After 30 years, Jim Jones aide seeks forgiveness

I'm glad for Mr. Stoen. I'm also glad for Mr. Kinsolving who is at moment recuperating from a heart attack. The events leading up to and afterwards, Jonestown, left an indelible imprint on me. I was there in the Bay Area and saw for myself the Politicians encouraging, aiding, and abetting a cult ideology, which through the years has coalesced into a "political identity".

It affected me so keenly, so deeply, I kept newsclippings from those times in the 70s.

SF Examiner & Chronicle, Nov. 19, 1978

Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple

The Peoples Temple and its founder, the Rev. Jim Jones, have been steeped in controversy since he founded the church in the 1960s in Indianapolis. Ind.

A sophisticated political manipulator wherever he went, Jones brought his temple to San Francisco in 1971 after first moving it to the Redwood Valley, near Ukiah, in the late '60s.

And in seemingly no time Jones became a potentent political power in The City, organizing his troops for a number of liberal political campaigns. He hobnobbed with such officials as Mayor Moscone, who appointed him chairman of the Housing Authority; former San Francisco Sheriff Richard Hongisto; Assemblyman Willie Brown; Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson, and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Visitors to the Geary Street church included such prominent politicians as Lt. Govern. Mervyn Dymally, District Attorney Joseph Freitas and Gov. Brown.

...

Temple members also were required to confess in writing to crimes they hadn't committed. Former members who talked to The Examiner in 1977 said they signed confessions to crimes including molesting their own children, stealing large amounts of money, conspiring to kill the president or overthrowing the government.

In addition to beatings reportedly administered by the church hierarchy, former members said they were often forced to spend every waking moment on church activities -- massive letter writing campaigns to important politicians, church jobs, committee activities, care of children and the elderly...

One member said, "They offered to snuff out anyone who tried to cause trouble for the church." ...

Mayor Moscone, who received cash contributions and legions of campaign workers and precinct workers in his mayoral campaign in 1975, appointed Jones to the Housing Authority.

Moscone told The Examiner in July 1977, "I asked (Jones) to be on the Housing Authority because I thought it needed a person both sensitive and realistic. From everything I've seen, he's been a good chairman. He's kept peace and quiet over there and been responsible on important issues."

Assemblyman Willie Brown, for one, beleives Jones had tremendous clout.

"Numbers of people give him clout," he said in 1977. "He is virtually able to produce physically more people than anybody I know."

During his tenure on the Housing Authority, Jones' temple members would pack the meetings, as well as show up at such events as hearings on the expansion of Hastings College of the Law. During the huge demonstration in 1976 at the International Hotel, the temple provided 2,000 of the 5,000 people there.

Obviously, Les Kinsolving provided a great deal of research data that was 'possibly' used to write the stories of the aftermath.

Remembering the Guyana tragedy, Nov 2003

I see via search engine, there's plenty of websites on the Internet concerning the Guyana Massacre.

Jones disciple recovers from, recalls painful past

I saw the lead-up to the massacre. The political gaming. It shocked me to my roots. I had to keep these clippings. At the time pre-Guyana, the leading mantra at colleges was "question authority". I kept these clippings and because one day I might be so blessed to have children. And I wanted them to never forget the perils of "group think" as opposed to rational team-work and unity. I wanted my children to question, at all times, life around them and to always think for themselves and to stand by their convictions. The horror of these beautiful souls dying as they did, was almost more than my young heart could bear, at the time.

Mayor Moscone was not too long later, murdered. The famous "twinkie" defense came into play -- and the full story of what happened and why never emerged in print. And these politicians who endorsed Jim Jones have had a curious hand in not having learned a damned thing from the deaths of over 900 people, former American citizens, in Guyana. Obviously, the voters hadn't either. I've wondered a million times, would the voters have voted differently if THEY had had full, unbiased, unpartisan coverage leading up to the Guyana Massacre. Or even afterwards.

Merv Dymally introduced UN language into the CA Constitution a couple years back. Willie Brown, as speaker of the House of CA for 25(?) years, continued to use crony-ism to satisfy his personal desires and demands. Mayor Bradley? Yah. Where do I begin.

And Jackie Spier, who went to Jonestown alongside her boss, the murdered Leo Ryan -- what did she learn? Not much. Look at her voting record.

The politicians involved with aiding and abetting this madman really received little to no press coverage. Not before nor after.

So when I hear the MSM and the Campaign Finance Reform dweebs screaming about "stifling" the internet, bloggers, email -- I remember Guyana. I'll wager Les Kinsolving, does too.