Jonestown - 30 Years Later

I was only 4 when this tragedy took place. Growing up, I had heard of this horrible thing but I really didn't know much about it. Today, November 18, 2008 marks 30 years since the Jonestown Massacre happened and technology has allowed this story to be passed along to hopefully remind and teach people that this should never have taken place.

My boyfriend had me watch a documentary with him on MSNBC. It was called "Witness to Jonestown." He had asked me if I knew about this story. I nodded and said "Wasn't it about some cult that committed suicide?" He nodded back and told me that there was much more to the story. He had seen a similar documentary on another channel so we sat together and watched this one. After an hour I felt kind of sick. I couldn't believe that this could have happened in my lifetime. We talked about what we had just seen for a bit then went online to further our knowledge. I was able to pull up tons of information. There were articles from newspapers, magazines, an audio recording of the last moments, and some video which was shot also before everything happened. I was in shock!

I felt that the story would have been lost in time without the detail that was kept using modern technologies. Having this be a reminder of the horror of this happening, I hope it will continue to educate people to the truthfulness of how this came to be and how to ensure it doesn't happen ever again.