{"id":31346,"date":"2013-07-25T16:37:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=31346"},"modified":"2018-07-03T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T22:36:16","slug":"bunny","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=31346","title":{"rendered":"A young girl’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

This little girl\u2019s story
\nis no real glory
\nI have mentioned this once before
\nbut I thought I\u2019d share with you once more<\/p>\n

When I was 7
\nI was told that Peoples Temple was heaven
\nand over time
\nJim Jones controlled my mind<\/p>\n

I cannot begin to explain
\nthe turmoil and unbearable pain
\nI would have taken the cyanide
\nand I would\u2019ve been part of the mass suicide<\/p>\n

On November eighteen
\nI could not believe what I had seen
\nI was only sixteen
\nwhat I do recall
\nthat I did not believe anything at all<\/p>\n

I was scheduled to go by plane
\nbut my grandmother had to remain
\ndelay with legal documents made things slow
\nat that time, I was unable to go<\/p>\n

When it was reported that 300 were dead
\nI believed what Jim Jones always had said
\nthat he would raise \u2018em all from the dead
\nand this belief remained for months\u00a0in my head<\/p>\n

I waited and waited for the dead to rise
\nbut this never happened, still I was not surprised
\nthen I learned that Jim Jones was dead
\nhe had been shot by a single gun shot to the head<\/p>\n

Now the press\u00a0was telling me
\nhe was\u00a0cremated and his ashes thrown to the sea
\nI did not believe and\u00a0I needed to see
\nthis could not be and this could not happen to me<\/p>\n

He turned water into wine
\nhe could heal the blind
\nhe could heal the sick
\nand I believed this was real and not any tricks<\/p>\n

all he had to say
\nis “drop dead” and there you lay
\nthen he spoke and you awoke
\nthis was no joke<\/p>\n

through meditation
\nhe\u00a0made many revelation
\nhe knew what to say
\nand more people would\u00a0joined that day<\/p>\n

cancer he could heal
\nI believed this to be real
\nhe could make the paralyzed walk
\nand the mute talk<\/p>\n

My beliefs were so very strong
\nin my eyes, Jim Jones could do no wrong
\nwas everything he said really a lie
\nhe sent people to Guyana only to die
\nor was this a story told by the FBI<\/p>\n

In my mind
\nJim Jones was kind
\nI did not\u00a0know how to react
\nwhen I\u00a0was told that Jim Jones was a maniac<\/p>\n

The Jim Jones I had known
\nwas of peace and love and\u00a0this he had shown
\nGuyana was\u00a0suppose to be a\u00a0socialist community
\nwere there would be\u00a0complete equality<\/p>\n

it was impossible to conceive
\nthat so many Jim Jones had deceived
\nwhat I did not\u00a0realize
\nthat my faith would have led to my demise<\/p>\n

He told me that I would go to a promise land
\nwhere there\u2019s\u00a0peace for every child, woman,and man
\nhe promised me that I would be free
\nfrom racism and injustice in this society<\/p>\n

There were so many rainbow faces
\nI\u00a0only\u00a0knew the human race
\nhe preached integration
\nand denounced segregation<\/p>\n

people said that I was bless that I escaped
\nbut this is truly a mistake
\nthe day of the mass suicide
\nI also died<\/p>\n

but that chapter in my life
\nmakes my\u00a0heart feel it\u2019s\u00a0been pierced with a knife
\nI have now come to realize
\nthat most of what I believed were simply lies<\/p>\n

It\u00a0was so very difficult for me to see
\nthe Jim Jones who had been presented to me
\nIndeed, I had been traumatized
\nthis experience\u00a0had been\u00a0seen from a child\u2019s eyes<\/p>\n

to say that this was all a game
\nit is a shock to me and it is a shame
\nI was that child who believed
\nand that child who had been deceived<\/p>\n

I am that little girl
\nindeed, destroyed was\u00a0my world<\/p>\n

this little girl\u2019s story
\nis no real glory<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Bunny Jackson is a Temple survivor who lives in Northern California.)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This little girl\u2019s story is no real glory I have mentioned this once before but I thought I\u2019d share with you once more When I was 7 I was told that Peoples Temple was heaven and over time Jim Jones controlled my mind I cannot begin to explain the turmoil and unbearable pain I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":31476,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31346","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31346","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31346"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80687,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31346\/revisions\/80687"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}