10 days that shook S.F.

[bluffmanxx]

Thirty years ago, two unimaginable tragedies jolted San Francisco in less than a fortnight.

On Nov. 18, 1978, more than 900 men, women and children - many of them poor African Americans from San Francisco - died after drinking a cyanide-laced potion in Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones' compound in the jungles of Guyana.

Then, while San Francisco struggled to grasp the enormity of that tragedy, on Nov. 27 a fiercely conservative ex-supervisor named Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the nation's few openly gay politicians.

I remember all of this so well, I had just moved to San Francisco while attending college. The city was in turmoil...amazing how far reaching the effects have been on both local and national politics. Current California senator Diane Feinstein became mayor following the assassination. The brother of Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives, was a member of the board of supervisors in San Francisco at the time while Nancy was Democrat party chairwoman for Northern California.

Whenever you hear anyone speak of "drinking kool-aid" remember that Jonestown is the origin of that phrase. Less well know is the "twinkie defense" phrase that came out of the trial of Dan White.

[Major_Payne]

sad

[Patsfan55]

I remember all that hard to beleive its been that long