35 years ago, in the small South American country Guyana, 918 people, including Congressman Leo Ryan, were murdered. Contrary to what you've heard, only a small minority of them willingly drank the poison.
Where were you when you heard about Jonestown?
900 members of the Peoples Temple, Congressman Ryan, and NBC employees were murdered that day.
A small amount of them willingly committed suicide, the rest were injected or forced to drink Flavor Aid laced with poison. Almost 70% were African American, and nearly 300 of the 900 were children.
35 years later they're remembered with the odious saying Drink the Kool-Aid. It trivializes their deaths, and they're referred to as brainwashed fanatics.
They'd joined the Peoples Temple and moved to Jonestown to create to a society free of racism, sexism and poverty. Except for his inner circle, they weren't fanatical cult members willing to die for Jim Jones
This is the best site I've found on Jonestown. It has tapes from Jonestown, pictures, writings and interviews by survivors et al.
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/
Here is an excellent book about Jonestown, from the same author who wrote Jesus Land. http://www.amazon.com/...
Here is a list of who died. Scroll half way down to this sentence: A file of the ID photos for those who died in Guyana is available Here
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/...
It opens up a heavy PDF file.
Tue Nov 19, 2013 at 11:42 AM PT: Edited to add: thank you for taking the time to tip and comment, and the amazing stories some of you have!
The victims of Jonestown deserve to be remembered and NOT by the saying "drinking the Kool Aid"
If you see or hear someone saying that, please explain to them why it's wrong. I've seen it used here quite often.