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(This tape was transcribed by Georgiana Mamlakah. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: Well, I could go on and on and on and on and on– Where are those things? (unintelligible word) but there’s no point to it because you get it by osmosis. You get it by watching and observing, not by teaching. Don’t think anybody ever gets it by teaching. You gotta want to be right, and so you’re so miserable over here, the aroundings– surroundings so beautiful, and these children so lovely. Tics that have gon– disappeared, and stuttering and stammering that have disappeared. Aggressiveness that’s gone. Think of little Raymond whose cried like a– a s– frightened animal, didn’t even know that he’d uh, could ever come to any kind of human consciousness at one point, now so sharp and quick-witted and mischievous and little sense of humor. And you so important that you don’t get to– Every time I ask some of you how you are, (Mocking voice) well, I’m getting used to living in the country.
Crowd: Stirs.
Jones: (Normal tone) Bless your heart. I feel so sorry for you. You’re so important. I know you descended from the president or the king of England. You probably polished his shoes along with my family, or you stole the king’s horse along with one of the Jones boys. Shit on you people and your ancestry.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Now I know that some of these people writing their– uh, their loved ones. I’ve been spending all of my time tracing my ancestry. That’s the new thing since Roots. Goddamn people contemplating their navel, either meditating or doing some yoga exercise, or s– going to some guru or in some prayer meeting where now they’re tr– tracing their roots. Who the fuck gives a goddamn where our roots come from?
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: I know where my roots come from. It’s jumping down there in th– in the cage. It’s jumping right down there and going (makes ape noises). That’s where we come from, right from the fucking ape.
Crowd: Cheer and applause.
Jones: If you’re some special creature– If you’re some special creature, you oughta be in better shape than the ape, but he– Shit, he can– he can fight with his hands and his feet.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: He’s more advanced than you are, and you think you’re a creature of divine providence and you’re going to come in contact with your inner psyche or whatever the fuck you pray to. I– (chuckles) I’m sure if there had been a loving God, he’d at least given us both uh, the ability to use our hands and legs to fight with, as well as wings to fly like an eagle. He’s a motherfucker.
Voices in Crowd: (Call out)
Jones: Give all them white angels wings to fly around all over God’s heaven, nothing to do.
Voice in Crowd: Yeah.
Jones: Fuck face blonde white angels flying all around through heaven, and made us crippled down here, by God. If he’da loved us, he’d at least given us an M16.
Crowd: Scattered applause.
Jones: He’d uh– Some– I know some of you men– I know some of you men think your dick is something wonderful, but you can’t even piss enough to put a fire out, much less shoot anybody with it.
Crowd: Calls and applause.
Jones: Mmm-mm [Yes]. (Pause) If there was any divine providence that care– cared, he woulda put pistols in our breast and pistols in our dick.
Voice in Crowd: All right.
Jones: Because you need to get through this capitalist, racist place. You need everything you got that has an end, oughta shoot somebody.
Crowd: Scattered applause.
Jones: And we weren’t built in with anything to shoot folk with, and no way to fly to get away from the sons of bitches. So ain’t nobody that cares but Father.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And there’s no salvation but socialism.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And if you got any time to do anything, quit reading this religious shit that you’ve carried over from the States. Little old pages that you kept stuck uh, down in your clothes. Hope to hell you– I hope to hell it causes you inventigo [impetigo]. (Pause) Quit all that bullshit, the whispering, the Bible verses across to somebody else, telling how you once knew the Lord. You (stumbles over words) low down goddamn liar. You never knew the Lord.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right. That’s right.
Jones: That chimpanzee’s the one that met the Lord, ‘cause he could wipe us all out, if he got turned loose here tonight.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right. That’s right.
