Dear People: Remembering Jonestown
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Denice StephensonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04
ISBN: 1597140023
Number of pages: 171
Publisher: Heyday Books
Book Reviews of Dear People: Remembering Jonestown
Book Review: From the Voices of Jonestown!
Summary: 5 Stars
On November 18, 1978, tragedy occurred at an airstrip in Port Kaituma in Guyana when Congressman Leo Ryan from Northern California, Patty Parks (a People's Temple defector), Greg Robinson (photographer for the San Francisco Examiner), Don Harris (NBC reporter), and Robert Brown, another newsman, were shot to death by the People's Temple armed gunmen. The tragedy would only get worse and not better. There were survivors at the airstrip. But back in Jonestown, Rev. Jim Jones would finally have his white night in which this was no suicide drill. It was the real thing! Not everybody went willingly. The children event infants who were born in Jonestown were the first victims. There was one dissenter in the crowd and her name was Christine Miller. Jones had already made his mind up to complete the white night after years of practice. there was no going back. His members believed that they would be tortured and killed after the Congressman's death. That they were all responsible and not just those who committed the actual crimes. Even the children of Jonestown would not be spared, for two hours, there was death with armed gunmen surrounding the pavilion where only a day before there was a celebration regarding Ryan's visit. There was music, food, and a good time. Now it was going to be the end and it wasn't going quietly. Jones achieved infamy in death that would be associated with mass murder or suicide. Jones himself was dying anyway.
For Stephenson, she has researched and has used this opportunity to show the humanity of Jonestown and the People's Temple. He had taken in the disenfranchised, the forgotten, neglected, and unwanted. Jones made them feel not only welcome but to be part of a larger collective community. His members were so dedicated that they moved their lives across country from Indianapolis to Northern California and finally Jonestown. Jones may have falsified his healings to gain attention and membership but he also helped establish nursing home and foster homes all under the church. We all think that we are incapable of being lured into a cult. Actually, Jones gave his people what they needed and he expected the same sacrifice in return. Slowly, Jones stripped his members of their finances, their homes, jobs, and obligations for the People's Temple. He provided jobs, food, and shelter as well as a great community of good people. Jones left Indianapolis because people weren't committed enough to the cause or maybe he was afraid of the exposure of his dark side. The other side of Jim Jones was equally dark but it was veiled heavily by his presence and lively performance on stage. Most of the members didn't join the People's Temple because of Jim Jones but because of how his other members were so selfless, generous, and kind to them for all their needs. Of course, now thirty years later, the search for answers to those questions of what happened on November 18, 1978 are still in debate. But the author has made a conscious effort to humanize the people of Jonestown as more than a number and faceless bodies which were splashed all over the news. For years, I have researched true crime and criminal psychology to understand the concept of Jonestown. This book has helped me understand the people who have been taken from us that day. We were robbed of them as well as their families and friends. 900 isn't just a number, they were people.
Summary of Dear People: Remembering Jonestown
More than a quarter of a century after the fall of Peoples Temple, in which the world witnessed the devastating loss of over nine hundred lives-including those of Congressman Leo J. Ryan and several journalists-the tragedy of Jonestown continues to mystify. In a sensitive account that traces the rise and fall of the idealistic community movement that preceded the deaths at Jonestown, Denice Stephenson uses letters, oral histories, journal entries, and other original documents-many published here for the first time-to bring this inexplicable event into a very personal and human perspective.-Coincides with the premiere of the new play "The Peoples Temple" by writer/director Leigh Fondakowski (The Laramie Project)
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