November 14, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle, Two Cents - Did the Bay Area learn anything from Jonestown?,

November 14, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle, Two Cents - Did the Bay Area learn anything from Jonestown?, 

Did the Bay Area learn anything from Jonestown?

Robert Smthwick

Los Altos Hills

I learned a person can have two distinct personalities. I spoke via radio occasionally with Larry Schacht, the Jonestown physician, who sounded perfectly normal. He instructed the camp nurse on how much poison to give each believer.

Trish Hooper

Portola Valley

Probably not. Leo Ryan's murder and Jackie Speier's wounding by a crazed gunman followed by the horror of deaths by the cyanide-laced drinks have lost their immediacy.

Dieter Hurni

Redwood City

I don't think so. People still are listening to charismatic leaders. Remember Waco and that UFO-religion dude in Southern California a while back? As long as people are bored with their lives, there will always be somebody who tells them the grass is greener on the other side.

Burt Schmitz

Cupertino

Nope. Cult founders have been around for thousands of years. As a kid in Indiana in the '30s, I was aware of the since-discredited House of David and Father Divine, which called for the sacrifice of possessions and daughters. Nothing in human nature has changed -- nor will it. Suckers continue to be born every minute.

Dan Dobleman

Daly City

I don't think so. If another Jones-type came along with the same appeal and the same help-the-downtrodden con game, the gullible clowns in our city government would be standing in line to have their pictures taken with him.