Jones: We’re creatures of weakness, and no divine power cares a shit about us. Unless it’s a slavemaster who wants weaklings for servants. ‘Cause we’re the weakest of all possible creatures and the stupidest. A chimpanzee won’t mess up his environment, but we destroy environment in a matter of years till you can’t live in it. Then we fix up weapons to destroy everything’s environment, every goddamn thing standing on the edge of man’s inhumanity to man. Just a button, just push a goddamn button tonight, and it’s all over with. That’s man’s genius. (Pause) And it’s marvelous that some of you feel that you are so important, but it doesn’t take away from the importance of socialism, because it’s been seen in Cuba, it’s been seen in Vietnam, it’s been seen in Cambodia, it’s been seen vividly to you in the body of Jim Jones.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And so you’re an animal. You might as well be a directed conscious–driven animal than an animal moved by lust. Say, (mocking voice) I want to live like I want to live. (Normal tone) That’s fine. You better be tougher than the next guy, ‘cause if everybody starts to living by this lust and doing their own goddamn thing, watch it, friend. Somebody’s going to do his own thing and decide to cut your throat.
Voices in Crowd: (Call out)
Jones: (chuckles) That’s all so well when you’re doing the throat-cuttin’, but there’s always some bigger fucker that can cut a throat better than you can cut a throat.
Crowd: Right.
Jones: So we better get organized for the sake of our children, or we’re not giving them any future. It’s easier to say there’s no meaning to anything, there’s no purpose to anything, I don’t give a shit. Jim Jones is a mutation. Nobody can be like him. Communism won’t work. Well, that’s just an easy way of saying, I’m a selfish son-of-a-bitch. I want to do my own goddamn thing. I don’t give a goddamn about children. I don’t give a fuck if they all die. I want to do my precious thing. I hope I’ve gotten through to some of you tonight, as you shift your butt or shift your toes. (Long pause) I want everybody to be scheduled to go around and see the chickens. I want you to have to love them. And I want you to have to observe them in the nightmare of their agony. Then I want you to see if you feel like you’re important. And I want you to think if it’s not important that we build a society that can protect our children from having the same thing happen to them that a chicken has happened to it, because of our own lust for flesh, our own anarchy, our own self-destructive nature. (voice rises) Only in a world built through the principles of Marxist-Leninism, through Communist sensitivity, only by that kind of a world (Voice moderates) can we avoid, not only chickens having their heads cut off, but humans having theirs. ‘Cause remember, it’s not been too long ago since heads were cut off in Germany, and heads were cut off in Turkey. Two million Armenians were slaughtered like animals, slaughtered like pigs. Humans have been slaughtered just like chickens. And some of you are out of touch, you are so in love with yourself and believe you’re such a creature of divine worth, that you need to look a little bit more at suffering. So I invite everybody, every department, every home, every cottage, to schedule a time to find out when the chickens– (long pause) Just watching some of you sleeping. It’s amazing how you can sit– uh, set straight up and sleep and young. (Pause) Say, I can’t help sleeping. Oh yes, you can. If you care enough about what’s being said, you don’t sleep.
Voices in Crowd: Right.
Jones: (Short laugh) When you do a lot of sleeping, it shows that you are forgetting the importance of what’s being said. And if you were practicing what I was saying, that’d be another thing. You’d be entitled to sleep. But so frequently, the people that do the sleeping don’t practice a damn thing that I say–
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: – or not enough of what I say. Anyone have any question? (Pause) Anyone have any criticism? Any criticism? As long as you do it publicly, we have no objections to it whatsoever. It’s a nightmare back there, you oughta be glad you’re settin’ here tonight. Say, I don’t know what the future holds. You sure as hell know what the future holds, if you go back there. My lawyer’s representing 12 cases now, there’re 70 or 80 more, and you’re sure one of them. Most all of you’d be one of them. You know what you face back there, no hope, no organization, no structure, not even sure you’d have another day’s meal, and we know – Yes – we know that you will eat for a while here. We have chickens in the freezer, we have these lovely bean patties that taste like a delicious hamburger.
Voice in Crowd: Right.
Jones: Like they– Chili sauce, when they put them in chili sauce, taste better.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right. That’s right.
Jones: And they certainly me– m– have much better settling effect on your stomach. We know that we got pigs down there, we can eat for many, many days.
Voice in Crowd: Right.
