{"id":34230,"date":"2013-07-28T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=34230"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:30:30","slug":"bogue1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=34230","title":{"rendered":"The Gift Thrust Upon Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have often pondered what my life would have been like without the Jonestown experience, wondering if I would have gone on to college, then on to a fulfilling career and a comfortable life. Or would I have taken the opposite path to self destruction. I could see myself going either way. But those are just thoughts of a man reflecting upon what might have been as he grows old.<\/p>\n

Reality is, from my experiences I have faced many challenges. When times were particularly tough, due to my JT experiences, I found hidden strength and endurance which served me well. Does this mean I would want to relive where I came from? No. But what it does mean is we have had a gift thrust upon us in a cruel fashion, but a gift all the same.<\/p>\n

Do not take what I write as a diminishment of this piece of history or to lessen the impacts it has had on our lives. All I can say is that it makes up part of who we are today. I often repeat that saying in my mind, \u201cwhat doesn\u2019t kill us, only makes us stronger!\u201d I honestly believe that, because we survived, not only Jonestown but the Peoples Temple experience, we have been given a unique outlook and wisdom on life! Enjoy it! I do!<\/p>\n

(Thom Bogue is a City Councilman in Dixon, California, and an automotive repair and smog shop owner. His other article in this edition of<\/em> the jonestown report is <\/em>\u201cI want to go with you but they won\u2019t let me.\u201d<\/em><\/a>He can be reached at <\/em>firstchoicesouth@sbcglobal.net<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have often pondered what my life would have been like without the Jonestown experience, wondering if I would have gone on to college, then on to a fulfilling career and a comfortable life. Or would I have taken the opposite path to self destruction. I could see myself going either way. But those are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":34369,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34230","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34230","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=34230"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132564,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34230\/revisions\/132564"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}