Personal Statement of David Lee Jerke for SOS Walk Across America

September 6, 2001

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is David Lee Jerke. I am from Tacoma, Washington. Today I step forward - I step forward as a practitioner of Falun Dafa.

My intention is to walk across the United States of America, from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, California. I then intend to fly to Beijing, China, where I hope to do the exercises peacefully in Tiananmen Square with fellow practitioners.

Along the way on this journey to Tiananmen I will speak to every person who crosses my path, in every hamlet, village, town, and city in the heartland of this great country. My message to those I encounter will be simple: Falun Dafa is good; join with me to stop the persecution of Falun Dafa. I will tell everyone I meet that "Dafa" means "Great Law." That at the origin of the heavens and the earth there is truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. That Dafa distinguishes that which is right from that which is wrong, the good from the bad, the righteous from the evil. As a path of genuine cultivation, Falun Dafa guides people towards goodness, brings people from sickness to health, and leads them out of suffering, towards true freedom.

I will tell everyone I meet these truths, and I will take with me the good wishes of one after another after another kind-hearted American who knows that the persecution of Falun Gong is wrong, and must end. At the beginning of my journey there will be a few good hearts, then hundreds, then thousands, and then tens of thousands of Americans who will remember my passing and begin to follow this journey. I will carry with me the messages from their kind hearts, and when I get to Tiananmen Square, I will say to China and to the world that I bring to them this truth from the heartland of America: Falun Dafa is good, and the persecution must end.

If this walk is a walk you too want to take, then I invite you to walk with me, for a few steps, a few miles, or all the way to Tiananmen. I invite everyone to step out with me to let America and the world know: Falun Dafa is good, and the persecution must end.

It is not the number of deaths reported - 276, or the number of imprisonments - roughly 100,000, that makes this persecution without precedent, it is the extremes. The extreme goodness of Falun Dafa, whose practitioners strive to embody completely Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, opposed by the extreme brutality of the persecution. "To exterminate Falun Gong at all costs" is the watchword of Jiang Zemin, the unquestioned leader who has orchestrated this persecution. Any and all means are used in the attempt to force Falun Dafa practitioners to give up their belief - physical and mental torture, rape, forced abortions, mutilation.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left us this quote, "He who is silent in the face of evil is as guilty as the one perpetrating the evil." I tell you, this is not a political issue, nor is this a Chinese issue. This is a human issue, and these are crimes against humanity. As I walk across America, and as I come to Tiananmen, I will embody for all a simple question, where do you place your heart? Do you stand with good or with evil?

Today, I step forward to say that we MUST NOT be silent in the face of evil. With peace in my heart I say to Jiang Zemin and those who do his bidding "STOP! What you are doing is wrong." And to China I say, "Jiang Zemin is wrong. Falun Dafa is good."

Today I step forward for Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance in our world.

Thank you.