Jones: You go back to the United States, you don’t know anything.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: You don’t know whether you’ll be arrested. Told someone to settle their ass and not go back to the United States, and stay where he– stay put, uh, but they never listen to me. Person came over here and went back and is in jail tonight. Oh, I’ll get him out – I always do – but some time it’ll stop, because when we’re gone from there, I won’t have any structure left to get them out. And I’m going to be concentrating my power here, but they– they came– They thought, oh, well, I’m gonna come and I’m gonna go. Well, they come and they went, and they went to jail. But the first time they get in the goddamn jail, they start screaming Jim Jones.
Crowd: Yeah.
Jones: You think you’ve missed something in America. You’ve lost nothing. You knew people oughta be required to sit in orientation class, and orientation class should give them some of the things we’ve told– talked about, ‘cause I’m tired of going over it. The atomic war that you’re certainly going to see, where children would melt before your eyes and maybe die after 30 or 40 agonizing days. Or earthquakes that are long overdue here, and here we don’t have any earthquakes or hurricanes or any act of nature. Ecology that’s so imbalance in– in California, no water and n– not enough crops, already we’re suffering the blight throughout the– droughts throughout the entirety of the United States. Weapons of– such as the neutron bomb that caused the United Nations to cry out against it in the human rights con– conference to call out as it– be calling it a gross humanity– inhumanity. And even uh, the Com Com nations in Europe, the Eurocom’s nations cried out against the inhumanity of our neutron bomb and our buzz bomb. Our buzzard missile, our buzz missile. What is it– That isn’t the word. Buzz missile. What is it? What is it, [Henry] Mercer? Buzz bomb, yes. Mercer heard the same newscast. Neutron bombs that destroy whole ghettos, whole neighborhoods, and won’t touch a piece of paper so that the rich can keep the property– (Calls out) Wake up there! What are some of the other things? We have to remind some of these people, ‘cause they don’t know. They think they’re so important, they should be able to do where they want to go, go swimming, buy a McDonald hamburger– Senate Bill what?
Voices in crowd: 1472.
Jones: 1472. Yes, it’s something like that.
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: That says that if a police officer– what?
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: – stops you and you don’t answer the question the way he thinks it should be answered, you’ve committed a crime.
Crowd: Stirs.
Jones: Lowering the death penalty to 14– What is it?
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: I– Say that again, Danny.
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yes. Yes. The Supreme Court did something today, and I’ve forgotten, a terrible thing, I’ve forgotten– Another w– another nullification of human rights, but I– We got the worse goddamn Supreme Court. [Warren] Burger was an Assistant Attorney General back in the dark era of the McCarthy or the white era of the McCarthy period. But now he’s the Sup– the Supreme Justice of the Supreme Court. And it’s cut back on civil rights and civil liberties strides that have been made for half a century. Not only do we have that kind of a court, we’ve got a– a– a Congress that’s rightwing as hell. There’s all kind of the news that is raving about Andy Young being a Communist and a racist. And all the American people are upset about the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty. Doesn’t look at all like that they’ve got enough Senators to make it a– uh, to ratify it, and that means certain hell breaking loose in Latin America, because Latin America’s had enough of Yankee imperialism. Nuclear war– Jesus Christ. Soviets developing laser bombs, according to Swiss authorities, laser beams that can stop nuclear missiles, and thus give a strong prerogative for them to start a nuclear war before the United States extends their murder conspiracy to South Africa, that’s on the border of making bomb stockpiles. Union of South Africa even has been accused by Radio Angola of giving– the United States has given them the neutron bomb, so they can destroy black ghettos, black reservations. That’s the hell that you left the United States, that you want to go back to. Yes, Dr. [Laurence] Schacht?
