{"id":130582,"date":"2025-06-06T15:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T22:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=130582"},"modified":"2025-06-06T15:13:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T22:13:48","slug":"eugene-chaikin-letters-on-negative-press-coverage-february-1978","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=130582","title":{"rendered":"Eugene Chaikin letters on negative press coverage, February 1978"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>[<strong>Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: BB-10-l-1 \u2013 l-5 are copies of the same letter dated February 22, 1978, to Bay Area newspapers and magazines, including New West (l-1), the San Francisco Chronicle (l-2), San Francisco Examiner (l-3), the Sun Reporter (l-4), and Berkey Barb (l-5.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: right;\">\u00a0P.O. Box 893<br \/>\nGeorgetown, Guyana<br \/>\nFebruary 22, 1978<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>New West<\/u><br \/>\n325 Pacific St.<br \/>\nSan Francisco,<br \/>\nCalifornia<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear Editor:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s regrettable that some of the press stories about Jim Jones&#8217; work here in Guyana have given readers the wrong idea, I&#8217;m here as one the farm supervisors, along with about 1,000 other members of Peoples Temple. What is happening here is of great significance. The Americans, \u00a0\u2013 mostly black and from backgrounds of hardship and deprivation \u2013 are showing the people of this developing little nation that &#8220;American&#8221; need not mean the hatred &#8220;yankee&#8221; stereotype of materialist or arrogant tourist. We&#8217;re pitching in right along with the rest of the nation in building a future for everyone. Kids off the streets of San Francisco are taking leadership roles. For the first time their lives have purpose, and they have found a meaningful identity that they couldn&#8217;t find in the &#8220;ghettos.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The architect of it all is one of the most maligned and misunderstood people of the decade, Jim Jones. Someday his achievements will be appreciated, after the sensationalism and vendettas against him have played themselves out. San Francisco ought to be proud of its former Housing Chairman \u2013 he&#8217;s building a new society on one of the world&#8217;s last and most important frontiers, finding a future of hope. His work is appreciated here by the Guyanese, and everyone who has come to see this remarkable community in the middle of the tropical forests.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: right;\">\u00a0Sincerely,<br \/>\n\/s\/ Eugene B. Chaikin<br \/>\nEugene B. Chaikin<br \/>\nAttorney-at-law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Editor\u2019s note: BB-10-l-1 \u2013 l-5 are copies of the same letter dated February 22, 1978, to Bay Area newspapers and magazines, including New West (l-1), the San Francisco Chronicle (l-2), San Francisco Examiner (l-3), the Sun Reporter (l-4), and Berkey Barb (l-5.) \u00a0P.O. Box 893 Georgetown, Guyana February 22, 1978 New West 325 Pacific St. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":88366,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-130582","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130582","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130583,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130582\/revisions\/130583"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}