Everything (is not) going to be all right…

“When does enough turn out to be enough– when do we leave reasonably satisfied, and if so, with what messages given to the people with whom we have worked? What is our responsibility to such people … When does honorable inquiry turn into an exercise in manipulative self-interest, even ‘exploitation’?”


                                              * Robert Coles, Doing Documentary Work

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What survived for several months as a collective, familial effort to hold things together among the concrete bridges, ramps, sidewalks and cul de sacs has morphed into something even less optimistic, if that’s a term that could ever be used. Terry and Amy are occupying the narrowest strip of asphalt imaginable on an off-ramp, certain by be rousted out again soon, only to build camp somewhere else in the vicinity or do a spell behind bars; Gracie is now rooming with a couple Craig once denounced as grifters and opportunists; Lynda clings tenuously to a modicum of sane, reasoned hope, with her artworks finally about to go on public display at an Art Walk, on invitation from a local politician’s office. 

Discovering Lynda’s new kitty brings a feeling of hope and tenderness that is  minutes later dampened by Craig’s terse recounting of his recent confrontation with law enforcement nemesis Officer Diaz, which he retells with tired and pitiless eyes as an impasse during which both men reportedly told the other that they never want to see each other again. With their dead-end encampment now overrun with the hoardings of others and no longer the place of relative solitude it proved to be for several weeks, Craig may be getting harassed (two new tickets and counting) out of what he calls Diaz’s “perimeter,” and threatens now to seek less hostile pastures.

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56.11 tent violation, for an abode blocking a remote dead end sidewalk where nobody walks.