bio

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

DON "The Emissary" SERIBUTRA is a lifelong Houstonian, born and raised inside the Inner Loop for the first five years of his life. His current occupational status is a freelance photojournalist and writer (from 2002-present, has been a contributor to Houston Indymedia), who works without a full-time commission (e.g. with a press ID and structured hierarchy), and is also a small business owner/entrepreneur, as well as a one of H-town's community activists, and since late 2003, a real-life art car artist.

His parents, who are both Thai immigrants who settled in the Houston area, were virtual unknowns who married in 1970. Emissary (the name he goes by in the progressive/activist community) was the second child of B. Seributra and V.G. Seributra (they had a previous child born in September 1970 - unfortunately, their first child died in May 1971). Tragedy might be a theme for this young Houstonian who has lived through hardships and turbulence for half his life. He faced reality when he was a teenager back in 1989 right after his parents revealed to him firsthand that Emissary's first godfather, Thai Thirasant, commited suicide after a traumatic experience - it is unclear whether or not he was embroiled in financial woes, suffered from depression, and/or owed $$$ to a loan shark for gambling debts.

When growing up in the Greater Houston area, both his parents lived in apartment complexes all over the Houston area, from the defunct Preston Villa Apartments (2228 West Alabama) in the Montrose area, the Southampton Apartments (1515 Bissonnet - it was demolished in 1997 and currently the location of the Rice Graduate Apartments), and before settling down in the Willow Park II subdivision, the Link Valley Apartments (3711 Link Valley Drive). His father came to Houston with the clothes on his back and a small suitcase, and he worked several jobs, stemming from a day laborer to a bartender at the Trader Vic's restaurant located in what was known as the post-war icon in Houston, TX, the Shamrock Hilton. This was when he met with Johnny Lee, a master chef who worked the kitchen, and this bond has been prevalent for almost three decades. Lee, a natural-born Chinese-American, introduced Emissary's father to a world of fishing in Galveston Bay.

December 24, 1976 might have been a turning point where the Seributra family purchased a land plot in what was to become the Fort Bend-Houston Super Neighborhood, a few miles southwest of Windsor Village. (The official relocation was somewhere between July and August 1977 - the date referenced was in fact when an official contract was officially signed.) At the time, the cul-de-sac community was located nearest to the present-day Sam Houston Tollway and the proposed Fort Bend Parkway. His father once stated that "the State of Texas was going to build the Bay City Freeway, and it was a financial disaster", a line that Emissary will always remember. The late 1970s in Houston might have been the era when bedroom communities were spreading like psoriasis, especially the Stafford-Missouri City region, where affordable homes built by contractors like Fox & Jacobs, U.S. Home, and General Homes were catering to the first-time homebuyer market. Getting used to a Missouri City mailing address would have been a way of life, which is to this day, why an 8 square mile section of Fort Bend County became stepchild.

Originally, the community was previously planned (with Chasewood, Briargate, Ridgemont, Quail Run, Quail Glen, and Mayfair Park) where former greenspace was developed into what is called a 'master-planned community' - a phrase commonly used to describe urban sprawl with automobile-dependent communities. These communities situated southwest of Windsor Village were built in undeveloped greenspace, and these homes once catered to both Caucasians, African-Americans, and Hispanics. The late 1970s might have been a detriment to neighborhoods in northeast Fort Bend County - primarily Missouri City, TX, where middle-class African Americans purchased affordable homes, and over 25 years later - Fort Bend/Houston, as well as the Greater Missouri City area, would become a model community for middle class African Americans when it comes to first-time home ownership (source - BET, 2001). Like any other master-planned community, a phenomenon known as "white flight" was common where ethnic minorities purchase affordable homes; the original Caucasian residents who once resided in the Fort Bend-Houston area left their homes for picture-esque suburbs like Quail Valley, First Colony, New Territory, and/or Sugar Land.

Between 1977 - 1988, Emissary thought of himself as a Missouri City, TX resident, although multiple family errands on Independence Blvd to the local Kroger and Walgreen's would suggest that the community that he thought of as home became more stepchild instead of improving. The West Fuqua corridor, for many years since the early 1970s when Briargate was originally developed in 1972, was cut off from Hiram Clarke for 25 years until November 2002, when the West Fuqua extension connected both communities. At the time, the only streets which served as the entry into the Fort Bend/Houston Super Neighborhood was Fondren, Hillcroft, South Post Oak, and FM 2234.

