JONESTOWN SURVIVOR – Responds to Inquiries
JONESTOWN SURVIVOR responds to an email inquiry:
Over the past few days, a person researching a book has contacted me. She mentioned that the other survivors she tried to contact have not responded. Here is what I told her:
What made you decide to write about Peoples Temple? Are you including any information about Jonestown? Life for children and parents was completely different in Jonestown for both children and parents – for everyone. Do you know Dr. James Taylor at USF? Just out of curiosity, what are the ethnicities of your primary characters?
In terms of contacting survivors, what none of us wants is to the the single source. For instance, if someone asks me if Guyana is in Africa, I shut down. If someone meets me in a women’s bathroom and brings up the topic as a 30-second conversation, I am out of there. So, survivors do not want to fill in basic info – when where how, etc. There are many wonderful books – my favorites besides my own are Dearest People compiled by Denise Stephenson at the CHS, The Raven by Tim Reiterman, The Onliest One Alive by Hyacinth Thrash, and the PBS documentary by Stanley Nelson – Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, and the endless resources on the Jonestown Institute site. The annual jonestown reports on that site have many articles by survivors and researchers.
This year and next year alone, there are new books, new documentaries, possibly a mini-series, and more research articles coming out about Peoples Temple. I have a radio interview about every month, all about Jonestown. So, people are contacted endlessly. For me, the thing that gets in my way is that nothing about PT is Yes/No, so all contacts I make and queries I respond to take a lot of my time and reflections. Same with other survivors.
I will answer your questions if I feel that you have done the primary research from these other sources. Let me know if that works for you.
Have a great day,