It seems so difficult to believe it, but tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre in Guyana. It surely ranks as one of those dates one doesn't particularly want to remember, but depending on one's experiences at the time, this horrible act can be seared into one's memory.
I happened to be living in San Francisco at the time in my senior year of college. Like everyone else I sat transfixed, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. I mourned the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan and crossed my fingers for the survivors. Jim Jones had been a major figure in San Francisco before he decided to recreate Heart of Darkness in the jungles of Guyana, having once served as Housing Commissioner. Many of the political figures in the city were well-acquainted with him; everyone was numb with shock.
Eight days later, San Francisco was horrified again when Dan White murdered Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in City Hall. All sorts of conspiracy theories revolved around these two unrelated acts, not the least of which was the name given to the rehearsals for the mass suicides in Jonestown: White Nights. The terror was enough to make your head spin.
Lest we forget about the banality of evil, here's a reminder of what it can look like:
There's a very simple moral to the Jonestown story: no matter how frightened or sad or down or insigificant you feel, NEVER surrender your right to think for yourself to anyone.
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