To The Editor,
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped during my campaign for reelection for Henry County Northside Commissioner. I’m so grateful for the people who donated money to my cause and to the ones who volunteered their time in support of me. Although we did not win the election, I want you to know that your help was invaluable and kept us fighting until the end.
Though we may be disappointed with the results, I’m proud of all that we have achieved together and what your support meant to me throughout this campaign. Your volunteering was essential in connecting with voters.
I appreciate all the voters who took the time to be informed and to vote during this election.
Thank you again for being a part of my campaign. Without your help, none of this would have been possible.
Rick Fosnow
Windsor, MO
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To The Editor,
Although our world seems to become more complicated with each passing day, I find myself feeling truly thankful that I still have the basic freedoms everyone should have: freedom of speech and freedom of belief.
Living without those freedoms, I think, would be like living in a prison. The sad truth is that many people are living in a place like that—in China.
Twenty-five years ago, a gentle, meditative practice called Falun Dafa (aka Falun Gong) was outlawed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because those who practice it believe in something those in power find dangerous—the Divine.
Although it was banned, many people had found something in Falun Dafa they were unwilling to give up—a simple practice based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, which basically taught them how to be good people.
Starting in 1999, practitioners were harassed, arrested, imprisoned, sent to labor camps, and tortured. They were told to give up their beliefs, but they refused. There were so many of them that the detention centers, prisons, labor camps, and jails were full.
In the early 2000’s, human rights groups began to see an alarming trend: an inexplicable amount of organ transplants were being performed—seemingly on demand—in China, even though Chinese generally believe that the body should return as it came, making organ donation extremely rare.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners have been murdered as their organs are forcibly removed, to supply an organ transplant industry of global proportions run by the CCP.
Many people still don’t know—or believe—that this is happening. However, many human rights organizations have been documenting the persecution of Falun Dafa for the past 25 years, and the evidence they’ve collected is overwhelming.
In fact, over the last several years, Congress has been working hard to pass bipartisan legislation to counter the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners by the CCP. In June, the Falun Gong Protection Act (HR4132) was passed unanimously in the House. It has now been introduced to the Senate.
This bill would finally provide the means to hold accountable those directly responsible for this heinous crime against humanity if/when they set foot on US soil. And, maybe even more importantly, it will give hope to the millions of Falun Dafa practitioners around the world as we continue on our spiritual path to be good people.
Barbara L Gay
Clinton, MO
