United States: Clarifying the Truth at the State Capitol in Helena, Montana

Falun Dafa practitioners from the state of Montana, along with help from our Washington State neighbours, held a workshop the evening of April 6th, 2003 at the YMCA in Helena, Montana. There was very good interest in learning about Falun Dafa and quite a few people had good questions after we explained what Falun Dafa was about. We taught them the exercises, which they seemed to enjoy. The Washington State practitioners brought poster boards about Falun Dafa, which were quite helpful. Some in attendance had heard some false rumours about Falun Dafa, and it was really good to be able to clarify the truth to them and to educate them about the persecution.

The next day we had an information table at our State Capitol in Helena. It was in an excellent location by the rotunda at the statue of Jeanette Rankin, who was a famous peace activist in Montana. It was a place that all the state representatives would pass by on their way to the legislative sessions. We had emailed all the representatives in advance to let them know that we would be there all day, and invited them to stop by and visit with us. Many had responded that they were looking forward to it. Quite a few of them stopped by to ask questions. The poster boards were very helpful in illustrating the story of Falun Dafa. We had a couple of representatives who had witnessed the violence of the police at Tiananmen Square when they were there. Another attraction was the lotus flowers we gave away. Everyone loved the bright, colourful flowers.

Throughout the day we had appointments with the aides of our U.S. Representatives, since the representatives themselves were in Washington, D.C. They all knew about Falun Dafa, as we had sent them letters and packets of information previously. They seemed very interested in learning about Falun Dafa and were sympathetic toward the practitioners suffering persecution in China. We also had contacted the Governor's Office and had an appointment with her legal counsel. The governor herself had called a practitioner a couple weeks before to learn more about Falun Dafa. She is a very compassionate person and seemed to understand the seriousness of the human rights issue in China.

This was our first time clarifying the truth at our State Capitol, and we were very pleased with how successful it was.