Bankruptcy case against diocese could leave hundreds without water

[TexasTowelie]

THOREAU – Darlene Arviso is a grandmother, school bus driver and silversmith, but to hundreds of people in this southeastern corner of the Navajo Nation, she is “the water lady.”

At 8 a.m. each weekday, after she drops off a busload of children at the St. Bonaventure School, Arviso cranks up a heavy-duty Chevrolet truck and fills its 4,000-gallon water tank at a well owned by the St. Bonaventure Indian Mission.

For the next seven hours, she bounces over rutted, dirt roads, covering some 300 miles a week, delivering water to people who lack services most Americans take for granted, including electricity and running water.

As she pulls up outside a house, residents quickly emerge with barrels, jugs, even a large cooking pot – anything that will hold the precious liquid.

Read more: http://www.abqjournal.com/592273/news/bankruptcy-case-could-leave-hundreds-with-no-water.html

[Beartracks]

1. Thank you for posting. Makes one think of the costs of such justice.

A commenter asks at the end of the article: "How is robbing the Thoreau Dine community in any sense a just outcome for the sexual victimization of children?"

... Which is exactly what I was thinking as I read it. 57 victims of abuse... but several hundred victims of the settlement. This is justice?

Money for the abuse victims is just monetary compensation. But the services and infrastructure provided by St. Bonaventure to people all over that region of New Mexico are necessities for life and dignity. There must be a better way.

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[TexasTowelie]

2. You're welcome.

Sometimes in the quest for financial compensation other just causes are pushed to the side. It seems like this is where the church hierarchy should intervene to pay the settlement rather than taking it out on a local community, particularly the church hierarchy has already taken from the community.