Islands of Serenity in the Clamour - Calling for an End to the Persecution at New York's "Corners of Courage"

On August 29, New York City was extremely crowded because of the Republican National Convention (RNC). To let more people know the truth about Falun Dafa and the evil nature of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China, more than 1000 practitioners from all over the world came to the Big Apple. Besides holding anti-torture exhibitions at various parks, tourist sites and busy business areas, practitioners formed many "Corners of Courage" at intersections of busy streets such as 34th and 42nd streets of midtown Manhattan to call for justice.

As the RNC was scheduled to hold a large venue in Madison Plaza, which is located at 8th Avenue and 34th Street, two major streets adjacent to the venue were very crowded. Around 2pm, more than 10,000 people started a protest march, chanting, making speeches, banging drums--it seemed like an ocean wave. However, at street corners on the outskirts of this stream, there were groups of people in yellow T-shirts who were very peaceful. They smiled all the time and rarely spoke up. Most of the time, they simply displayed posters and distributed fliers to pedestrians.

Their serenity cast a dramatic contrast to the clamour and often attracted people's attention and commendations. Now and then, people turned their attention from the parade to the "Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong" characters printed on those yellow T-shirts. Some stepped up further to read headlines of the fliers. Among those who took fliers, a significant portion said that they had heard stories about Falun Gong before.

With a sympathetic expression, a middle-aged lady said: "Falun Gong, I know it. The persecution in China is too brutal..."

"Oh, I know..." another elderly lady said. She sadly shook her head slowly while she took a newspaper presented by a practitioner, said, "I will read it at home, thank you." An older gentleman read his Falun Gong flier with smile and nodded to greet practitioners.

Some people seemed to know that those people in yellow shirts were Falun Gong practitioners and they took fliers without any hesitation. Others, however, were relatively cautious. They would come closer to practitioners to make sure: "Yes, it is Falun Gong." Then, they would happily take fliers. In the crowd, there was a Chinese man. When he realised that he was being presented with a Falun Dafa reader, he seemed to have discovered something important and took it seriously. Later, a Chinese girl came. Her eyes sparkled as well when she saw the Falun Dafa reader and took it happily.

Interestingly, a young black lady grabbed a newspaper from a practitioner's hand. When she found that it was only one copy, she quickly said: "Give me another copy, my friend also wants one." She then swiftly grabbed another one and walked away. Occasions like this, in which people asked for more materials for friends and relatives, were not rare. Some westerners also requested Chinese Falun Gong materials: "We have a few Chinese in our office, I think that they also want to know."

"I already have one." We often heard words like these. People who said that often nodded or smiled to greet practitioners. Some pedestrians even searched materials in practitioners' hands while saying: "Oh, I have this, I have this also. No, I don't have this one." Then they would take the material, thank practitioners and walk away.

There were also many people who had never heard about Falun Gong before. A lady was attracted by a flier with a photo of a little meditating girl. While reading the flier, she asked a practitioner many questions. She also asked where she could learn the Falun Gong exercises. The practitioner told her the situation of Falun Dafa around the world and the persecution. This lady was shocked by the brutality of the persecution. The other two companions of this lady were attracted by a flier reading "Good people are being persecuted", and they asked why. When they learned that Jiang persecuted good people because of his jealousy and many practitioners thus had been tortured to death, they were outraged. When they left, they thanked practitioners again and again for spreading the information in New York City and letting them know about such a large scale persecution.

From 11am to 6pm, as the sun rose, Manhattan became busy gradually, and then as the sun set, the crowd gradually dispersed. However, "corner of courage" practitioners stood at street corners all the time to spread the truth, justice and hope. Quietly, with no slogans and no chanting--only smiles and peaceful conversations.