Schacht: (Too soft)
Jones: Coming ice age, yes. It’s awful to be cold. Yes?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Thank you, Helen, that’s a– that shows a really acute senior mind. Said, refusal to sign the genocide treaty, which is merely a statement that you will not murder off whole races and nations of people, and United States and Chile and one other was the only three nations of the world – South Africa – that will not sign that treaty, called the genocide treaty. The United States refuses to sign that they will not (cries out) murder off segments or races of people in their own population, or the world. Yes, uh– Carter?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Cliometric theory, where you have black and white economists saying that some were meant to be slaves. You got [U. J.] Jensen and this other j– uh, the genesis– they’re not even gen– geneticist, running through Australia, uh, all through the white world now, and America, propagating that whites are superior and blacks were meant to be inferior, and that if there’s a population problem, blacks should be sterilized. That’s what he said in Melbourne, Australia yesterday or the day before. That’s a very nice philosophy. University of California givin’ that shit. And the majority of University [of] California, one of the most liberal schools in America– Yes, when you wave your finger and I wave back, you’ll– Ninety-some percent of its assets in stocks and bonds and in corporate investments in the Union of South A– Africa, where black people are being killed by the tens of thousands. [Steve] Biko– Biko, a young black– young uh, six days, a leader, revolutionary leader died of starvation in six days in the South African prison just a few days ago. That’s America in 1977. Yes. (Pause) Yes, Brother [Marshall] Farris.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Bakke decision. President [Jimmy Carter] come out again– Uh– He– he came out for it too. President did, yes. Bakke decision says that black people should not be given – Asiatic, Indians – should not be given special opportunities. No quota system. Supreme Court certainly seemed very, very encouraging to the same philosophy too. (Calls out) All kinds of bad things back in America. Yes?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Ethnic weapons, where they talk openly. Dr. Richard Hammerschlag wrote about it in Jet, wrote about it in l– Life– Time Life, and he said– he wrote that letter, that pitiful letter I’ll never forget, to Peoples Temple, saying we were the only people that thanked him for exposing the horrible things that was being conducted, again right in the University of California, some of these experiments to create weapons to kill black people, Indian people, Asiatic people, were being conducted with University [of] California scientist and expenditures. Yes. Yes, dear.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: God knows the Ku Klux Klan. Twenty new chapters the last time I read, which is weeks ago, in California in a matter of weeks. Yes.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yes. Richard– uh, Dr. Earhard’s statement about what the Shah of Iran and the Saudi of Ar– A– Arabia [Khalid bin Abdulaziz al Saud] will do through manipulation of prices, and the Shah of Iran has a messianic complex, and a very evil, evil person who never gets enough, and he’s manipulating oil prices to such a degree and trying to get a hold of the most technically-advanced nuclear weapons, and he suggest that there’ll be a nuclear war by 1979, and great economic crash in 1979, and says being read by the economists of the world and all leaders of the world and believed. You know all about that. Someone can teach you in the school or you can ask about it, the failure of the market, ‘cause we have a market that’s based on oil. We can easily be manipulated it by oil, and if the Shah’s of Iran chooses to, and the Saud of Ar– Arab– Arabia chooses to, it can put us all out of business, because nothing runs without oil. United States could be put out of business. We couldn’t here. We don’t have to have lights. Say, we don’t know what to hunt. We’d find something in two to three days, I bet you, if your ass had to.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: You’d find a whole lot of things you don’t think you can eat now. People keep asking (imitate woman voice) when’s the snake coming, when’s the snake coming. (Normal tone) Honey, you’ve already ea the snake and didn’t know it.
Crowd: Laughter and applause.
Jones: You make my ass tired, some of you.
Crowd: Laughter.
Jones: I heard people remarkin’ when they were eatin’ snake, just eatin’ it down and then mixed up in the rice, said (imitates woman’s voice) oh, that’s tasty, that tasty chicken.
Crowd: Laughter.
Jones: Look at the faces, some of the people up here. You oughta be up here where I’m (unintelligible).
Crowd: Laughter
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: I like that sister the other day, when they was a– uh, s– some days weeks ago they were– they found bugs in the rice (imitates woman yelling) (unintelligible) this rice, there’s bugs in here. (Normal voice) Said, you oughta be glad, that’s a little bit additional protein. Eat it and shut up.
Crowd: Laughter.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: The twins were talking, joking about the– the– the– that this’s got to be snake and someone overheard them and gagged on it while they were eating.
Crowd: Laughter.
