7/5/2023
On Monday Pam and I and our
friends Rick and Lane and their son Gabe took the ferry from Point Judith Rhode
Island to Block Island. It was a
somewhat rainy day and we had no particular plans and we had the dogs with us
so we were limited in what we could do.
We had lunch at a restaurant that was dog friendly and had some tables
outside under a large tent. We walked on
the beach, perused the shops and sat for a while in a park overlooking the main
street by the ferry terminal. The street
was lined with flags in anticipation of the fourth. Nearby a table was set up with a banner
calling for an end to the CCP, or Chinese Communist Party.
Block Island is an island made of glacial till
like the Cape, Long Island, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard situated almost
exactly between the Rhode Island Coast and the tip of Long Island. Approaching on the ferry after a thirteen
mile ride, you see the outline of land and then the eroding bluffs along the seashore. There are some big houses on top of the
bluffs. It is a small island, but big
enough to have cars and roads. It is too
big to walk around on a short visit, better suited for the mopeds or bicycles that
you can rent there. There are shops and
restaurants, vacation homes and hotels.
The year round residents number about 1,400, but the population triples
in the summer. The island has a history that goes back to the
time of the melting of the glaciers in the last ice age. It is possible that the first inhabitants
arrived by land when sea levels were much lower. At the time of the first European explorers,
there was a significant population of native peoples. These people suffered greatly in the Pequot
war. They were too susceptible to the
sea barbarians, as the English were known as by the Chinese. It was fought over also in the Revolutionary
war and the War of 1812. Now it is
chiefly a tourist destination with all that entails as well as some wild lands
and wild beaches, some historic spots and two historic lighthouses. If you go, learn a little about it ahead of
time, plan your visit, and plan to rent a moped or bring a bicycle.
On the ferry ride home we
sat across from the four people who had set up near a local church with banners
and flyers calling for the end of the CCP.
There was an older man in his fifties probably wearing shorts and a
t-shirt. He was the quietest of the
four. A woman with a bright yellow
pocket book, probably in her mid thirties.
She was the only one who appeared to be Chinese. A young man with glasses and a bright yellow
t–shirt that said, “fa lun da fa is good” 法轮大法好! and a young
woman probably also in her twenties. The
latter two were the most communicative.
Apart from the t-shirt, they stood out because at one moment, they all,
sitting there on the bench of the upper deck of the ferry, put their hands
together on their laps, closed their eyes and began to meditate. I knew my friend, who is interested in
religions and in the situation in Taiwan, would want to talk to them. We were standing by the railing talking. Our wives, however, sitting across from them,
struck up a conversation, which my friend was able to join.
The young man with the
yellow shirt spoke at length on the evils of the Chinese government. His most alarming story was of organ
harvesting of Falungong prisoners. The
young woman talked about how she was drawn to the practice of Falungong. She had always, she said, been attracted to
Eastern religions. But she said that
Falungong was not a religion, but a type of mind and body discipline, or
exercise. All of them were clearly
committed and passionately believed in what they were doing. I could see it gave them a powerful sense of
purpose, but, at the same time, I recognized the danger. I know that revolution, in China, often comes
through religious movements or ideological movements like communism. The Hong Qiu rebellion of the 1860s was the
worst war in Chinese history and it began with a man, taking his cue from the
story of Christ’s return heard from American missionaries, who decided to
create his own religion and gathered a following that fought the reigning
government for ten years, laying waste to the country. The Boxers in 1900 emerged as a strange
religion noted for the trance-like states of possession exhibited by its
followers. Those followers went on to
murder Europeans across northern China, almost succeeding in driving out the
long hated invaders. Then, of course,
in the 1930s, were the atheistic communists, who in a like-minded religious
fervor, went about destroying all vestiges of religion and tradition in order
to institute their own unassailable power structure. The Fa Lun Gong portrayal of the communists
as bloodthirsty and merciless killers will only hasten what may be an inevitable
and perhaps apocalyptic great power war between the U.S. and its allies and
China. The second danger is a spiritual
and individual one. The young woman says
it is not a religion, but in this I think she is mistaken. It does have, from what I can read about it,
a plan of salvation similar to if not identical with Buddhism. It has elements of surrender to the spirit
world and seeking out of body experiences.
