Way too many people died in Jonestown, but the survival and the writing of Eugene Smith will help us both to feel the powerful draw of Peoples Temple and to understand the purpose of the trek to Guyana. We will learn much more of what kept alive the dream of making paradise of the hell that the hard-working followers of \u201cFather\u201d Jones found in that jungle.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Eugene Smith for the courage to fight and survive, because being a survivor meant:<\/p>\n
Relatives of people who died in Jonestown are coming into the Georgetown Airport with weapons. \u2018My mother or father or sister or brother died [in Jonestown]. How come you didn\u2019t?\u2019\u2026 The Guyanese hate us, and the Americans want to kill us, and the whole world thinks we\u2019re nuts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks to Eugene Smith for holding on to the belief that no sacrifice for the good of the community is worth the loss of one\u2019s love for self.<\/em><\/p>\n
Jones was able to convince people to love the cause more than themselves\u2026 But when you love something more than you love yourself, do you really love yourself?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks to Eugene Smith for writing a book that combines a compelling narrative with an unfaltering determination to tell the whole story with no concern for anything but the truth presented as faithfully as possibly could.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been in Jonestown a week or so, and there\u2019s a person and he\u2019s called to the floor during meeting, and his children testify against him\u2026 And he gets disciplined. What do you do with that? You don\u2019t trust your children\u2026 No one trusts anyone \u2026 and you\u2019re walking around with fear in your heart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks to Eugene Smith for holding on to his unshakable belief that mothers and fathers do not kill their own children, and if someone else performs the slaughter, then it is time to fight no matter how slim the odds or what the cost.<\/p>\n
If Eugene Smith is representative of the survivors of Jonestown, then it may be that the celestial dream that was Jonestown did not die on November 18, 1978 but lives on and will help pave the way toward the salvation of the USA after all \u2013 not by leaving this country for a distant dream, but by reminding us all how we know when it\u2019s time to take a stand and fight for what makes us love ourselves.<\/p>\n
I hold Jonestown survivors to a higher standard. We\u2019ve been here before. We know the truth\u2026 Multiple generations were murdered or committed suicide\u2026 rather than face what was happening in the United States\u2026 That means we have to stand our ground.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You and I are Jonestown survivors, and we must stand up and speak out for truth, justice and peace, or quietly tolerate a continued massacre of the faithful.<\/p>\n
Thank God for Eugene Smith.<\/p>\n
(Rev. Richard Lawrence<\/strong> is a retired Methodist minister and community activist. His complete collection of writings for\u00a0<\/em>the jonestown report\u00a0may be found\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. He may be reached at\u00a0<\/em>ralawrence36@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Way too many people died in Jonestown, but the survival and the writing of Eugene Smith will help us both to feel the powerful draw of Peoples Temple and to understand the purpose of the trek to Guyana. We will learn much more of what kept alive the dream of making paradise of the hell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":111220,"menu_order":36,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-111164","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111164"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129549,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111164\/revisions\/129549"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}