The spring festival is coming. People have been working hard for the past year. Who would not want to gather with their family members and have a good time? Yet Falun Gong practitioners have been deprived of this right. This year perhaps you have received an order from higher authorities to monitor the Falun Gong practitioners in your neighborhood. You, who are in branches at the district level, in community offices, and on neighborhood committees, may have been ordered by higher authorities to write a guarantee to prevent Falun Gong practitioners in the areas you are responsible for from going to Tiananmen Square to appeal. You may have been threatened by higher authorities that failing to do so will bring the consequence that not only the practitioners will be sent to labor camps or prisons, but you will also be punished. You may be demoted, laid off, get a salary cut or loose your bonuses, etc. Because of this, some of you have seized Falun Gong practitioners from their homes and detained them illegally before the Spring Festival. Here, we want to share some of our thinking on this issue:

1. The practice of "Implicating other family members" harms people a lot

We are all everyday people just like you. We get along well. In fact, you all know that Falun Gong practitioners are all honest, hard working, and law-abiding people who are always ready to help others. What are your real intentions in taking such actions against good people? Some people complained that Falun Gong practitioners have prevented them from having a good spring festival. But if they really think about it, can they say why the situation was not like this a year ago? Why are some people are so frightened that they will take such drastic measures against those good people? Who on earth is making everybody upset?

Because a few people, spear-headed by Jiang Zemin, are afraid that the huge number of Falun Gong practitioners might threaten their own power and that an atmosphere of upgraded morality might harm their own self-interests, they began the cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. This action not only harms Falun Gong practitioners and their families' minds and bodies, but also damages their normal working, living and social order. A few people in charge blame Falun Gong for crimes they have not committed, and then they go so far as to force you officials to persecute good citizens. If you don't satisfy them, your own legal rights will be damaged. Aren't we revisiting the era of the 'Great Cultural Revolution' when the government 'encouraged people to fight people?' They forced us to hate and fight each other using these same measures. Hasn't this harmed us in the past?

2. Going to appeal is legal; Random monitoring Falun Gong practitioners is against China's constitution

For more than one year, Falun Dafa practitioners have peacefully appealed so that the government and the people might know the truth about Falun Dafa. They sought to put an end to this historic tragedy and restore normal social order and peace. You've all learned through contacts with Falun Gong practitioners that they are all honest people who don't hit back or curse when maltreated and you have never found any of them doing anything wrong. We'll never go against the government and we have no interest in political struggles or power at all. We're only determined to practice our belief of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance" openly and uprightly. Under the circumstances that all the offices of appeal are closed to Falun Gong practitioners and all the media are government controlled, the injustice has been getting so serious that there is nowhere for Falun Gong practitioners to turn. Therefore, we have to use any possible lawful means to enable people to express their opinions on how they understand Falun Gong and its practitioners. The constitution of our country stipulates clearly that Chinese citizens have the freedom of belief and the right to appeal when hurt. It doesn't say that people with a certain belief can't appeal, so it is unjustified to forbid us to appeal. It's against the Constitution and law. Everyone should conduct himself according to the Constitution and law.

With regard to Falun Gong, the officials have obviously trampled the law of this country, going to the same extremes as during the Cultural Revolution. Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to appeal: whomever appeals has been detained and tortured. Tens of millions of people were labeled as "cult members of xx" [slanderous words respectfully omitted] and our families, work units and colleagues have felt grave pressure and have been implicated as well.

For fear that Falun Gong practitioners might appeal on certain days, you would seize practitioners from their homes and put them into detention, leaving their elderly parents and young kids terror-stricken at home. At the same time, you say that Falun Gong practitioners don't care about their families and don't love their parents and children. This is untrue. Just because Falun Gong practitioners insist on being good people and persist in exercising Falun Gong, police frequently harass our family members. Even our everyday life is under scrutiny. Our normal visits to relatives and friends are disturbed. Having dinner with our friends is restricted. Some practitioners are forced to flee their homes on some sensitive days.

We invite you to use your conscience. Look at this situation from the perspective of real justice and be responsible to our people and our country. Tell the truth! Are the harmless Falun Gong practitioners really so horrifying? Why can't you listen to the real feelings of the people? Who on earth is against the law and damaging the stability of the social order? Many people were tortured to death during the Culture Revolution because the judicial system was unsound. Could it be said that in the 21st century, the history is repeating itself? If everybody is condoning the behavior and neglecting the facts and breaking the law, isn't this damaging the justice and the backbone of our country's morality? Isn't this harming our country and people. It's me who gets hurt today; maybe it's your turn tomorrow and more innocent people the next day.

3. Good is rewarded by good and Evil is rewarded by evil

Everything a person does, whether it's good or evil, will be met with the same. People just can't see it and thus when something happens, people think it's accidental. Even when retribution comes right after some wrongful deeds, some people still cannot make the connection. It's the belief in the retribution of good and evil that has maintained human morality for thousands of years. Otherwise the human society would have long ceased to exist. Why do wise people advocate benevolence? Because they have seen that when a person harms other people, he is actually unwittingly harming himself.

What people have generally observed and recognized is that Falun Gong makes practitioners healthier and improves the morality of the society. That Falun Gong practitioners cultivate "Zhen, Shan, Ren" (Truthfulness, benevolence, tolerance) steadfastly can only benefit the society. Otherwise, would so many people practice it? Otherwise, would so many people risk their lives to tell the truth to the state leaders? Experience after experience has proven that many people don't need to take a single pill after beginning cultivation and thus have reaped enormous savings on health care. Even those who had been diagnosed as terminally ill by hospitals have recovered. Many people have got rid of their selfishness and corrected their evil thoughts and bad habits. They have obtained serene and peace. They always consider others before themselves and contribute unselfishly to the society. They bring righteousness anywhere they go. Isn't this a good thing? Who doesn't want to have a healthy body? Who doesn't want to have a harmonious family life and environment? Who doesn't want to have a beautiful and pure human society? When all these became possible and they have been substantiated in deeds, which lay in front of people's eyes, why do people dare not face it? Jiang Zemin and his minions' libel, defame and slander Dafa and have deceived many people who may have missed the opportunity to raise their morality and upgrade their lives. As a consequence, many people have generated huge amounts of karma as they blindly oppose Falun Gong and ignorantly persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Some people say that you have no other choice but to follow the orders from higher authorities. In fact, in this crux of history, everybody who works for the government can make a choice between good and wrong. That is, either obey or assist the evil authorities to persecute good people for your short-term interest and go against your own conscience, or discern the right from the wrong, and do whatever is necessary to protect good people. Resist the unreasonable requests to harm others and yourself.

Truth will prevail in the end. When the truth reveals itself to the world, all that which has been distorted, will be straightened up; all who have damaged the good will be eliminated by history; all the benevolent lives will be rewarded by benevolence. So, the future of people is actually determined by their behavior and actions today. Please listen to our sincere advice: don't regret your actions tomorrow. Your support and understanding of Falun Dafa will bring you the most wonderful future.

We hope that this letter will convince you to think and to respond to your sense of justice and conscience.

Note: We hope the practitioners in China will use all means to let policemen and people from community offices and neighborhood committees receive and read this letter.