On January 17, 2005, the 19th Dallas Martin Luther King Day Parade, hosted by Elite News, was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. About 300 groups, including the Dallas Falun Gong group, participated in this parade. Practitioners received repeated ovations from spectators for their beautiful yellow exercise suits and in particular the exceptional spirit of peace they demonstrated.
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| Falun Gong practitioners' procession |
It is fairly cold in Dallas at this time of year. Many people who came out to watch the parade were wearing thick clothing. Some even had blankets wrapped around their bodies. Nevertheless, everyone was very friendly and shared their warmest smile with parade participants. As the Falun Gong group was the only Asian group, many people paid special attention to them. A lot of people were attracted by practitioners' banners, which read "Falun Dafa" and "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" and also by practitioners' exercise demonstrations. As there was a large demand for fliers, the practitioners who were distributing them lagged far behind the procession. Those people who obtained the fliers started to read them right away.
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| A practitioner distributing fliers, and people reading the Falun Gong information | |
When the practitioners finished half of the parade route, they had already run out of all English materials. Facing the silent request: "Do you still have fliers? How can we obtain your contact information?" practitioners started to distribute fliers in Spanish while telling people that the fliers had local contact information in English. Though many people don't know Spanish, they still accepted the fliers, saying that they would seek help from their neighbours or friends for the translation. A lady came out from her car to ask for Falun Gong information, and she said that she would soon contact practitioners, as this was what she had been looking for.
Though the parade route was very long, young practitioners did a great job during the parade. Some of them distributed fliers along the parade route while some demonstrated the exercises.
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| Young practitioners also participate in the parade | |
About 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, a pastor, started his missionary work in ethnically segregated southern states. Dr. King is widely respected for his leadership in the non-violent civil rights movement, which advanced equal rights for all Americans. A practitioner said, "Our participation in this activity has special meaning: When people with a good sense of justice learn about the persecution in China and the uncompromising spirit of practitioners, they will be deeply touched and the evil nature of the perpetrators will be exposed to the public."
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