NEW YORK—The lack of freedom in China has long disgusted Patrick Gualtieri. The veterans’ advocate personally experienced the regime’s suffocating grip on freedom. It happened during a speaking tour in China years ago.
“I was in China many, many years ago, and I saw what wasn’t allowed,” said Gualtieri. When singers accompanying him performed the American national anthem he got in trouble with his Chinese hosts. “They went nuts … I was called, and I had to go see the officials.”
Officials were upset about the musical performances they called propaganda. As an invited guest to dinner, Gualtieri said former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s brother made clear to him they were watching him closely. Gualtieri felt the crushing weight of communist oppression. In a strange land, he felt vulnerable and alone.
In 2004, Gualtieri saw Falun Gong practitioners on the streets of New York, protesting the persecution of the spiritual practice in China, which is also known as Falun Dafa. He saw people in cages demonstrating the torture adherents were suffering. He immediately understood. “Yes, yes! I know that!” said Gualtieri, recalling his reaction. He added, they lock you up and you’re never heard from again!
A Vietnam War veteran, Gualtieri has worked organizing New York City Veterans Day parades since 2000. He is executive director of the United War Veterans Council.
Gualtieri decided to invite Falun Gong practitioners to join the annual Veterans Day parade. He wanted Falun Gong practitioners to be seen with veterans, to be under their protection. He said he wanted to send a message: China is torturing these people, but Falun Gong, “you come stand with us.”
“To me, this was my way of saying ... you are not going to do this to these people,” said Gualtieri. “If you are positioning with America, you position with veterans, you’re untouchable!”
Gualtieri said he also wants Americans to understand that China is not free. “People in America, they don’t know,” he said.
“Religious freedom doesn’t exist in that country,” said Gualtieri. He discounts China’s economic growth in the complete absence of religious freedom. He said he doesn’t want Americans to be hoodwinked into believing the rosy picture of China that its leaders paint.
Strong Impact
Billed as “America’s Parade,” New York’s Veterans Day Parade is the largest such event honoring veterans. More than twenty thousand people marched in the parade Nov. 11. The parade is a key annual event honoring veterans.
Top Army commander Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno joined the event, marching alongside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The first female four-star general, Ann Dunwoody, was grand marshal of the parade.
Falun Gong practitioner Crystal Liu has been joining the Veterans Day parade since the group was first invited in 2004. Practitioners really appreciate that there is a free environment here in the United States to practice Falun Gong, said Liu. That is something “we don’t have in China.”
Liu is in charge of a section of the Falun Gong parade entry known as the heavenly ladies, which consists of a group of young women in flowing Chinese gowns. Liu said that in Chinese culture people have the concept of “heavenly ladies casting flowers.” According to Liu, heavenly ladies cast flowers in the heavens when people on earth are receiving a blessing.
With the ladies processing in the Veterans Day parade, she hopes to bring “blessings from heaven to all the people in the audience.”
Over the years, Falun Gong practitioners have gratefully accepted the United War Veterans Council’s invitation. Liu said adherents of the practice want to show respect to veterans.
This year, around 200 Falun Gong practitioners marched in the parade. Practitioners brought banners displaying Falun Gong’s core principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance. Banners also called for an end to the persecution of the practice in China, which started in 1999 and continues to this day.
The Falun Gong entry also included a lion dance team, more than 25 banner-bearing teams, a man-powered float, a contingent of traditional Chinese waist drummers, and a group demonstrating the peaceful exercises, which are part of the practice of Falun Gong.
“For me, when I see them coming up Fifth Avenue, I am really proud of it,” said Gualtieri.
