World Falun Dafa Day Celebration in San Francisco 2022

It's the 30th anniversary since the practice of Falun Dafa was first introduced to the public. Bay Area practitioners gather in San Francisco to celebrate. Hundreds of people gathered at San Francisco's Ferry Building for the celebration. One attendee named Manny Gonzalez started practicing Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, in August 2020. I came upon some information that was put out by the, it said bad things about Dafa. And I mean, I later found out those websites were put up by the Communist Party of, you know, the Communist government. That information that Gonzalez saw came from the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. The CCP has actively persecuted, harmed, and killed people inside China for believing in Falun Dafa since 1999. But Gonzalez decided to investigate for himself. I read you on Falun, and then I realized like, wait, this is nothing like what they're saying, it's a really good practice and I want to start learning it. So I started learning the exercises and reading the book and I've been practicing ever since. Falun Dafa practitioners work to adhere to be better people in daily life. One way is by following the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Gonzalez, who traveled from Southern California for the event, said those principles changed him from an angry and resentful person to someone who is kind and goes with the flow. Every time I do anything now, you know, either in work or my personal life, I always reflect back on it now and I realize what can I do better and how can I be more kind and how can I be, you know, a better person. Linda Campbell, another Falun Gong practitioner from North Bay, has been practicing for 14 years. She said she used to get colds and flus often, but all that changed after taking up the practice in sincerity. I look at it as a time of just gratitude and a time to just remember how wonderful it is that he brought this ancient practice to the public so that we could all benefit from it. The parade embarked around noon to celebrate the day and raise public awareness. Many onlookers stopped to watch and appreciated the colors and messages of the banners. I think it's a very happy event and I love music. I love bands, so I can't think of a better way to express your joy and your principles but through music. It's all about truthfulness, mindfulness and all about compassion, yeah, and looking after your like fellow person and sort of stuff and sort of just spiritually calming yourself down. This is something that's on a much broader scale and because, like you said, it is a matter of how it really impacts China and just the Chinese community at large. I think that we should take stronger action to support the rights of people to have religious freedom in China and everything I understand about Falun Gong is that it's a very peaceful religion. It focuses on benevolence. I feel that we need to spread that word about what's happening so that people are aware and that demonstration can be peaceful. And the parade went through downtown San Francisco and ended up here in Chinatown. The festivities continue next week in San Francisco. Jason Blair, NTD News, San Francisco.