Although the City of Houston annexed two extraterritorial jurisdiction areas in 1979 (Clear Lake and a chunk of Fort Bend County which became the Fort Bend Super Neighborhood), the Fort Bend/Houston area might have been passed over for the past 20 years - an identity crisis was the byproduct because of the 77489 zip code. The primarily, middle-class African American community was a community of working-class people who had jobs in the Texas Medical Center, Downtown Houston, and the City of Houston, as well as in Fort Bend County. After the annexation in 1979, what is today the Fort Bend/Houston Super Neighborhood is located in the southwestern tip of District D in the City of Houston.

Super Neighborhood #41 is home to six Fort Bend ISD schools - one of them is Willowridge High School. In real life, Emissary went to Fort Bend ISD schools, and was educated in a diverse setting until 1986 - when he started @ Willowridge. A community which consisted of former renters who once resided in Houston's inner city wards and Southwest Houston's apartments, Emissary, along with his parents, are in fact, ex-renters who became first-time homebuyers - in the late 1970s, the average working class family could not afford a $75,000 home in Montrose or in the Braeswood/Meyerland area, even if one is nonwhite and redlined. Emissary's father once stated that he had to 'do what he had to do' for the best interest of his family, although he grew up in one of Houston's stepchild communities.

Growing up in the Fort Bend/Houston area was no easy task, despite media depictions of suburban life where the vanilla suburb stereotype is usually depicted in films (e.g. The Breakfast Club) and TV. For the first 11 years in the Fort Bend/Houston area, Emissary always thought of the Inner Loop, a part of Houston he was once raised in, and wished that he would eventually return to his roots. Around 1986, when Emissary started high school @ Willowridge, he has entered into a depressed state - to this day, he considers this as an unhealed wound because of his parent's resentment toward the African American community at-large - one Thai custom which Emissary upheld was not to date or enter into any relationship any African American woman or have any African American friends during his tenure as a Willowridge High School student. He was subjected either to ostracism from the Thai-American community and/or 100% disassociation. Most of this has been related to his real father as a chain smoker since he was a teenager, along with a disturbing revelation that Emissary's father was a child abuse victim. It has been known to several close associates of the Emissary (from a few members of the Greater Heights Democrats to the River Oaks Democratic Women) where Emissary's real-life father is a racist who has despised the African American community; his father has used a perjorative occasionally and has voted for Republican candidates.

Around the same time, it has been known that domestic violence runs in his family - especially between himself and his mom to which she developed polycystic kidneys; the on-and-off soap opera has led to the following: the use of the family kitchen as a conference room where numerous in-fighting has occured to which heated debates resemble the KPFT 90.1 Local Station Advisory Board.

It was in 1988, after receiving his driver's license, where the first place he drove to was the Montrose and Stella Link corridor, as well as Hermann Park. Emissary used to recall when he was a child, his parents always took him to Hermann Park to ride the Hermann Park train - now a renowned landmark in the City of Houston. One area he was eventually attracted to was the bohemian-themed Montrose, where his parents once lived.

The Montrose would eventually become a part of his life, from his frequent shopping @ Soundwaves, Sound Exchange (both on Westheimer, the Soundwaves is now on Montrose Blvd in what was a former Walgreen's), and Half Price Books on Waugh Drive. It was the Westheimer Street Festival, a biannual community gathering, that had a special place for Emissary, since it reflected on Houston's diversity, as well as the roots of being a community activist.

Emissary would always state that Willowridge High School made him who he is today, even though he respected his parent's wishes of dating outside his own ethnic upbringings and/or associating with the student body. Even through broken relationships which would last a few days (in real life, he has never dated a woman as if she was his soulmate; this best explains why he is severely depressed every Valentine's Day since he cannot love at all) to deep isolation from Fort Bend-Houston, he always found the mentor who has always been there since he was a child, his second godfather, Johnny Lee. In real life, his second godfather is a Montrosian who has resided there since 1965, and he considers him part of his extended family. The only side effect of Fort Bend/Houston was Emissary's "Black Dialect" - this was a true impediment to why he was a throwaway reject for years. After Willowridge, Emissary went through several abysses and rebounds, and it was in late 1999, despite his parent's agenda of settling down, that he became a freelance photographer. Although he became an entrepreneur since 1994, he decided to establish his niche as a freelance photographer, until a fateful concern which he took an interest in - the ousting of the Westheimer Street Festival from it's beloved Montrose home, which would probably best explain his community activist roots. There was one fateful day - 9.26.01, where Emissary came across a booth - he bumped into a single mother who was a freelance reporter with the newly-formed Houston Independent Media Center - he took the opportunity to snatch a flyer, and the rest was history - the unknown Emissary would become one of H-town's freelance photographers, covering rallies, demonstrations, political events, and community gatherings.