Jones: But it wasn’t snake that they were eating.
Crowd: Stirs.
Jones: So you don’t know when you ate the snake. You oughta be glad for snake to eat. It’s rich in protein, and it’s a very easily digested. You get some good enzymes, best meat in the world. They’ll pay 17, 20 dollars years ago for rattlesnake in the fanciest hotel in New York City or San Francisco. Now– Now, my love, you fuss about the thought of eating a snake. I’d like a report on anybody that gags when they think about snake, ‘cause you think you’re too important. You think you’re above a zero.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Be grateful for anything that eats, that you ca– that you can live, and snake is tasty and frog is tasty, and there oughta be people out there getting those frogs now. Yes.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: I got new batteries. They oughta be back in the business. Anyone else that has something to think of what we saved ourselves from. It’s necessary that we review. Sister Bea.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yeah, the vicious smear. Control of the press. The myth of the adversary press is certainly gone in our minds. The manipulation of the press, big business, how it works and designs to destroy groups like us. Any other group would’ve been wiped out. They’da wiped us out, if it hadn’t been who it is, [if] it hadn’t been who I am, what we are, we’da been wiped out.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Don’t have to set under that shit anymore. And when some black person kills somebody a– a zebra (pause) and 35 white people can be uh, murdering all over the United States and not a word in the press. A man in Dayton had killed 37 young black people. They never did a goddamn thing about it, till he shot down a white man who’d been working for civil rights, but he was too important and then they found him. (voice rises) Never a word in the press about it, (moderates) until they found him shooting a white man. It’s all right to kill 36 black youngsters, but don’t shoot a white person. You oughta be glad– Some of you– you remember just what you want to remember. You stack the case.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right. That’s right.
Jones: TV and bullshit. I don’t what the hell you missing a TV. Goddamn, I never saw a good TV program in 20 years.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right. So true.
Jones: Movies were stale. Hell’s fire. Here we can communicate and think, and we could read if you would. Yes, Sister Belle.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yeah, they’re talk about that– (chuckles) She– she’s right, they’re talking about making a maximum requirement of– of how long you can live.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yeah, no doubt.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: (sighs) Euthanasia. Yeah, I’m sure they’re not done out of mercy. Yes, Lois.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: That’s true. Captive– capitalist slave commodities. As I was saying today, you are nothing but a package commodity, and some of you still think that way. You don’t look at a young man or a young woman in the terms of how much character they have. You look at them in terms of what their so-called outward appearance is. Some of you make me very ill. You’ll notice a person that comes with better clothes or little– some tinsel superficial thing on their clothing or the way they fix their hair. There ought not to be such judgments, such false judgments made in this house.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Some of you still think there’s a special love for you, and shit. You– you wait till your– You wait till your dick begins to wrinkle, and your vagina begins to slip. You’ll find out how much special love there is for you.
Crowd: Laughter.
Jones: And ah, yes, Rodney.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: It’s– it’s– it’s depressing. If it weren’t for certain rules of conduct here, people would’ve broken every relationship, both back in the States and here. (Pause) Tried to do it, we well know. We know how well they tried to do it. Yes, brother.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yes, the files, the myriad numbers of files, COINTELPRO, and system files now, that push a button– A policeman can push a button out on the beat, and in a manner of minutes, he’s got your full report, even what you owe to some store, what your credit rating is. Yes, Dorothy?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Concentration camps. Nazism. Yes, that’s obvious. Dictatorship and the horrible, horrible, horrible death in a nuclear war, ‘cause it doesn’t happen suddenly. Particularly if it’s like the humane policies of the Soviet Union, they’ll knock out the industrial might and the military might, and there’ll be people left. And the Soviets will be forced to do it, if they have laser beam, because the United States has no mercy, no compassion. And much, much time. If we can hold out, you’ll see why you’re here. [If] You can hold out, you’ll certainly be thanking and kissing the dirt. Oh, some of you already are thankful that you’re here, but some of you’ll be very, very thankful if you’ll just hold out.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: In a world gone mad with nuclear war, you’ll be glad you got jungle in which you can roam.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: That’s why I say we should have such a will and determination that no one will break our ranks. The Indians rather than be free– enslaved, when they were brought on reservations, even though they were given homes and comforts and blankets that some of you seem to be– think you can’t live without, they would commit suicide with threads of their own clothes rather than lose their freedom. To be out where nature was, to have the wide extended plains and the forest meant more to them than all the so-called accoutrements of soci– of modern society. Yes, Brother Mercer?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: He’s right. They’re not making any– any– any uh, headway at all.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: It’s true. He– he listens to the news every day. Yes, Yes. What is it, hon?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Food riots, race riots, and already you can feel the race hate when they’ve got enough to eat. You can cut it with a knife. Yes, Tommy?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yeah, yeah. You help seniors– If you– if you help seniors provide the– the things for them above their income and guarantees of certain things, you can’t– you can’t do that. That’s against the law.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: What did you say, honey? Water shortage in– which we saw before we left, people shoot each other, uh, white neighbor shootin’ each other. Yes?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Thank you. (pause) Yes?
