In August 1945 nuclear bombs were released in Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end the war between USA and Japan. I was born in 1956, and in New Zealand this did not affect us, although newspaper reported on what happened from the USA side. A paper I’m doing wrote about others which happened while I was alive:
1957 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial
satellite
1963 – The assassination of President John F. Kennedy
1969 – The Moonlanding
1970s –Watergate – the scandal that brought down US President Richard Nixon
1974 – Nixon resigns
1974 – Nixon resigns
1985 – Live Aid
1989 – Fall of the Berlin Wall
1997 – Death of Princess Diana
2001 – 9/11
2001 – 9/11
Every one of these leapt in my memory, and yet I have many other memories
world-wide. Do you remember any of these?
1969, Charles Manson Murders
“I am only what you made me. I am
only a reflection of you.” Charles Manson
I read a book, “Helter Skelter”, on Charles Manson’s ‘family’ and the
murders they committed. It was published in 2001, but the tragedies happened in
the end of the 1960s, and I had lived through the newspaper articles and
television programmes about these. Manson convinced his cult to murder, and
they killed 9 people over the next 5 weeks. The worst event was murdering
pregnant Sharon Tate, an actress, and four friends at her home. That was, for
me, a change of the ‘hippie-peace-love’ era. Manson was too much like Hitler,
and his cross tattoo on his forehead was turned into a swastika.
The ABC article, in November last year about Manson dying, said “Those ‘kids’
- young people drifting along without purpose - were cleverly brainwashed by
Manson who zeroed in on their weaknesses.”
“Every
massacre starts with the tongue.” Bryant McGill
References:
Bugliosi, V & Gentry, C 2001, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the
Manson Murders, WW Norton & Co USA
1974, Patty Hearst: Stockholm Syndrome?
“For me, my awakening came when I was
kidnapped.” Patty Hearst
At the age of 19,
Hearst – an heiress of the wealthy William Randolph Hearst, creator of Hearst
Communications – was kidnapped in 1974 by the domestic ‘army’, the SLA
(Symbionese Liberation Army). The CNN stories on television and Patty Hearst’s
story in a book are very different, yet Hearst still says that she had been ‘brainwashed’
to follow the SLA. She was pictured with a weapon, and again with a weapon
inside a bank which she helped to rob.
In the article from
News.com.au, she said “It’s no secret that I was abducted, raped, and tortured
at 19”, and yet SLA members in court said “she was a willing convert with
contacts with the organisation well before her disappearance.” What do you
think?
Jeff Toobin was a journalist,
and wrote about Patty Hearst – what he said was a ‘tribute’ to her - yet Hearst
is very much against it. This book is reviewed on the Slate website. Maybe I
need to read that book too.
“You must confront the most brutal facts
of your current reality, whatever they might be.” Jim Collins
References:
Toobin, J 2016, American
Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst, Doubleday NY
1978, Jonestown massacre
“Children, it will not hurt if you'll be
quiet.” Jim Jones
40 years ago, in
November 1978, I was to celebrate my 22nd birthday. Jim Jones had
turned away from the church he had followed, and lead nearly 900 people to his
‘town’ in Guyana, in the South America jungle. He wanted them to follow his own
religion, the People’s Temple. Guin (2017) said that Jones “was able to attract
and maintain loyalty … convinc[ing] his followers that he was the only one who
could solve problems and create a better life.”
His religion became
seriously wrong; Jones appointed his own cartel, who watched his own back. Guin
(2017) said that Jones built up a paranoia about the USA FBI and CIA. At Jones
demand, most of the people there killed themselves – and their children. It
became “the largest single loss of American civilian life” until 2011
(news.com.au, 2017).
News.com.au wrote about
Jones, and the book which Guin had written. The book was printed in USA and
released in Australia last year. This debacle had thrown me 40 years ago. Now I
think I need to read that book.
“The Christian resolution to find the
world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.” Friedrich Nietzsche
References:
Guin, J 2017, The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple,
Simon & Schuster, NY
Ramsey, J. E. 1994,
Feature & magazine article writing. Madison, Wisconsin: WCB Brown &
Benchmark. Ch. 2. "ldeas and
research: finding inspiration, gathering
information", pp. 22-32
1983, Waco Massacre, Texas
USA
“You’re a bitch because you don’t want to
make babies for God!”
David Koresh
David Koresh, born Vernon Howell, took many
followers of Davidian, a break-off from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, to
the top of a hill in Texas which they renamed Mt Carmel, after the
bible-referred mountain in Israel. They waited for a second-coming of Jesus
Christ. Koresh told his followers that God had told him to “pro-create” with
the women, and to form an “Army for God” with the men. However, he was reported
by exiles of abusing children and raping underage girls.
News.com.au remembered this 20 years later in 2003. According
to the article, “Allegations
surfaced that Koresh was stockpiling illegal weapons and thousands of rounds of
ammunition, as well as operating a methamphetamine laboratory.” The US Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) intended to charge Koresh and his cult
on illegal arms, and Koresh and his supporters fought what he called the “war”.
It took seven weeks for the ATF and FBI to finally get inside, but 76 people,
including 17 children, “were either buried alive by rubble, suffocated by the
effects of the fire, or shot.”
“The Waco Siege: An
American Tragedy” was written by Jack Rosewood and Dwayne Walker and
published in 2015. Perhaps it’s a good book to read to remind yourself of what
happens.
“You may all go to hell, and I
will go to Texas.” Davy Crocket
References:
Rosewood, J & Walker, D 2015, The Waco Siege: An American Tragedy, Wiq Media
These four were in USA,
yet there are many, many more all around the globe: like the 1972 Munich
massacre of 11 of the Israeli team by Palestine group Black September; or
Victoria, Australia, the 1987 Queen Street massacre with 9 people killed by
Frank Vitkovic; or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China, where students
protested and so many died – yet numbers range from around 150 up to 10,000; or
the Aramoana massacre in New Zealand where David Gray killed 13 people.
Do you know?
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