The second annual Fourth of July Peoples Temple gathering took place in San Diego this past summer, and I\u2019m glad I attended both. My feelings after returning home this year were different than when I returned from the first gathering. I think because it was primarily we felt safe (because we are!), which in turn made it a very comfortable get-together.\u00a0Part of that came from the fact that we had the same people as last year \u2013 Don Beck, Neva Sly Hargrave, Laura Johnston Kohl, Becky Moore and Mac McGehee hosted the out-of-towners, including Grace Stoen Jones, Claire Janaro, Liz Forman, and me \u2013 but there were other reasons too.<\/p>\n
Several people have said that the main reason the two gatherings have been such a success is that \u2013 unlike the get-togethers for the memorials in San Francisco and Oakland \u2013\u00a0it isn\u2019t PT all the time. In the course of the weekend together, we do other things, like going to the zoo, going to the beach, watching fireworks, hanging out at different people\u2019s houses, drinking beer, and eating (don\u2019t forget eating!). Along the way, we learn who each other is now. The gatherings are more casual and less structured, and in that atmosphere, when conversations do turn to heavier topics (as they always do), we can talk in a much more collegial way. By confronting the issues in a sideways manner, we work our way through them.<\/p>\n
Take, for example, the question that has come up in both years: Were we brainwashed in Peoples Temple? With the group gathered in San Diego, that bone of contention is, was and will forever be. It would be very interesting to know what others who did not attend think about the subject, and we certainly hope to see more of you at next year\u2019s gathering when the subject will undoubtedly come up again.<\/p>\n
As for my view, I don\u2019t think\u00a0that any layperson\u00a0can explain brainwashing anymore than they can explain being in love. What I am reasonable sure of is that it was not the matter of brainwashing alone that ruffled feathers, but rather the statement that one must take responsibility for one\u2019s own actions. I believe each of us wants to think of ourselves as a good person, so it is hard to admit that any bad\u00a0deeds done while in PT could have been done by the good person that\u00a0we\u00a0think we are. The only way to accept that<\/i> is to believe that we must have been brainwashed. And if\u00a0we\u00a0have to bear the responsibility for\u00a0our\u00a0actions, does that not also mean that each of us is in part responsible for what happened on November 18?<\/p>\n
(Nell Smart was a member of Peoples Temple for five years in Los Angeles until she left in 1976. Following a lengthy illness, Nell died peacefully in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 22, 2024. Her complete collection of writings for <\/i>the jonestown report may be found here<\/a>.)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The second annual Fourth of July Peoples Temple gathering took place in San Diego this past summer, and I\u2019m glad I attended both. My feelings after returning home this year were different than when I returned from the first gathering. I think because it was primarily we felt safe (because we are!), which in turn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":31944,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-32004","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32004","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=32004"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129526,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32004\/revisions\/129526"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}