Derrick Evans's blog

derrick evans at BP shareholder meetingToday, two community advocates and regional leaders from the Gulf Coast, Bryan Parras and Derrick Evans, brought an urgent message to BP's board and shareholders, at the corporation's annual meeting.  Here are Evans' remarks as prepared for delivery.  Evans is the founder of Turkey Creek Community Initiatives (TCCI), a Founding Advisor of the Gulf Coast Fund, and Bridge The Gulf ad

Like Holt-Peterson Road near John Wathen's place outside Tuscaloosa, I have seen total destruction in nearby Alberta City and Crescent Ridge Road, in Birmingham's African-American community of Pratt City (approximately 7,000 homes), and elsewhere.
 
The question that folks who want to volunteer or send relief must begin to ask is not "how hard was xx hit?", but "where is there NOT a steady flow (or even an over-abundance) of relief?"
 

Originally published as an email to the Gulf Coast Fund's network of grantees, December 15th 2010.

I am currently en route via Amtrak to today's White House Summit on Environmental Justice - an historic, all-day gathering of federal cabinet secretaries and environmental leaders from across the United States (see details in Press Release below).

Like most Gulf state Department heads, Dr. William Walker of the Mississippi Dept of Marine Resources is a virtual "one man gang." Until and unless the eminent Haley Barbour himself calls up to weigh in, Walker answers to no one.

When asked at a recent public forum by US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to tell the audience which exact body or group of people in Mississippi had considered public health and safety in ruling to re-open State waters and beaches impacted by the now-capped BP Oil gusher - Doctor Walker bellowed from the back of the packed room, "I did!"

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