Plaquemines Parish : Some Words
Joe MF Wilson
photo by Eduardo Mayén
I had to represent Emergency Communities and of course—much greater weight—my self to: 1. The children of Diamond trailer Park. 2. Their parents, uncles, grandpas, neighbors, older brothers and sisters, mom’s boyfriends, adopted parents, and all other “community” that we as an organization would label Residents of the park. 3. Their security guards, who were from companies such as Comprehensive Security, Blackhawk USA (the national subsidiary of Blackwater), and Fortran or something like that. 4. Their EC volunteer-friends for the week/weeks, months in a few cases. (Me? About a year went by between when I first entered the park and when I was told that both the YMCA and FEMA had agreed that I would be banned from entering the park. The security guards had a list. I’m not gonna get into this though, and in certain ways it does but in more certain ways- as far as you’re concerned, It Doesn’t Matter, it’s just a statistic or short story representing greater truths that you already know you gotta do something about.) 4. Their adult friends from other nonprofit organizations—much more famous ones—like Save the Children, Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, and TakeOff (another grassroots org). 5. Their FEMA staff, such as the Diamond park manager and assistant, the yard crews, the volunteer liaison for the greater Plaquemines Parish region, the questionairre takers, and the staff on their labyrinth of hotlines regarding trailer problems/questions. 6. Parish staff and representatives, usually involving the Parks Department. 7. Special visitors—there were nationally-known celebrity visitors and there were special local visitors from other org’s, churches, projects, and there were kinda neat and oddball visitors of local, national, international origins. Some were EC volunteers. All were all people I was never really sure or sometimes too-precisely sure how to represent EC to. 8. The other EC long-termers, some who felt to me like bosses some times, like peers some times, like close confidantes some times, often it depended on what I would ask them to be. 9. The local community members I knew or knew of or who knew of me who lived outside of the Diamond trailer Park, who judged and heard stories and knew things I didn’t and didn’t know things I did and who many I considered to be kinda casual but good friends. People I cared about a lot. Who called the kids animals.
Representing Emergency Communities.
(Rest. Shhhhh. Breathe.)
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