(Clearwisdom.net) The town of Smithtown on Long Island, New York celebrated its "Smithtown Annual Festival Day" on June 12, 2005. Over 400 companies and individual business people from Long Island set up their stalls in the early morning. The atmosphere was warm and lively. Falun Gong practitioners on Long Island also came to the festival. They handed out truth clarification materials to visitors. Almost everyone happily accepted the materials and read them carefully.

People come to learn about Falun Gong People sign the petition to support Falun Gong and oppose the persecution

Signing their names to oppose the persecution

Signing in support of Falun Gong

The white cloth full of names

Practitioners also set up a stall, and hung a banner reading, "Falun Dafa is Good." Below the banner were photos and illustrations exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Beside the banner was a table where a long white cloth was spread for people to sign their names. Some practitioners sent forth righteous thoughts, some handed out truth clarification materials, some practiced the exercises and some clarified the facts face-to-face with visitors.

One resident of Long Island listened to a practitioner's truth clarification and said, "The world media all report on wars and murder around the world, but no media report on such an event as severe as the persecution of Falun Gong. It's unfair." She also said that she would help practitioners hand out materials near Long Island University.

Some people felt anger towards the Chinese Communist Party for selling products made by slave labor in China's labor camps to the US. They said that people should go all out to stop such acts. Some people wanted to learn the Falun Gong exercises. Most people were very happy to accept truth clarification materials, and many people signed their names to support opposing the persecution. There were several occasions in the course of the day that people were lined up waiting to sign their names. When the activity concluded, the white cloth was covered with names.