The Temple

This article is not related to the illness of diabetes.

When I was working in the corporate world I had a very busy office.  I was in sales and my business was very successful.  Every day I had to figure out how to get out of my office and grab some sort of lunch. Nine times out of ten, if I brought a takeout lunch back to my office I would never get the chance to eat it.  My office was in San Francisco, in the “Fillmore” district. This area was the “cat’s meow” back in the 1940’s and 50’s. It was the place for Black jazz clubs and restaurants. People of all colors packed those streets day and night. The “Fillmore” district was a proud Black community at that time. Photos of that past era  still circulate. Everybody that was a Black entertainer came to clubs and hotels in the “Fillmore”. This community was considered the West Coast version of Harlem. Eventually  the “Fillmore” like many urban city districts in America, fell upon hard socio-economic times. By the time the “hippies” invaded San Francisco in the mid-1960’s, the “Fillmore” was just another tired inner-city diva trying to live off it’s prior greatness. The community was ripe for the picking.       

The one or two days during the week when I got a chance to get out for lunch I would walk past this old magnificent church that was deserted, boarded up and surrounded by a chain link fence. The church had been unoccupied for many years. When I walked by this church I always became very sad. I told myself that there must some serious pain and  suffering connected with this property. But, I didn’t know why. I did not find out until five years later.

At some point in the late 1990’s the U.S. Postal service needed a new Post Office in the “Fillmore” district and purchased this old church property to tear it down and build a new postal building. There was a article written in the San Francisco Chronicle about the tearing down of the infamous “People’s Temple”. Yes, this is the same church founded by the late Reverend Jim Jones. This was the church where he gathered his large flock of Black and White followers and enticed them to travel to a new “promised land” in the country of Guyana. That new city in  the country of Guyana was named ’Jonestown’. When I read that article in the newspaper I then  realized that my new office was located right  around the corner from this temple of doom. I now understood the sadness I felt  when I walked by this church was from the pain and misery of so many lost lives that had been connected to this church. Over 900 women, men and children did not all suddenly decide to commit suicide on the same afternoon! 

One day I met a Black gentleman that survived the Holocaust at Jonestown. This person was part of the Reverend Jim Jone’s security force. Yes, Jonestown had a armed security force to keep order and to prevent followers from escaping. The man I met told me that he tried to talk his wife into fleeing with him and their two children into the rain forest. She refused to leave. That was the night before Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his entourage were slaughtered at the Jonestown airstrip. The gentleman that survived told me he new what was going to happen at the airstrip and  also the plans for the people back at the Jonestown compound.

This person ran away into the forest. His family died. He told me he watched as long as he could as other security men gave ALL the members at Jonestown an ultimatum, “drink the Kool Aid or be shot”. The United State’s press reported that over 900 “darkies” committed suicide in Guyana because of their loyalty to their “Savior”, the Reverend Jim Jones. What a crock. Over 900 people were murdered!

If you believe in organized religion, but I would think carefully about that man or woman in that pulpit that you think might lead you to the “Promised Land”. I am very cynical about people delivering messeges from God. I’ve known some very spiritual individuals that I truly trust, spiritually. These individuals have demonstrated their love and kindness time after time. However, I would never trust ANY person enough to convert all my assets to cash, give it to their church and move with them to another country.  That would be insane.  Back in the 1970’s and 80’s the Indian guru Bagwan Rashneesh convinced thousands  of  middle and high income Americans, mostly White, to help him build a new paradise out in the woods in the state of Oregon. These people actually started a new township with its own ”security force”.  Does this sound familiar to you?  These folks were convinced to convert All of their assets including pension funds and homes to cash and hand it to guru Rashneesh. Their town had its own airstrip . The guru had more than fifty personally owned Rolls Royces parked by this airstrip. One night the guru Rashneesh used that airstrip to fly back to India, away from his followers, never to return. He took the cash.

FoodSpook