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therunawayslave2 02/04/2012 12:08:00 AM
A white man convincing, or by force, hundreds of black people to commit suicide due to his left-wing utopia (coincidentally all of People's Temple leadership were Anglo) failure to be the promised land. Get off the Democrat plantation my black brothers and sisters and think for yourself!
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Dea McConnell 11/14/2010 12:37:00 AM
A very interesting story. Having lost 2 brothers, an ex-sister-in-law, and her 3 boys in Jonestown, I find two of Barry Isaacson's terms to be very true. The feeling that they abandoned us, and that they went 'down a rabbit hole' really makes a statement. I have for years wondered why Jones was allowed to conduct himself in the manner he did. And why so many gave up control to a man so obviously sick.
This article speaks very well to the damage done to the families left behind. A pain and grief that do not heal.
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Watcher 05/10/2010 11:30:00 AM
Hey Shanghai Johnny..... Your compassion for brutality and death of innocent men, women and children is truly outstanding! May you survive to experience karmic justice. It will come.
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Jackie 07/17/2009 7:11:00 AM
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John H 12/14/2008 7:46:00 PM
This is a sad/horrifying article. But unlike most sad, lenghty articles I could not abandon this one before it concluded. And now, months later I had to come back and grab a PDF of it for my own archive.
I haven't been asked to withstand that much in my life. The immense heartbreak (and horror) that some people are required to come to terms with astonishes me. How do they do it?
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Barry Isaacson 11/21/2008 12:07:00 AM
First, let me thank everyone for the kind words in response to the piece; the approval expressed here means a great deal to me.
Second, Hannah, could you do me a very big favor indeed and email me at barry90039@yahoo.com? Your testimony regarding the Alexanders could be of tremendous assistance to me in writing a book and I'm at a crucial stage. Thank you!
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Hannah M. Reff 11/20/2008 9:47:00 AM
I'm so glad you found their briefcase and are writing about my great-aunt and -uncle Freda and Herbert. I can still remember going with my grandmother (their niece who convinced them to move into a retirement home) to visit them in their Silver Lake home. After Freda passed away, my grandmother took me to visit Herbert with her every week. He was a warm, loving man who showed none of the signs of his paternal heartbreak when I knew him. This was very special for me to read.
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Paul 11/20/2008 8:45:00 AM
First, this was exquisitely written. You should write the book. Second, I remember Jonestown vividly, as my parents were spending a getaway weekend in San Francisco when the news arrived of the tragedy, and their presence in the same city as the People's Temple frightened my pre-teen mind.
Third, I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, and Jones would send buses to pick up folks for service in San Francisco. Two grandfathers, maternal and paternal, were pastors of churches in my town, and both preached fervently against Jones, claiming he was "of the devil." The paternal grandfather lost ten church members to Jones - eight died at Jonestown. The other grandfather presided over the funeral of five of those victims.
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jewlie 11/14/2008 6:41:00 AM
Beautiful article.
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Jules 11/14/2008 4:45:00 AM
In the 1970's we lived near Boonville, CA where Jones and his followers bought a piece of property before the move to Guiana. The locals pegged them as another one of the several cults that had moved into the neighborhood, and weren't to happy about them. But Jim Jones began to work as an assistant teacher in the Boonville Elementary school my step-son attended. One day my step-son related the story that the head teacher had asked Jones to make the drink for snacks. He had no idea how to do this, so my step-son literally TAUGHT HIM HOW TO MAKE KOOL-AIDE. I swear this is a true, but very ironic story.
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Sister Wolf 11/10/2008 1:48:00 PM
Jesus. Brilliant. I just watched the MSNBC documentary, and this was more powerful and devastating. Words are more potent than pictures, after all.
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gio 11/09/2008 4:36:00 AM
i remember Jonestown like it was yesterday. I, too, had nightmares for days.
There is a plenty of documentary footage of the raving madman called Jim Jones, audiotape of him exhorting people to drink the KoolAide and feed it to innocent children, and interviews with the few who escaped. What more can be added?
