Espoused Theory & Theory in Use in Actual Settings

Espoused Theory & Theory in Use in Actual Settings

Espoused Theory & Theory in Use in Actual Settings

Water Crisis II
Introduction
As the crisis with Brown Trout Bay’s water supply drags on, you continue your work on the situation as a social worker on behalf of the state department of health.
While the ongoing water crisis is affecting all of Brown Trout Bay, different neighborhoods perceive the situation differently. In addition, these differences in perception can exacerbate tensions that have long simmered under the surface. You should talk to people in Trucha Marrón, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, and Oak Bottom, a working-class white neighborhood, for a sense of how the crisis is playing out in different parts of Brown Trout Bay, and how these regional differences are affecting area attitudes.
Trucha Marrón Talk to Trucha Marrón community members to hear how the water crisis is affecting them.
“Juan,” 26, Trucha Marrón
“Please do not write down my name. I will not talk to you if you do. You can call me Juan.
I am very scared, very worried. My water has been strange and brown, with strange smells, for several weeks. I thought it was because I rent an apartment in a very old building that is not in very good shape. I still drank the water because I had nothing else to drink! And then my hair began to fall out, and I began to have headaches every day. My friends all tell me that the city water is poison, there is something wrong with the pipes.

When I talk to her on the telephone, my wife tells me I should go to the doctor to get help. But my friend Hector heard that immigration agents are waiting at the clinic, knowing this is a good opportunity to catch people who are in Brown Trout bay working without documentation. I have no green card, and I cannot take this risk.
It is terrible. I feel sick, and days when I feel sick I cannot work, and I am here to work and save money. I can buy bottled water, but it is very expensive. And I am here to save money. I do not know what I will do.”
Floris Rivas, 29, Trucha Marrón

“It’s a very hard time. The health part of it is hard—my son and I are drinking nothing but bottled water now, and we manage, but it’s expensive. And takes up all our time, getting the water, heating it up for baths, and so on. But we can cope, at least for a while.
But the thing that scares me is the WeissCo plant. I work there, my parents work there, hell, half of Trucha works there. I hear all kinds of crazy rumors that WeissCo wants to shut the plant down, maybe just until the water gets better, maybe permanently. One guy said it was because nobody wants to buy high fructose corn syrup made with poison water. My friend Maggie says it’s because WeissCo doesn’t want the water to wreck all the machinery in their plant. Who knows what to believe? All I know is that if the plant closes, it’s a disaster for my family and for everyone in Trucha. I could find another job if I had to, maybe, but it’d mean driving into Riverbend every day, and that’d be a mess. But my mom and dad? That plant closes, they’re out of work, and I don’t know where else they could get on. They’ll be in bad, bad trouble if that plant shuts down for more than a couple of days.”
Oscar Galué, 43, Trucha Marrón “Yeah, I’m scared. My wife’s scared, we’re all scared. We buy as much bottled water as we can, but it’s expensive and we can’t always get as much as we want. So we make sure our kids stick to it 100% and she and I drink boiled tapwater if we have to. I don’t know if that does any good or not, but people tell me it helps.
I’ll tell you one thing. When I’m driving across town to get to work, I sure notice that things seem a lot less dire once I cross State Street and get into the white neighborhood. I see city crews doing something with the pipes, I assume they’re making sure the water gets fixed over there. The city knows where their bread’s buttered, you better believe it. Newspaper says the mayor’s trying to get everything fixed for all the people in town and I just laugh. I just hope somebody gets around to doing something about the poison water before everybody in Trucha Marrón just keels over dead.”
Oak Bottom Talk to Oak Bottom community members to hear how the water crisis is affecting them.
Jack Lindeke, 58, Oak Bottom “I gotta be honest, I ain’t surprised. Those idiots in city hall don’t know how to do anything, it was just a matter of time before they figured out how to
screw up city water.

I’ll tell you what. Thirty years ago, when Ben Swann was mayor, this city was run the right way. This kind of thing wouldn’t have happened then. What’s changed since then? Hey, I don’t want to point any figures, but we didn’t have any neighborhoods called Trucha Marrón back then, if you catch my drift. This town’s changing, and City Hall’s too busy playing identity politics now to keep their eye on the ball with basic stuff like making the water work right. Tonight when me and my wife are driving to Riverbend City to drop sixty bucks on bottled water, I’ll be sure to remind her that hey, at least all the signage in the courthouse is in two languages now so nobody feels oppressed.”
Lloyd King, 51, Oak Bottom “Yeah, you talked to me before. About my farm and how I can’t sell any beef now because of this. I live out in the country, but I come into town for church a lot. I been really active at my church to try to do our best to help everybody with this. You know, handing out bottled water, giving people water filters, all kinds of stuff. We got a really great pastor, he’s really good at community type stuff like this. Anyway, I noticed that when we knock on a door in Oak Bottom to give people bottled water, they always invite us in and just fall on their knees to thank us. Real nice people, real grateful, really makes you feel good for helping people out, you know? But me and my church friends Lyle and Neil, we took a truckload of bottled water over across town, to the Mexican neighborhood. Thought we’d reach out, like. And I tell you, it’s just different over there. Lot of times, people wouldn’t even answer the door! Or if they did, they’d just act all nervous and scared and wouldn’t say anything. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of ’em were real grateful and thankful – heck, some of ’em go to our church, so we know they’re good. But I dunno, I didn’t feel very appreciated over there a lot of times, even though I was doing a mission of mercy.” Alice Burns, 41, Oak Bottom
“Same old same old. This town’s in a crisis, things are terrible for everyone. So bad we’re on the national news a lot of nights! But when they’ve got fancy East Coast so-called journalists here to talk about how much we’re suffering, you notice who they’re always talking to? PC Media can’t help themselves, they just have to talk to people from the other side of town. It’s like, oh, the people in Oak Bottom are just fine, they’re all white, of course they can’t suffer. In the meantime, my daughter can’t even get out of bed half the mornings because she’s got headaches so bad, and I’m missing a lot more work than I ought to be. I thank God that my boss is a Christian who understands.
Don’t get me wrong, I know all the Mexicans over across State Street are suffering, too, it’s just that they’re not the only ones hurting! I’m so tired of being forgotten!”
Conclusion
Having spoken to some people in Brown Trout Bay who are being affected by the water crisis, what are your initial observations, especially as regards the principles of cultural competency? Which which theoretical frameworks do you think seem appropriate to apply at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels?
Your response will appear in the Leadership Profile.