Peoples Temple Discussion Forum

exu156 · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:32 am Post subject: exu156

Hello all, can I just start by saying what a wonderful forum you have here and what a wonderful idea it is to debate this topic in an open forum like this.

My interest in PT began when I was very young, soon after the news had broken out I remember my father discussing the events of Jonestown and it captured my interest ever since. I was born in Angola, my father was closely involved in political circles in Angola at the time of the revolution. I remember him commenting that many of the mercenaries fighting in Angola had been trained and had come in directly from Guyana. These particular mercenaries were notorious in Angola for their use of poisons (they were famous for poisoning water wells in the more remote villages). Anyway, my father was convinced these people played a hand in the events of Jonestown.

Anyway, I totally forgot about Jonestown for a very long time, then one day while having a discussion about something totally different someone remarked that another person's comments reminded him of 'those sheep in Jonestown.' This comment really offended me and I was determined to learn and show that these people were not sheep. I was right, from all my reading and from all my research I soon discovered that these were beautiful people. People in search of truth, meaning and escape from the harsh coldness of urban life and povery.

These people did not deserve to die like this (no one deserves to die like this) and just as importantly these people deserve a voice which is willing to tell their story so that the world treats their memory with dignity and respect and ceases to look upon them as a collective bunch on brainwashed loonies. Its time that these twisted opinions end and its time that the people of Jonestown regain a voice. A forum like this is very much a step in the right direction.

I cant guarantee that my opinions on the events of Jonestown are going to be agreed to by everyone but that is the beauty of an open forum. I am here to learn and exchange ideas and hopefully somewhere in the middle all our voices can find some direction and these wonderful people that died on that very sad day can finally have their voice.