I Was Busy at the Time...

But had some distant, far removed knowledge of what happened. Reflecting back on this now, 30 years later, I am made somber: the loss of reason, the grave consequences of wicked religious ideology, the sickness of delusional thinking ...

The PBS documentary below is sensitive and informative yet deeply disturbing. Will we learn?

Nov 18, 1977 [sic]
To Whomever Finds this Note,

Collect all of the tapes, all the writing, all the history. The story of this movement, this action, must be examined over and over. We did not want this kind of endin'. We wanted to live, to shine, to bring light to a world that is dying for a little bit of love. There's quiet as we leave this world. The sky is gray. People file by us slowly and take the somewhat bitter drink. Many more must drink. A teeny kitten sits next to me watchin'. A dog barks. The birds gather on the telelphone wires. Let all of the story this People's Temple be told. If nobody understands, it matters not. I'm ready to die now. Darkness settles over Jonestown on its last day on earth.

And, from Charles A. Krause's article in today's Washington Post: (Charles was one of the journalists who survived the Nov. 18, 1978 trip to Jonestown with Congressman Ryan)

Many Jonestown survivors and their families believe that the lessons of Jonestown are to remember and guard against demagogues who use religion as a cover for fraud, deception and imposing their own sometimes dangerous social and political beliefs on their naive and unsuspecting followers.

... It was that theme that dominated Tuesday's memorial service at the mass grave in Oakland. In an emotional and highly charged address, the Rev. Amos Brown, bishop at San Francisco's Third Baptist Church and president of the San Francisco NAACP, warned the mourners to beware of religious leaders who claim to have all the answers and insinuate themselves into politics, as Jones did so effectively in San Francisco.

"Good religion elevates folk, it teaches people to think for themselves. Good religion isn't authoritarian. Good religion isn't bigoted," he said. "Open up your eyes, America. America isn't a theocracy, it's a democracy. . . . And that is the lesson we must learn from Jonestown."