JONESTOWN SURVIVOR Writing for Jonestown Report

I am excited, and determined, this week to finish up two articles for THE JONESTOWN REPORT (November 2016 on-line edition). One article will be a review of Eusi Kwayana's A NEW LOOK AT JONESTOWN, from the Guyanese perspective. I love Eusi and his wife Tchaiko, who have been mentors (to me and to my son Raul) over the years as I tried to be a teacher who opened my students' eyes to the "REAL" history taking place all around us. I get to re-visit his book and all the reasons I felt enriched after reading it, as it evolved before being published.

The second article is a comparison between the leaders of the two cults I have lived in – Jim Jones in Peoples Temple, and Chuck Dederich in Synanon. I am going to approach it in Venn Diagram format – what were their similarities, and what were their differences? I have many entries in both areas. I acknowledge that power corrupts. After living in both Peoples Temple and Synanon for ten years each, I have many reflections and thoughts. Since I have many contacts from both groups, other Peoples Temple survivors, and former Synanon residents, I have continued to gain more insights.

I can't wait to take these on. I have other writing to do – teaching a class on the 1970s and looking at Peoples Temple in its historical perspective for a 4-hour OSHER class at U of Utah, and a presentation at the Communal Studies Association Conference on Peoples Temple as a "Millennialist" community.

Tags: A New Look at Jonestown, Atheist and Quaker, Autobiography, communal groups, Communal Studies Association, Communal Studies Association Conference, Eusi Kwayana, Guyana, Guyanese Perspective, Jim Jones, Jonestown memories, Jonestown Report, Jonestown Speakers' Bureau, OSHER, religion, Synanon, The Jonestown Institute