Why the community activist bug - right after his 10-year class reunion from his former high school, Willowridge (June 2000), and being a total reject after being typecasted by his former classmates, focusing of the Westheimer Street Festival in Exile and having WestFest moved back to Montrose was the first step by publishing flyers to festival patrons. Emissary might have used the grassroots model when pushing flyers to WestFest patrons in Fall 2000, and this would lead to several accomplishments, from being a blockwalker with Progressive Voters in Action for 2001 Houston City Council District D candidate Ada J. Edwards - whom he respects as a mentor and role model. As if he were Luke Skywalker* learning the ways of the Force* from Master Yoda* in the Star Wars trilogy, he might have been past the age limit to become a community activist and/or learn the mechanics of a political campaign. He always thought of the day if the WestFest didn't return to Westheimer (the festival was moved back after a massive petition drive in June 2003), and this is why he seeked political office for the first time, replacing term-limited Houston City Councilmember Annise Parker - she successfully ran for Houston City Controller vacancy because of the current term-limits ordinance. (*Luke Skywalker, the Force, and Master Yoda copyright Lucasfilm, Ltd.)

It was not the Westheimer Street Festival controversy to why Emissary is running for council - it was in response to the death of Shania Harris, a young African American girl who lived in the Briargate subdivision, on the evening of 8.15.02. After speaking in front of the Houston City Council a week later during the public session (8.20.02), it seemed that Fort Bend-Houston might have been dis-served because of one resident with a Missouri City mailing address. Even though his mom (currently a dialysis patient) would become another statistic, he now stresses the importance of public safety, especially for a 911 call for an ambulance/EMS dispatch. Despite the aftermath of the 911 mix-up and a townhall meeting where Councilmember Ada Edwards answered constituent concerns, there is a candidate who can become an effective voice @ City Hall, especially in post-9.11 Houston, where homeland security, emergency preparedness, and effective operations of EMS, fire, and law enforcement should be heavily emphasized.

Another concern is the post-9.11.01 consensus, where partisan politics have been the norm, and one final frontier which has been untouched is local government - it works best when it's nonpartisan. If the system isn't damaged, it does not need any maintenance, and what Emissary takes seriously is a power grab by conservatives - two incumbents in safe, district seats are running at-large for name identification purposes and/or higher government offices. Although a few insiders are stating that running against an established incumbent is to be held back - there is one twist - three open at-large seats on the Houston City Council are being challenged by conservatives, and term limits, which has been in place since 1991 in the City of Houston would be the root cause.

Six years in office does not gain any experience at all - elected officeholders in the City of Houston are elected to three 2-year terms under the 1991 city ordinance which was amended to the city charter. In a nonpartisan system, incumbents would either serve their entire six years on council, and third term officeholders are faced with the virtual-less reality - either serve out the final two years (and become a political has-been), or run for another higher-level government position on a partisan ticket - former city officeholders like Rodney Ellis, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Anthony Hall, Chris Bell, and Sylvia Garcia have been forced to run for county, state, and/or federal office under the current city charter.

Being a candidate from a stepchild community - running citywide would bring a better understanding to a part of H-town which has been stepchild for over 20 years. When Kingwood was annexed in late 1996, one of their own (Addie Wiseman) was elected to a district seat on city council, and Fort Bend-Houston never had their props since 1980. Although Fort Bend/Houston might not exist in the framework of District D, the current councilmember, Ada Edwards, has bridged the gap district-wide (her current policy was her weekend blockwalks, where residents in Montrose, Third Ward, Sunnyside, Hiram Clarke, and Fort Bend/Houston build partnerships), although she might have one of her proteges as a candidate for a vacated at-large seat. If Sista Ada can swing a ninth of the City of Houston in District D, why not have one of her students swing the entire City of Houston with 2.1 million votes!!!!!!