Wow, do I remember the Jim Jones, Peoples Temple thing. Inwas a first year junior college student and a ham radio operator. I was always trying to contact a new country and get a QSL card from them to verify it.
One day I was listening and heard a station from French Guyana which I had never contacted. I tried ab\nd contacted them. They said They would send me their station QSL card if I sent them a US Postal Service Reply Coupon that would pay for their postage. I agreed and sent it.
A few weeks later the Jim Jones mass suicide happened. I did not think anything about it. About two weeks later my father came into the house mad as hell after going by the PO Box on his way home. There was a letter for me from the Peoples Temple thanking me for my contribution and also having their station QSL card confirming the contact. Well, that was the first time I knew who they were and it took a lot of explaining to my father to get out of trouble. I still have the card.
Amazing how we trip into the periphery of historical events.
Out of all those leftist luminaries, Harvey Milk was the only one so far to get a Forever commemorative postage stamp out of it. The USPS may be completely sold out by now, but I'd pass it over many times when I bought stamps and wondered who in the heck he was. Now I at least have an overview.
I remember the Jim Jones mass suicide and murder of his brainwashed followers and the metaphor that came from it about Kool Aid. The comparison to leftist ideologues was interesting; otherwise it was more than I really cared to know.
That Hale Bopp cult was similar but different. And I resent the comparison to fundamentalist Christianity. Any leader who would blaspheme God's word and recommend to his followers what to use the pages for is no Christian even if he borrowed some of it to serve his own purpose.
Pretty good tale of DX! HI