United States: Eternal Light of Hope -- The Candlelight Vigil on July 21, 2003 in Washington, DC

Fifty-five years ago, the United Nations ratified a document entitled the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" which specifies that everyone should be able to enjoy freedom of belief and freedom of speech. These rights go beyond a country's border and government. This declaration has won international acclaim, because people all believe that human rights are bestowed by God. Trampling these rights is an open challenge to human morality and dignity. It is the duty of any conscionable individual or government to speak out against all persecution in the world.

As has been verified, 772 people have died as a result of brutality because of their belief in Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance. Perhaps, this is only a tiny portion of the real number of those who died for their belief. Due to the news blackout in China mandated by the Communist government, more detailed information of this persecution is not known. Yet it's enough for us to see the persecutors' ruthless, brutal, irrational and inhuman nature.

Behind each practitioner who died from the persecution, there is not only a story of courage, but also a story that makes one's hair stand on end as well as a story of how their relatives and friends suffered unimaginable pain after learning the grievous news. The persecutors can beat a 70 year-old man to death. They can beat a less than one-year-old baby to death. They can put healthy people into mental hospitals. They can take females' clothes off and throw them into male jail cells. When we read tales of persecution in the media, we become anguished, hurt and even disgusted. The brutality is beyond our imagination. This evil persecutor and his followers do not have any concern for morality, any sense of shame, any comprehension for the power of faith, nor do they value life and show respect for God.

In the past four years, on the journey of following Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, the magnificent people, the practitioners of this belief system, have sustained a purely compassionate heart, facing the killers' hatred, stepping forward one by one, walking on the path of righteous belief, without resentment or regret, heading toward eternal life.

"As today's noise sets with the sun," these magnificent people, in the sparkling light, continue to quietly validate Dafa, expose the evil and clarify the truth.

The 772 fellow practitioners who left this earthly life had no choice. Like us, they could have attained the harmonising benefits of assimilating to the universe's characteristics. They could have enjoyed the greatest happiness by living Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance in the human world, but that choice was taken from them.

Some of them may not have the highest degree of education, wealth or power, but their souls are noble. Their solid footsteps for safeguarding justice and truth established a monumental moral example for human beings that will shine forever. Their courage is comparable to any historical hero who sacrificed himself for justice.

In the blink of an eye, four years have passed. The evil is ending amidst the proclamation of righteous voices; countless kindhearted people are learning the truth. The pain and tears of the past are being transformed into mighty virtue and enlightenment.

Tonight's candlelight vigil is not a commemoration, but a call.
The magnificent beings gather with us again to call sentient beings in the colossal firmament to assimilate to Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance!
That's the peaceful passage to the future.
Together we call on all kindhearted people to follow Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance!
That's the brilliant path of all sentience beings toward bliss and eternity.
History's splendour fades into the past,
Sadness, happiness, separation, reunion--dreams begin anew;
All the filth now cleansed, the Fa lasts forever,
Smiling as the evil comes to an end.

History will remember the names of the martyrs and their painstaking paths. We hope that people in like circumstances can understand in their hearts their paths through the tribulations. Only those who learn the truth in time and enter the future will be fortunate enough to hear more names of great enlightened beings and their stories.