Indiana: Practitioners Clarify the Truth During the Indy 2002 Basketball World Championship

In early autumn, Indianapolis, capital of the State of Indiana, welcomed flocks of friends from afar. The Indy 2002 Basketball World Championship was held here from August 29 to September 8. Sixteen teams from different parts of the world including Team China showed their talents and competed for the championship. It is the first time in six years that The Chinese team attended this international competition. Not only did China send many reporters to report the event, but many overseas Chinese fans also flocked to the game to cheer for the Chinese team.

Dafa practitioners from Indiana and surrounding states also came to Indianapolis and took the opportunity to cheer for the Chinese team and showed Dafa practitioners’ spirit, and clarified the truth to overseas Chinese, players, reporters and TV viewers in China.

Practicing in park before the game. Background is the Hyatt Hotel where the reporters stayed.	Practitioners show banners outside the entrance of the game venue and demonstrate Dafa exercises. The banner reads, "Greetings! Team China"
Practitioners show banners outside the entrance of the game venue and demonstrate Dafa exercises. The banner reads, "Greetings! Team China"	Practitioners cheer for Team China in a game.
Practitioners cheer for Team China in a game.

Facing crowds outside the famous RGA Dome where the games were held, practitioners unfurled several eye-catching banners, "Greetings, Fellow Chinese", "Falun Dafa is Good" "Falun Dafa" etc. Some practitioners peacefully demonstrated five sets of Dafa exercises while other practitioners distributed Dafa flyers and fans that were imprinted with "Falun Dafa is Good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." The fans were beautifully made. People loved it so much that inside and outside the venue everywhere you looked you would see people with them in their hands.

Other practitioners entered the Dome to cheer for The Chinese team and took the opportunity to clarify the truth to Chinese people around them. Through short conversations, practitioners were able to eliminate the misunderstandings of some Chinese people regarding the Jiang’s propaganda. Most of the Chinese around practitioners willingly accepted truth materials. From time to time, some practitioners held banners or placards to cheer for The Chinese team.
However the rights of Dafa practitioners to cheer on The Chinese team were interfered with. During the first game of China vs. Germany, police told practitioners who held banners that the organising committee asked them to prevent the people in yellow shirts in some area from raising banners, apparently referring to the practitioners. Practitioners at once spoke to the staff member. The staff member said the content of the banners did not have any problems.

Practitioners felt that they abided the law and their conduct met the requirements of the venue. Then whom could they "offend"? Maybe those Chinese consulate members who do their deeds for Jiang Zemin and persecute Falun Gong overseas? Practitioners decided they had done nothing wrong and so went to talk with the organising committee while other practitioners continued to cheer for The Chinese team and hold banners until the game was over.

Through studying Fa and discussing the matter among practitioners, practitioners realized that they needed to actively disclose this matter to media and to who was behind pressuring the organising committee. On the second day, practitioners made an appointment with a reporter from the biggest local newspaper and disclosed to him what had happened. The reporter said he was going to investigate the matter and report it to the mayor's office.

In the next game, China vs. Algeria, a CCTV reporter unreasonably interfered with two practitioners who were watching the game. The reporter even asked practitioners to leave their seats and claimed they were interfering with CCTV's broadcast of the game. Practitioners declined his unreasonable request. The CCTV reporter then asked them to wear their Dafa T-shirts inside out. When being declined, the reporter called several police to stand in front of practitioners to block their views. However after a few minutes the police left after having seen that the practitioners' posed no threat.

During the entire game period, practitioners took all available opportunity and used reason, wisdom and compassion to exhibit Dafa practitioners' spirit and to communicate the facts about Falun Dafa's wide spread around the world to overseas Chinese, reporters and players from China. The practitioners believe that no matter how hard Jiang's regime tries to block the information and spread lies, the reporters and players will bring what they saw here back to China.