Full Text of HR0286 102nd General Assembly
HR0286 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, On May 3, 2021, thousands of people across the | 3 | | country celebrated World Falun Dafa Day; this marks the second | 4 | | anniversary of the celebration of one of the world's most | 5 | | popular meditation and cultivation practices; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Falun Dafa, also referred to as Falun Gong, is a | 7 | | peaceful spiritual practice rooted in the Buddhist
tradition; | 8 | | it consists of moral teachings, a meditation, and four gentle | 9 | | exercises that are a truly unique and a highly effective way to | 10 | | improve health and energy levels; it is always
taught free of | 11 | | charge by volunteers and can be practiced individually or in | 12 | | groups;
and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, At the core of Falun Dafa are the values of | 14 | | truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; practitioners of | 15 | | Falun Dafa take these fundamental values to be a guide for | 16 | | daily life; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, People who practice Falun Dafa often find it to | 18 | | be life-changing; many experience dramatic health benefits as | 19 | | well as newfound energy, mental clarity, stress relief, and | 20 | | spiritual awareness; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Falun Dafa was first taught in China in 1992 by Li |
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| 1 | | Hongzhi; he is a five time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and was | 2 | | nominated by the European Parliament for the Sakharov Prize | 3 | | for Freedom of Thought; he is also the recipient of Freedom | 4 | | House's International
Religious Freedom Award; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Li Hongzhi's teachings spread quickly through | 6 | | word-of-mouth across China; by 1999, according to China's | 7 | | official estimates, 70 million to 100 million people were | 8 | | studying Falun
Dafa; this amounted to approximately 1 in every | 9 | | 13 people in China; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, Falun Dafa is now practiced in over 90 countries, | 11 | | and its teachings have been translated into over 40 languages; | 12 | | over one hundred million people worldwide have become | 13 | | healthier, happier, and more altruistic through their practice | 14 | | of Falun Dafa; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, Although widely popular and openly celebrated by | 16 | | the Chinese government throughout the 1990s, China's then | 17 | | president Jiang Zemin launched a violent campaign against | 18 | | Falun Dafa in 1999; he feared Falun Dafa's exploding | 19 | | popularity and felt its emphasis on moral living and | 20 | | traditional Chinese culture were a threat to the atheist, | 21 | | communist regime; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, A systematic campaign of abductions, torture, and |
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| 1 | | death targeting tens of millions of Falun Dafa practitioners | 2 | | was thus launched; over the past 20 years, several million | 3 | | people have been detained, hundreds of thousands have been | 4 | | tortured, thousand have been confirmed dead with the true | 5 | | number of deceased probably being much higher, and tens of | 6 | | thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, have been killed | 7 | | for their vital organs to fuel a booming organ transplantation | 8 | | business in China; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, These atrocities have largely been hidden from | 10 | | view because for years the Chinese Communist Party has | 11 | | classified any information about human rights abuses against | 12 | | people who practice Falun Dafa as "state secrets"; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, As the persecution continues, Falun Dafa | 14 | | practitioners have been consistent in refusing to adopt | 15 | | violence as an option; they instead focus on using every | 16 | | available peaceful avenue to have their voices heard; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Today, across China, there are 200,000 or more | 18 | | underground printing houses run by Falun Dafa
practitioners;
| 19 | | from their living rooms, they have established secure internet | 20 | | connections, accessed websites outside China by using proxy | 21 | | servers, downloaded censored literature on the persecution of
| 22 | | Falun Dafa, and produced homemade leaflets; others volunteer | 23 | | distribute the literature,
usually by night; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Collectively, this resistance movement, composed | 2 | | of bold individual acts in spite of great personal risks, | 3 | | constitutes what is probably today's largest nonviolent | 4 | | underground movement in the world; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Falun Dafa was first introduced to Illinois in | 6 | | the mid l990s; since then, volunteers have held free
| 7 | | workshops, teaching programs, seminars, and group exercises | 8 | | throughout the state; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Falun Dafa practitioners actively
participate in | 10 | | community events such as July 4th parades, Thanksgiving | 11 | | parades, Labor Day
parades, summer festivals, and farmer's | 12 | | markets; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, Falun Dafa practitioners have invited the world | 14 | | renowned Shen Yun Performing Arts Company to Illinois to | 15 | | entertain and to share the precious traditional culture and | 16 | | values of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, and loyalty; | 17 | | and | 18 | | WHEREAS, It is important for the State of Illinois to | 19 | | express clear and strong support for any person or group of | 20 | | people who are being unjustly persecuted for their beliefs; | 21 | | therefore, be it
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 2 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 3 | | we declare the week of May 10 through May 16, 2021 as Falun | 4 | | Dafa Week in the State of Illinois.
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