(Jim Jones) Jonestown memorial dedication allowed to proceed

Dedication of a Jonestown memorial, which includes the name of Jim Jones among the victims, can proceed Sunday despite a last-ditch effort from a rival survivors' group to stop it, a judge ruled Thursday.

The Jonestown Memorial Fund - led in part by Jim Jones Jr. - can go forward with plans for a private ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland to unveil its monument, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert McGuiness ruled.

About 200 people are expected to attend the ceremony, including the Guyana ambassador, paying tribute to the 918 mostly Bay Area residents who died at the mass suicide in Guyana on Nov. 18, 1978.

"I don't know if anybody has won," said Jim Jones Jr., the son of the Peoples Temple leader, who argued for a memorial that included the name of his father. "All of us are experiencing and remembering the losses."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/26/BATB1JLIOE.DTL

It's sad. I feel sorry for the son who was left with the burden of carrying that name and legacy but I think it is distasteful to include his father's name on a memorial to those who died.

He could not even kill himself in the end, he had someone else shot him.

I would not like it at all--probably fight vigorously against it if I were one of the Jonestown survivors. But, in the end, I feel for the son, who has obviously chosen not to make a decisive break with his father and legacy, to the point of retaining his name. I think he would have had a better time of it, if he had disowned the father, but perhaps he remembers him for other reasons....

On edit, I just read the full article. This woman Jaynona Norwood, who fought the inclusion of Jim Jones on the mounument--lost 27 family members that day! I certainly think HER wishes ought to have counted. My heavens!

At least one survivor of The Peoples Temple massacre in Jonestown has no problem with plans to erect a monument in Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery.

In fact, Dixon City Councilman Thom Bogue says he could not care less.

Bogue, a survivor of Jonestown, said he agrees with a judge's decision Thursday to allow construction of the monument to move forward.

"The way I look at it is, who's paying for it?" he said. "If you are paying for it, you have a say. If not, then you don't."

Bogue was 14 years old in 1975 when he was sent by family to Jonestown, Guyana.

"I attempted to escape on several occasions and was severely punished for my efforts," he wrote on his campaign website during a successful run for Dixon City Council last year. "Then, on Nov. 18, 1978, my family and I, with the assistance of the late Congressman Leo Ryan and now Congresswoman Jackie Speier, were able to make our escape. I will be forever grateful to them. In the process, my sister and I were shot and survived."

In fact, he and his sister spent three days hiding in the rain forest near the airstrip as more than 900 residents of the commune committed suicide by order of leader Jim Jones, who died himself that day from a gunshot wound.

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http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_18153377

What a weird way to spend his teen years.

and there is nothing you can do to change that fact.

and remember, people drank the poison at gunpoint.

Do Not Drink The Koolaid !!!!!!

That bastard orchestrated the deaths of HUNDREDS of people, and he's listed among the VICTIMS? Who the hell thought this was a good idea?! Oh, this infuriates me. He's one of the worst MASS MURDERERS in history!
Duckie

:evilgrin:

You just know Kool-Aid wishes more people remembered that!