Jim Jones' son remembers the tragedy

sf gate ^ | Monday, November 17, 2008 | Susan Sward, Chronicle Staff Writer

[Perdogg]

The radio call came before the suicides began.

On Nov. 18, 1978, Jim Jones Jr. was 18 years old and living in a Peoples Temple compound in Georgetown, Guyana, 150 miles from the Jonestown settlement. The previous night, he and his teammates on the Peoples Temple basketball team had played in a tournament, narrowly losing to the Guyanese national team. That afternoon, via shortwave, the Rev. Jim Jones, the boy's adoptive father, contacted him with a chilling order: All 60 Temple members living in Georgetown should immediately "get knives, wire and scissors and take our own lives."

The son tried to argue.

"Dad, this doesn't make sense. Isn't there another way?" he remembers saying. "Dad said the avenging angels would come and get our enemies, but we needed to lay down our lives 'as a revolutionary suicide.' "

[Perdogg]

America drunk the kool aide on Nov 4th, 2008.

[Malsua]

all things considered....Jim Jones was NOT 18 when he directed folks to drink Koolaid He was 47.

[Perdogg]

ping

[WayneS]

Still deluded after 30 years.

[Red Badger]

I used to work with a guy that was Jim Jones best friend in Indiana up until he graduated HS. This was in 1978 when this happened. He said JJ was always a little weird even as a kid......

[healy61]

This was Jim Jones Jr, age 18, the adoptied son of Jim Jones the leader.

[Star Traveler]

You said — “all things considered....Jim Jones was NOT 18 when he directed folks to drink Koolaid He was 47.”

The article is talking about “Jr.” not “Sr.”....

[ETL]

From wikipedia, with references at site:

"In 1951, [Reverend Jim] Jones (Jonestown) began attending communist meetings and rallies in Indianapolis.[4] Jones became flustered at harassment he received during the McCarthy Hearings,[4] particularly, regarding meetings between Jones and his mother with Paul Robeson.[5] This, among other things, provoked a seminal moment for Jones where he asked himself "how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."[5][4]"

"In the summer of 1977, Jones and most of the 900 members of the People's Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after media pressure built.[25] Jones left the same night that an editor at New West magazine read Jones an article by Marshall Kilduff to be published detailing allegations by former Temple members.[25][16] Jones named the settlement Jonestown after himself.

Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent model communist community stating, 'I believe we’re the purest communists there are.' [26] Jones' wife, Marceline, described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for socialism, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally."[26] Jones wanted to construct a model community to show others and stated that Prime Minister of Guyana Forbes Burnham 'couldn’t rave enough about us, uh, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism.'[27] In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the then Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and other communist republics, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.[28]

Jones and several members argued that the group should commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid (often misidentified as Kool-Aid) along with a sedative.[39]

One member, Christine Miller, dissents toward the beginning of the tape.[39] When members apparently cried, Jones counseled "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity."[39] Jones can be heard saying, "Don't be afraid to die" and, regarding death as "just stepping over into another plane" and that "[death is] a friend."[39] At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: "We didn't commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."[39] Children were given the drink first and families were told to lie down together. The mass suicide had been discussed in simulated events called "White Nights" on a regular basis, while members drank liquid Jones first told them was poison during at least one of those White Nights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones

[Red in Blue PA]

I watched the CNN special on Jonestown last night and didn’t realize that many of the victims did NOT go along willingly. People went around injecting cyanide into those who would not drink the Kool-Aid (Flavor Aid)

[Michigan Bowhunter]

I am 41......I still remember the pictures from television and magazines. What a whacko. Hopefully Obama orders similar measures for the Demonrat party. He is the Chosen ONE. Drink the kool-aid you donkey shadowed sheep !!!!!

[Red in Blue PA]

Jones was such a coward that he didn’t even drink the stuff himself. Someone was ordered to shoot him in the head.

[Corin Stormhands]

bookmark

[ETL]

I watched the CNN special on Jonestown last night

Did they make any mention that it was set up as a communist community?

[xzins]

I remember the protests at calling 9/11 a “tragedy.” Many rightly pointed out that it should be considered an “atrocity.”

A tragedy is a terrible occurence that BEFALLS people that is outside their control and contrary to their intent.

That does not describe Jonestown and Jim Jones.

Proper title: “Jim Jones’ son remembers the abomination.”

[rintense]

I saw the movie with Powers Boothe and he was brilliant in the role. See it if you can. The movie is pretty darn accurate and shows those who did not want to go willingly. I did a report on this madman in high school and was sickened bu everything I read. He and David Koresh had a LOT of parallels.

[NordP]

Not ALL of us!

Sarah and I prefer...

...course Sarah likes Diet DP and I prefer regular... :-)

[Boiling Pots]

I caught bits and pieces of the one on MSNBC...did any of them happen to mention Jones’ extreme left politics?

And how he was acquainted with Walter Mondale and several other liberal politicians?

[Carley]

I recall with horror the first news reports about the shootings at the airport. That a congressman was among the dead.

That was the beginning of the nightmare. A greater scale than Koresh, but similar in that people are looking for some kind of saviour instead of looking inside themselves for answers.

Very tragic for those who so wanted to believe these people had the answer.

A chilling reminder of those who mindlessly voted for O, disregarding all the warning signals.

[Reeses]

You never read from the MSM how in deep Jonestown was into socialism and communism and how strongly supportive Jimmy Carter, Mondale, and other Democrats were. And I'm amazed the leftist operatives haven't rewritten the Wikipedia article yet.

[NordP]

MSNBC??? LOL...That would mean that they would not only have to REPORT THE TRUTH for a change, but actually DO THEIR HOMEWORK....don't count on it.