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Ethnic purity, and we’ll hear a hell of a lot more of that before it’s finished. And you can hear Mr. [Lou] Gurvich, a Jew, telling that uh, blacks are no good, and they’re inferior and not worth living. And you can hear him (stumbles over words) teach hate against other Jews, and a lot of folk do that. Cross over and try to act like they’re a Protestant or a Catholic. Love Jesus and hate Jews. Blame the Jews for killing Jesus, and I wish one of them had. Lenny Bruce said the only thing he was– regretted was that he couldn’t write a note some time before he died and say, I did it. (short laugh)
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: And I wish somebody’d killed him before he ever got started, ‘cause that son a bitch has caused more trouble. Da– They oughta killed him when he was out there moaning and groaning in the garden, when he was out there– There was some place– Kill him before they put him on that fucking tree so they can hang that around their neck. Lenny Bruce said, what the– look awful crazy if somebody’d go hanging around somebody– casket around their neck, but that’s what we do. Hang Jesus around our neck. Then we call– They call us programized because we reject all that nonsense. I wish he’d never been. I wish Jesus had never come along with all the bullshit that’s been coming– that’s come out of it. It hasn’t been worth the good. I wish Mary’d got kicked in the ass before she ever had him.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Got knocked up by a donkey.
Voice in Crowd: Laughs.
Jones: See, you people are still– you got sa– uh, sacrosanct attitudes. You– you– you– you don’t like that– they don’t like that. They’re– there stopping of laughter. You can tell it by the stopping of laughter. I said I would– I said I would wish Mary had been kicked in the ass with a donkey and kicked in the abdomen with a donkey, so Jesus would have been born dead.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: Roger, and if the Jews killed him, bravo.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: All credit to ‘em. Son of a bitch oughta been dead. More wars, more wars have been fought, more race prejudice been taught, more bigotry has been instilled in the name of Jesus than anything you could think of.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: The name of Jesus has brought more pain and more harm and more heartache and more wars than any good that’s ever come out of it.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: In fact, the only good that ever come out of the name of Jesus is what I brought out of it.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: And I could have brought good out of it in the name of Marx and Lenin.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: I didn’t need Jesus.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: Thank you. (Pause) Somebody was arguing over here today under the tent, uh, no, yesterday under the tent saying (imitates a young woman voice) uh, I don’t know why they talking about Lenin all the time, when we got Jesus that we can teach about.
Crowd: (Calls out)
Jones: (Chuckles) I heard somebody else say, who is Lenin? (Pause) Shit, you hear when you walk by, would make your heart ache. Yes. I think we’ve given enough reasons why you should be grateful you’re here.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: With land, where the bush cow, tapir, and laba [labarria snmake] out there, delicious, the most delicious meats that are out there. We’ll get them if we have to. We can find it when the need comes. You got room out there, but in San Francisco, you never saw potatoes grow on Steiner Street.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Ain’t ain’t been a jackleg rabbit run down Geary Avenue in a hell of a long time.
Voice in Crowd: Yes.
