Following the meditation portion of the event was a rally, “Freedom For Falun Gong,” where original songs were sung on the persecution of Faun Gong. Two invited speakers urged the U.S. government to put human rights before trade, and demand that the communist regime bring an end to the killing of innocent people.
During the interludes between musical acts, one of the event’s organizers Caylan Ford read annual summaries of the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal persecution, year by year from 1999 to 2008. Her factual account of the history of the persecution defies the notion that human rights were improving in China. The record shows over the years, more arrests, more torture, practitioners dead within days, sometimes within hours, after being taken into police custody, thousands still sent to re-education through labor (RTL) camps, and practitioners’ organs—heart, liver, kidney and corneas—taken from live practitioners.
The Rally and Mediation events were the culmination of a month’s long campaign to raise one million minutes of meditation to “ bring peace to China by finding it in yourself,” the campaign slogan. In one of the tents was a picture of a thermometer showing the number of minutes accumulated, and it was updated periodically. It was around 900,000, a little short of the goal, at 2 p.m. Most of those minutes had been donated online at the Million Minutes of Meditation website, which began in May 2009.
How was “meditation” defined? For purposes of this campaign, Jared Pearman, the event’s organizer, said “Any time you spend contemplating the value of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance—the principles of Falun Dafa—or the universal principles in your life that you consider good…we are calling meditation. All of that is to be added up to a million.”
The idea is to show solidarity and support with everyone—regardless of their faith—to be able to exercise their rights to practice one’s faith or religion.
“The object of today’s rally and concert is to help people understand what Falun Gong is. A lot of people have heard about it on the news, you’ve read about the persecution going on in China, but not that many people have actually had a chance to experience Falun Gong,” said Pearman.
Ken and Marie from Washington, D.C., who were shy about giving their last names, stopped by to donate minutes of mediation. “We were in the right place at the right time,” said Ken. “It’s a really great cause, we can use the positive energy and it’s a positive way to get freedom,” said Marie.
Sufferings of a Daughter
Two victims of the Falun Gong persecution came to the mediation event and were invited to speak of how the persecution had impacted their life.
Jin Pang was 15 years old when the violent persecution began on July 20, 1999. She saw many Falun Gong practitioners arrested and their houses ransacked, while the state-controlled media slandered Falun Gong. Her mother, Junping Cao, was a practitioner whose dermatitis was cured soon after practicing, said Ms. Pang.
“The happy times for my family were destroyed. Even though I was young, I had to confront the local policeman and residence committee members who harassed my mom almost everyday….In 2000, she was tortured because she did the exercises in the public park. The police shocked her with an electric baton until the battery was dead. They beat her with spiked clubs and dragged her by her hair in the Weifang Xingbu police station.”
In 2008, just before the so-called “peaceful Olympics,” Pang’s family was beset with more interference. Her mother and aunt were among the 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners who were rounded up and sent to forced labor camps.
“…my parents house in Weifang city, Shandong province, was ransacked twice…our valuable property was confiscated by the …Public Security Bureau. They stole my father’s car and still haven’t returned it.”
He mother and aunt were taken away. Junping Cao, 51, has been held in the Qingzhou detention center for 12 months. Her daughter said that at one point she was not allowed to sleep for five straight days, and the authorities are not allowing the family to have any contact. She worries constantly about her mom and other moms who have also experienced the persecution in China.
Jin Pang now lives in the U.S. She spoke when her friends Randall Effner and Sara Effner, a father-daughter folk duet, were performing “Dear Mother” at this event. Ms. Pang sometimes performs with them playing the erhu. You can hear this moving song and read its words of anguish at: www.justicewillprevail.com.
Another performer at this rally, Angela Li, sang in Chinese, “Leaving for Tiananmen.” Ms. Li was arrested for going to Tiananmen Square in July 1999 and saying, “Falun Dafa hao,” which translated means “Falun Dafa is good.” “Leaving for Tiananmen” is about a daughter explaining to her mother why she must risk her life to appeal for Falun Dafa.
In the beginning of the persecution, many practitioners went to Tiananmen Square to appeal. One can find the words on Web site cited above, which is where you can hear it sung in (mostly) English by Sara Effner accompanied by Randy Effner. The haunting melody begins with these two verses:
“Mama tomorrow I'm leaving home
For Dafa's name, I feel that I must go
It pains my heart to see your black hair turn gray
I know you worry that they’ll take me away
“Mama, please don't you worry for me
Truth has been safeguarded since antiquity
Dafa has taught me to seek Zhen-Shan-Ren [Truth-Compassion-Forbearance]
Now I'm prepared to face the storms ahead.”
Story of Practitioner Dongwei Bu in Forced Labor Camp
Another victim and eye-witness of the persecution who spoke at the rally was Dongwei Bu, who was held at the Tuanhe forced labor camp in Beijing for three years. It was Bu’s second time in a labor camp; in 2000, he was sentenced for one year for the same reason.
“On May 19, 2006, six or seven policemen intruded into my home, searching for a pretext to arrest me. They found several Falun Gong books and took me to a detention center, where I was locked in a small room with 30-35 people for over three months.”
“[In the labor camp] we were forced to stand still for long periods of time, were permitted to sleep only a few hours of time, given very poor food, and were not allowed to use the bathroom at will. We were also made to read materials defaming Falun Gong, as prison guards tried to force us to recant our beliefs. Many practitioners were beaten and shocked with electric batons,” said Bu.
Mr. Bu speculates that he was treated relatively better than other practitioners because, unbeknownst to himself, he was an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, and the authorities must have received many letters of inquiry of his condition.
He was also fortunate in being able with his daughter to join his wife in the U.S. soon after he was released. Bu asked the audience to continue to help stop the persecution.
Artists Come to Support Meditation Day
Besides the musicians mentioned already, many others came to offer their talents in this day of mediation, music, and personal sharing of accounts of commemorating the 10th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong.
Coming down from Connecticut, rock band Light Club present Chinese human rights issues in the form of American rock music.
Margot Macdonald performed “Whispers of the Dove” and “Hallelujah,” a tour de force in singing technique. MacDonald is an artist in residence at the music center at Strathmore, and the recipient of the 2007 Artist of the Year and 2008 Modern Rock Vocalist award at the Washington Area Music Awards.
Drew Parker sang “Mother China,” a song taken from his debut album, which is receiving a lot of praise. Parker, an upcoming musician from the Toronto area, sings in the acoustic pop-rock genre.