Many were horrified by Jim Jones and his cult, but by the time someone as powerful as Congressman Ryan stepped up to the plate and confronted Jones in Guayana, it was way too late. The brave Mr. Ryan lost his life, and the haunting question of why 900 people did not abandon Jim Jones before the madness ensued will forever be left in that jungle.
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eadunbar 11/08/2008 2:48:00 AM
I was a self-centred, social butterfly of a girl when the Jonestown massacre occurred. Yet, I remember being horrified and having bad nightmares. Even at that age, I was able to grasp the chilling idea of mind control and blind subservience and it scared the hell out of me. This article dealt compassionately with the background of the Chaikin family and the agony and grief felt by a surviving mom and dad. As a mom of three myself, I can only imagine (but the imagining is really, really terrifying). I look forward to the book. Evil can never truly be defeated until we understand it, and recognize it in all its forms.
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Polaroidgirl 11/08/2008 1:18:00 AM
WOW! I couldn't stop reading! Thanks for the fantastic and fascinating piece. I look forward to the book.
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Barry 11/07/2008 8:24:00 AM
Thank you, Gwen, your kind words are much appreciated.
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gwen lamont 11/06/2008 9:02:00 PM
Please write this book and let the world know when you have done so. This is an important piece of history that we must all remember. Your article made me cry with your exquisite writing. I heard you this morning on CBC and this story is one that most certainly must be told. The fact that you found that briefcase, I am sure you know, was a miracle. Thank you Gwen Lamont
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roger gonnet 10/28/2008 1:31:00 AM
Great article. What struck me most is the similtude between a guru and another I know well: Hubbard. These guys are really mental, all they need or want during their lives is power, and they base it on lies. There was nothing really religious in such a criminal as Jones, or another as Hubbard, or Moon etc.
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Barry 10/28/2008 12:48:00 AM
Well, you weren't exactly wrong, Jim. In its heyday, Peoples Temple was a powerhouse of fund-raising under what cynics might call a flag of convenience, i.e. its membership of the Disciples of Christ . And the church's color-blindness was very significant.
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Jim Not Jones 10/27/2008 10:28:00 PM
Thanks for a well-written account of this sad story.
Jim Jones had chosen to be a part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the denomination in which I was raised. Reportedly, he chose them because they lacked any effective method of disciplining a minister or a church. That denomination was (and is) predominantly white, but even in Jones's day had mixed and black congregations. It was the denomination of Lyndon Johnson, of Texas Christian University, of Drake University. The denomination as a whole wasn't like Jones.
Before the disaster, I remember seeing People's Temple statistics in our church yearbook and thinking that they must have been doing something right. Little did I know how wrong I was.
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Timothy H. Wiley 10/26/2008 7:04:00 PM
Good intentions and useful idiots and the descent into utter catastrophe, what an important and timely story for America! How could this happen? This is a story which must be told.
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Larry Rochelle 10/26/2008 5:36:00 AM
Mae Brussell covered Jones thoroughly. Check her website for the inside scoop.
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ShanghaiJohnnyP 10/26/2008 3:44:00 AM
Oh Please Dear God,No!!That's all we need is yet another bunch of Conspiracy Theory Types trying to turn a bunch of loons who willingly followed their'Fearless Leader'to their deaths!!!
Bad Enough That There Are Folks Who Still Beleive That Koresh and His Followers Were Martyred
outside Waco 15 Years Ago!!
We sure don't need more sympathy for Jim Jones's Bunch 30 Years Later!!!
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Paul Perry 10/25/2008 9:10:00 AM
I hope no film is made of this tragedy.
All historical film confuses & obscures the reality.
Greater exposure of primary sources is what we need.
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Jared 10/25/2008 7:58:00 AM
Not that I'm terribly well versed in the subject, but I think that was the most captivating account of Jonestown I've read.
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Patrick 10/24/2008 10:15:00 PM
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. I would like to see some film maker offer his version of how such a thing is possible. It would be very difficult for him to make a convincing case because such a thing requires indoctrination which his fim audience would bot have.
But he might choose to show how such indoctrination is possible. I find it hard to believe.
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