It's hard for me to watch documentaries about Jonestown.I think that Jim Jones represents pure evil.The people who suffered really were seeking peace on earth. Jim Jones had the words that so many black people wanted to hear at that time. He spoke of racial accord & unity. That's what they believed Jonestown was. Unfortunately, they met their fate at the hands of a madman who had kept many of them against their will once they got there. Do not think of them as cult members because they were not. No longer will they be thought of collectively as the victims of Jonestown.Most of their names have been placed on a memorial. Here's an excerpt from cbs5.com:
"On the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy, organizers of an annual memorial service in Oakland displayed the first panels of a 37-foot-long stone wall that is to be inscribed with the names and ages of the 918 victims of the violence in Guyana, including U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and three newsmen.
San Francisco police Officer Yulanda Williams, who escaped from Jonestown twice with the help of Jones' son and a local family who let her use their telephone, said she and her family were "devoted members" of Jones' church for 10 years because they were lured by his promise of "racial harmony and social justice."
"We were willing to sacrifice for racial justice and freedom" but once she went to Jonestown she realized "there was one road in and no way out unless it was in a body bag," Williams said.
The mass carnage occurred after 15 members defected during Ryan's fact-finding mission to Jonestown.
Temple gunmen killed Ryan, three journalists and a defector on a nearby airstrip and all of their names will be on the monument, Norwood said.
But Norwood made clear during the service that James Warren Jones will not have his name in granite.
"To put Jim Jones' name on that wall is an insult ... to all the dead," she said. "(He was) the most evil man who walked on this earth."(END OF EXCERPT) Read the full article here:
