Ind. eatery pulls billboards with cult references - Yahoo! News
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – A northern Indiana restaurant that erected billboards referring to the 1978 Jonestown cult massacre in which more than 900 people died has removed the signs following complaints that the signs were offensive.
Jeff Leslie, vice president of sales and marketing at Hacienda, acknowledged that the billboards were a mistake. He said the South Bend-based company ordered the signs removed less than two weeks into Hacienda's new advertising campaign.
"Our role is not to be controversial or even edgy. We want to be noticed -- and there's a difference," Leslie told the South Bend Tribune. "We have a responsibility to (advertise) with care, and that's why we're pulling this ad. We made a mistake and don't want to have a negative image in the community."
The billboards included the statement, "We're like a cult with better Kool-Aid," over a glass containing a mixed drink, as well as the phrase "To die for!"
In November 1978, more than 900 members of Jim Jones' People's Temple drank cyanide-laced, grape-flavored punch in a mass murder and suicide in the group's compound in Guyana. [...]
Not pickin' on Indiana here (Don :)). Frankly, I agree with the ex-Deputy AG that he ought to be entitled to express his personal opinions, even in humorous or distasteful ways, when he's not working. I also think US troops ought to be able to express their personal opinions of our President on their off time. I understand restrictions to the contrary and I think we'd all do well to think twice or three times before we speak in most cases, but we're human, and hearing people say stuff we don't like is part of the transparency many of us would like to see in government. The whole 'PC' movement is making politicians of us all, and with apologies to those of you who serve in office it can't hurt to point out that the reputation of politics through the ages is not exactly stellar.
As far as this billboard goes, Guyana is hardly the only instance of a bunch of cult members drinking the Kool-Aid, literally or figuratively, and I for one find it funny and think it gets it's point across. Members of cults that don't drink poison Kool-Aid shouldn't be so worried about the public perception of them (the whole reason for joining a cult is usually to pursue some kind of enlightenment that should preclude caring about the opinions of mere mortals), and members of cults that do might do well to rethink their life (and death) choices. I mean, come on, if you're that dedicated to the cause what do you care what a bunch of ignorant jerks like the rest of us think? If you're gonna get your panties in a bunch 'cause people think you're crazy, maybe think about joining a Fundamentalist Baptist church, or better yet becoming Amish. People just think they're a little out of touch; nobody'll be expecting you to off yourself tomorrow so you can 'join the aliens' and your belief system will get a better reception, too, at least in America.
Make no mistake, it's horrible that anyone would choose that end, and worse that Jim Jones didn't leave it to his people but stationed armed loyal guards around the grounds to 'take care' of those who lost their will to self-extinguish; those are the tragedies in that situation. But when someone makes a choice like this, for those who have made this choice, one has to hope they knew it would not be understood by others and that people react to things they don't understand with fear and often derision, which often manifests through comedy, thus the term 'comic relief'. It's a human way of dealing with the anxiety we feel when people make choices that seem to us (and maybe are) unreasonable. Putting it out there like this makes it something people can talk about, and then when someone who's been there for one of those conversations finds themselves faced with a glass of toxic delight it's more likely there will be voices echoing in the back of their head, "How stupid is that?" "What on earth were they thinking?" "Why would anyone drink the Kool-Aid?" that just might make them hesitate long enough to break the spell. It's one thing to be civil and sensitive; it's quite another to reject some of our most powerful healing tools: humor, laughter, and the emotional strength to endure a knock or two on the path to growth.
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