(Clearwisdom.net) It has puzzled our local practitioners that a nationwide newspaper in the area rarely has any coverage of Falun Gong, let alone positive coverage. It is also very difficult to communicate the truth to the journalists and editors of this newspaper. In contrast, the local practitioners find it relatively easy to clarify the truth to local newspapers, which have covered us positively. Can it be that all journalists of national syndicated newspapers have "poor enlightenment quality," which make it difficult for them to correctly position themselves in Dafa. Or can it be interference from the old forces?
Then we remembered we should look inward and think of others first as our Teacher taught us to do. We should not rule out the possibility that the nationwide newspaper did not find the newsworthy story they were looking for because we failed to clarify the truth effectively. When we carefully compared the news contents of local and nationwide newspapers, it became clear to us that we had overlooked the difference in the marketing strategies of these two newspapers in our truth clarification.
A national or a global newspaper positions itself as a provider of national or international news, including war coverage, international politics, upturns or downturns in the global economy, etc. Every staff member of an international newspaper, from chief editor, editors, to reporters, is fully aware of their international position. A journalist from an international newspaper once admitted, "There are daily occurrences of human rights violations everywhere in the world. What makes the persecution against Falun Gong in China so special that it needs to be covered? What impact does the persecution in China have on the rest of the world? If this is only news of persecution, I am sorry that I cannot cover the story. There are tens of thousands of news topics every day. If I report a story that I cannot find a deeper meaning behind, it will be rejected by my editor." From his words, we realized that we failed to successfully clarify the truth about the persecution, but the Fa has given us a solution to our problem.
Teacher said in the beginning of the persecution,
"To be honest, the students of Falun Gong are also human beings who are in the process of cultivating themselves, and they still have human minds. In this situation where they are being treated unjustly, I'm not sure how much longer they can forbear it, and this is what I am most concerned about." (From "Some Thoughts of Mine".)
If all of us still retain our human thinking, and no longer feel responsible for saving the society and sentient beings, what will become of human society? Presently, China is in deep crisis. Economic collapse could occur at any time. The politics in China are corrupt from top to bottom. The literary culture has become barren like a desert. The ecological environment is breaking down. Faith in the values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance promoted by Falun Gong is the only salvation for the Chinese society.
How do we explain to ordinary people the consequences of the persecution against Falun Gong in China described by Teacher?
"Out of selfish desires, however, humans are undermining this last hope the universe has granted them." (From "Further Comments on Superstition," Falun Dafa Essentials for Further Advancement.)
It is of supreme importance to help the world understand what China's continued persecution of Falun Gong practitioners means to the future of the country and the rest of the world. Teacher's correct and penetrating views are not only in line with the position of an international newspaper, but also provide an answer to phenomena that puzzle Chinese society.
We ought to reflect upon another issue. It is true that we have been focusing on clarifying the truth about the persecution in China to the public. However, we have failed to clearly explain how the persecution against Falun Gong in China impacts everyone outside China. Consequently, many overseas media, governments, and even the general public fail to relate to the persecution that is happening thousands of miles away. I feel that their mentality proves we failed to clarify the truth from the perspective of an everyday person. It is most critical to let them know that the persecution against Falun Gong in China is related to every person in the world.
Because we have been limiting our truth clarification within the scope of human rights violations, we have only made efforts to present the numbers of people persecuted and the impacted regions of the persecution, hoping the statistics would get people's attention. We failed to touch their hearts by explaining the truth about the persecution in depth. It's as though we have been "seeking outward" while we should have sought inward. Is it possible that the evil has exploited the very loophole of our lack of understanding of the Fa? Perhaps that is why the persecution has spread outside China. Besides daily interference by the evil, now Jiang spreads the evil everywhere he goes, including Germany, Eastern Europe, Iceland and Hong Kong.
It is extremely urgent to clarify the truth from the perspective of everyday people, in a different scope. In addition, for Falun Dafa practitioners as a whole, this important task is a way to completely deny the arrangements of the evil old forces.