Jones: Jackleg preacher, but no jackleg rabbit.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: Next. Next. Yes, Sister Grimm.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Yes, I’m sure they’ll cut back on lots of things. Boy, you know they must be a hungry people, an unhappy people, to start all this shit. Over here we’re over in a jungle minding our own goddamn business, and these fuckers writing after– I’ve been gone now nearly four goddamn months. Those sons of bitches still writing about me. Now I’m– I’m– I’ve killed somebody that committed suicide. I mean that is a– a destitute impoverished people. Impoverished. That’s a poverty-stricken people that have to write about Jim Jones four months after he’s gone. Why in the fuck is he haunting them so? You tell me why. It’s sure not because they’re concerned about black people, ‘cause we– he’s freed so many black people, and given them so much justice and homes, opportunities, and life. So they’re not concerned about the poor. We know that.
Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Yeah, yeah. There’s some– There is a trick. There is a trickeration. The trickeration is that they’re goddamn envious of us. Their lives are empty and meaningless, and all those rich sons of bitches that even own the newspapers are actually jealous for the kind of uh, thing we’re given the opportunity to do. They’d like to be out here, but they’re too fucking cowardly to do it.
Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And they’re too– they’re too empty, and they’re too hung up in alimony and all their other problems and legal difficulties, and buying so much in debt that they’re twenty years– going to have to be paying for it for the next twenty years in projection. So they– I– I really believe that there’s an envy at the bottom of this shit.
Crowd: Calls out.
Jones: They’d like to be as simplistic as us, and they’re pissed royal. They thought they were going to whistle and get my job, and I’d go– I’d go all to pieces. And fuck, I just give ‘em the job right back.
Crowd: Responds.
Jones: I’da done a lot more if I’da had the opportunity.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: I’d give the key to the city that’s been given to me and all the certificates from Mayor [Joseph] Alioto and the president, and I’d said shove it up your royal ass.
Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: But the la– the lawyers wouldn’t let me do that. They thought that might cause a little bit of difficulty (chuckles) and it might’ve. Oh shit! I bet they are really pissed bone dry, and that’s why they keep after us, ‘cause they thought I would capitulate when they attacked me in a newspaper. They thought I would have such a terrible pain over losing the commissioner– uh, whatever I was, I guess I was the chairman of the commission. They thought I would go to pieces over losing that job. Shit. I was looking for an excuse to get rid of it.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: They did me a favor, if they just stay off our ass. They don’t stay off our ass. I got my body, I can lay it down. I don’t have to give it back to them. No, no. I’m like the Indian, I’d rather have liberty. I’m like even Patrick Henry. He wasn’t– He learned it from the Indians, I guess. He said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Jesus Christ, revolutionary suicide is too easy. I don’t have to give my body back [to] those sons of bitches.
Crowd: Stirs.
Jones: No. I’ll give it back to them if it would save you, but I’ve been looking through that night after night, no sleep, and I get night after night, I don’t see no way I can give it back to them. (Stumbles over words) How can you expect a capitalist to keep a deal?
Crowd: Stirs.
Jones: He wouldn’t keep a goddamn deal, no matter what I was willing to do. He wouldn’t keep a deal. How’d you expect crooks to be honest? They can’t be. So I got no choice but to keep on keepin’ on, honey, and I’m not afraid of tomorrow, and I’m not afraid of dyin’, not afraid of torture, not afraid of pain, not afraid of anything. And some of you are still fla– uh, you so– push away a bug. And I think it’s disgusting. You oughta confess tonight if you gag over a snake. I think you oughta– I think it’s disgusting. You’da– You say I– I– I love socialism. The piss you do, or you’d conquer that bullshit.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: Little fetishes you got. Somebody the other day, I was emptying some woman’s chambers, and said, (imitates woman voice) “I just can’t stand the smell of shit, Father. I just can’t stand it.” (normal tone) I said, there’s something wrong with you, (Pause) ‘cause you think you’re too important. Shit don’t bother me. It’s just another odor. It’s better than seeing chickens and seeing their blood scattered. I’d rather lay in shit for the rest of eternity than watch one more chicken die.
