{"id":92739,"date":"2019-09-18T10:01:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T17:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=92739"},"modified":"2019-09-23T15:00:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T22:00:40","slug":"representative-of-a-hero","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=92739","title":{"rendered":"Representative of a Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Dedicated to Representative Leo Ryan; inspired by the poetry of Teri Buford O\u2019Shea)<\/em><\/p>\n

I saw
\nA representative of a hero today
\nHe wore blue
\nThe same shade as the sky
\nThe color that birds equate
\nWith the freedom of flight<\/p>\n

He had gray hair, wore sunglasses
\nFear was in his eyes as he climbed
\nInto the dump truck cab as we left
\nBut he did his best
\nNot to show it
\nNot to let us see<\/p>\n

Representative of a hero
\nHe helped us to push forward
\nThrough the jungle
\nHe was delivering a small group
\nTo the safety of small planes
\nMeant to take us home<\/p>\n

Then they came to the airstrip
\nOut of the corner of my eye
\nI saw them
\nShot after
\nShot after
\nShot<\/p>\n

The representative of a hero
\nDropped to the muddy ground
\nBy the wheel of a \u201cbird\u201d
\nThat was to be
\nOur flight out to
\nFreedom<\/p>\n

Pain
\nBlood
\nThe \u201cbrigade\u201d of gunman
\nSent from Jonestown
\nGone as quickly as they had appeared
\nThe representative of a hero dead<\/p>\n

But the hope
\nThat he gave us
\nLived on through that first night
\nLived on to the next morning
\nLived on
\nLives on<\/p>\n

I made it home
\nThe representative of a hero
\nDid not
\nOr did he
\nMaybe not physically
\nInstead, he went home to the next plain<\/p>\n

His ideals
\nHis love
\nHis concern
\nFor those he so boldly
\nWalked into the jungle for
\nThose things all live on<\/p>\n

Representative of a hero
\nThank you
\nI will never forget you
\nI never could
\nRepresentative of \u201cthe better angels of our nature\u201d
\nThank you<\/p>\n

(Bonnie Yates is a regular contributor to <\/em>the jonestown report. Her other article in this edition of <\/em>the jonestown report is Joe Mazor and His Interactions with Peoples Temple: What the FOIA Files Tell Us<\/a>. Her previous articles may be found <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. She may be reached <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Dedicated to Representative Leo Ryan; inspired by the poetry of Teri Buford O\u2019Shea) I saw A representative of a hero today He wore blue The same shade as the sky The color that birds equate With the freedom of flight He had gray hair, wore sunglasses Fear was in his eyes as he climbed Into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":92869,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-92739","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92739","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=92739"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92824,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92739\/revisions\/92824"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/92869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}