This poem resonated well with me. I feel as if I understand this person and can somehow relate to their experiences. It is written by a former member. See if you can figure out who wrote this. I’ll share the author in the rest of the article.
Poem: Survivor’s Rights
I never have to explain my past to curious on-lookers
I always have the right to say “NO” and I never have to explain.
My friendships do not allow for emotional debt
My opinions, feelings, and needs are as valid as anyone’s
No one has the right to claim my experience or to own my actions
I am the only credible witness of who I am and what is best for me
I never have to act out of guilt
It is all right and appropriate to ask for and accept support
If I feel hurt then I am being hurt, regardless of anyone’s intentions
I’m responsible only for my own actions, never for the actions of others
I have the right to extricate myself from any situation at any time
I can end conversations whenever they becomes too painful
There is a time for me to disclose things at a pace which is right for me
I am my own greatest resource
I have a right to live without guilt and shame
I have a right not to be exploited by others for their personal or financial gain
I have a right to be loved and love again
Love for my fallen friends does not diminish my love for others now
I have a right to my own interpretation of the past
I have free will
The author of this poem is Teri Buford O’Shea.
Teri earned her B.A. in Journalism from the University of California at Berkeley. While in college, she joined Peoples Temple, drawn in by her youthful idealism and vision of a better society. She was in the Temple for seven years until her defection three weeks before the massacre.
Teri’s work explores the aftermath of survival: guilt, fear, grief, forgiveness, and the constant search for meaning and new beginnings. She finds inspiration in the lives of other survivors, whether they have survived war, the Holocaust, abuse, cancer, chronic illness or other life-altering experiences. Her poetry moves beyond survival to express the universality and complexity of human experience.
Today is November 18th 2015. This is the 37th anniversary of the tragic event on November 18, 1978.
The world needs to take manipulation and control seriously, and understand the ideologies that created Jonestown.
Here are some further thoughts:
“Although Jim Jones and Peoples Temple reflected the traditions of the Black Church, by the time the nearly one thousand members migrated to Guyana in the mid-seventies, the gospel they worshipped had become an expurgated version of the New Testament as cherry picked by Jones. It was very light on Jesus and big on communal sharing, the absence of pride and the subsuming of self to the ideals of an idealized version of communism. To me the leader was far less interesting than his followers. Jim Jones was commonly similar to many of history’s failed and troubled leaders: Charismatic, empathetic, egomaniacal, prophetic, offering a grand carrot of hope and the means to achieving a “better life,” and a big, stern stick if you even considered an alternative.”
(source: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=64891)
Very interesting description of “…many of history’s failed and troubled leaders: Charismatic, empathetic, egomaniacal, prophetic, offering a grand carrot of hope and the means to achieving a “better life,” and a big, stern stick if you even considered an alternative.”
Yes indeed. And here are some more poignant thoughts from a memorial speech:
“We must remember Jonestown because it is not an isolated island in the 20th Century. It is a continuation, a part of the meaning of life in this century. We must remember Jonestown because it can happen again. The conditions that created the need for a Jonestown are still with us. Jonestown has been condemned, but the forces that created it are loose, and virtually unchallenged!
It is now important that we move beyond the particularity of Jonestown and see its broader implications. If we remember it only as an isolated event, then we may not be able to learn from it and move with empathy.
We must remember Jonestown for what it can teach us. We must be willing to accept the weakness of ministry, the loneliness it portends, and go the distance. In the words of a Negro spiritual, we may be brought to the place where we too shall sing out: “Sometime, I feel like a Motherless Child… a long way from home.” And in the midst of this experience, if we let it have its way with us, we too shall encounter the presence of the One who has promised to be there for us through it all. “Sometimes, I feel like a motherless child… a long way from home,” Sometimes…
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=61769
Archie Smith delivered this address in the chapel of the Pacific School of Religion on 20 November 1979 at a memorial anniversary shortly after the first anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy. The scripture lesson for the service was Joshua 1.