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Well, I don’t– I don’t think it’s that bad. Shit, just turn your nose the other way. It only comes a certain times of the days anyway, other times you get the most fragrant flowers, smell of fresh winds. If you don’t like the smell, go out there and clean ‘em.
Voices in Crowd: That’s right.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: Piss. Yeah. Yeah. When you walk through– when you walk through the Fillmore, did you ever take a whiff of that shit?
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: (Intense) You could never shut your way– She– Walk even downtown, business, even the shows, you can smell the smell of piss under the seat or in the elevator corners. Oh no, no, don’t give me no bullshit. I’m– I’m sick of you people telling me how much you are, and you can’t stomach pain, and you can’t take this, and you can’t swallow a pill. You– All this bullshit, I’m sick of you. You go– oh, apeshit when you see a needle. You are not a socialist, you are still a fucking cowardly capitalist.
Crowd: Applause.
Jones: (Moderates) Peace. Some of these kids, they stand right there, their hands– This young lad– was this young lad with that– uh, burned on his leg, and the papaya, the wonderful, wonderful miracle plant that we have is healing it up. But never even winced while they took off the flesh. Billy, while they sewed his hand up, and the same with Amondo Griffith. Never, never moved. Some of you people just go ape shit over a pain. (imitates a female voice whining) I got a headache. I ain’t shit for three days.
Crowd: Laughter.
Jones: (low angry tone) Goddamn! You make me sick.
Voice in Crowd: (unintelligible word) anyone complain about the food, too.
Jones: (imitates woman voice whining) I’ve got diarrhea. I said– Some sister say, I got diarrhea. She looked at me so pitiful. I said, how long you had it? (imitates) Four hours.
Crowd: Laughter.
Jones: Hell, I never try to stop mine for three days, ‘cause I can– I can eat all the rice I want for three days and shit it out the same time. That’s fun.
Crowd: Scattered applause. Laughter.
Jones: I never– I never cure the shits until it– uh, the bottom just gets too sore for the pants and starts irritating it. And I don’t want to a boil on my ass, because that’s a little difficult setting and listening to that fucking radio. So I– I– I only stop my diarrhea when it gets (unintelligible word) and you worried about your diarrhea. Now all I’ve ever taken for me to stop it – and they tell me there’s a miracle drug in the banana that’ll do it but uh– in the stem – but I just take a little Kaopectate, just five lids of Kaopectate, and my shits are shitless. They stop. But a nice healthy shit now and then, and uh, it’s wonderful.
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Did Pop Jackson (unintelligible)?
Voices in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Pop Jackson said his bowels wasn’t moving, hon, he got the shits, that’s good. Now we’ve had enough reasons why we shouldn’t go back. We’ve had enough reasons why we should be glad to be here. Shift yourself. (Pause) Any questions? I always give you plenty of time to make up for the meeting nights. And there’s only two of them, and you say we don’t need them, and you look the way people conduct themselves, and you’ll know we need them.
Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: And two is a hell of a lot better than what you used to have.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Your ass was on the road between Redwood Valley and San Francisco and Los Angeles all the time.
Voice in Crowd: That’s right.
Jones: Our children didn’t know where they lived till they sent us back on the b– They lived on Highway 5.
Crowd: Stirs, scattered laughter.
Jones: Any uh, criticisms or comments or– Yes, yes, yes. Yes yes. If I look at you, then go piss. (Pause) Yes, dear? Sister [Dorothy “Dee Dee”] Macon? A little louder.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Oh, this letter. It’s– it’s a made-up letter. That’s the frightening thing. I say we’re going into a dark, dark period, or a white, white period. This goddamn letter never existed.
Voice in crowd: (Too soft)
Jones: Of course, the coroner [Thomas Noguchi] wouldn’t have burdened it with me, if he was trying to help us. That’s a very good thinking person. Uh, you know there ain’t no coroner in the world that you could buy off. They love power too much. They love position. That Asiatic probably thought he had uh, the world on a– in a tea cup.
Tape Ends
Tape originally posted March 2017