there been a response from the Chinese government?

Mayor: Not yet, but I'm not sure they're accustomed to getting anyone responding to them--but I'm eagerly awaiting getting a complaint to the state department against our "meddling in foreign affairs." I have news for the government in Beijing: that this is not Beijing and that our federal government here does not tell us what we can or cannot do. We have freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and if George Bush himself came here today and told me to withdraw that proclamation, I'd tell him no--and I would.

Interviewer: You said that you did some research on Falun Gong. What did you think when you first found out about the horrific human rights abuses that were going on in China?

Mayor: Well I guess I've always basically known that the government in Beijing was quite oppressive over the press, over religion, over freedom of expression, over political dissent; and we knew that there have been a lot of human rights violations by the Chinese government. It didn't surprise me that they were using the same tactics against Falun Gong, but it's been very clear that in a very short period of time--one hears of a very popular practise that has brought great meaning and significance to the lives of millions of Chinese people, that they are aggressively trying to trample on it, to stomp it down--and I think it's just another very significant signal that their policies and practises in Beijing are wrong.

I also think they are particularly egregious because Falun Gong is something that, whether you practise it or not, you cannot disagree that its principles are a good thing that contribute value to humanity. And the Chinese government attacking something that is so benign, so peaceful and something which attempts to bring people together with the best virtues and values of humanity, it's particularly egregious. It should serve as a beacon to the world that the Chinese government's human rights practises are so bad that they're even willing to go after women and children practising a very benign, peaceful cultivation spirituality. It just cannot be tolerated in the international community.

Interviewer: Speaking from the positiveness of Falun Gong, as the mayor of West Hollywood, do you think this practise could benefit the people of West Hollywood?

Mayor: I think it could. In this country today, whether in West Hollywood or the whole United States, people are busier and busier; they're working harder and longer hours; you can see the frustration on the freeways and on the roads; people's patience for their own lives, for their families, for the people around them is at an end.

And to the degree that we can take a step back, calm ourselves, calm our minds, meditate and think about our place in the world and our relationship to those around us, I think that's healthy. And I think that if it makes you healthier, happier and more compassionate to those around you, I think that's really good for our society, and I think that there are a lot of people who would benefit from this practise.

Some people derive a lot of that value from their religion, other people through yoga, and other people through Falun Gong, and this sort of thing, which focuses, again, on great virtues, the virtues of humanity that we all agree are the best, is something that people should be encouraged to take a look at, to see if there is a place for it in their lives.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.

Mayor: My pleasure, thank you.