Well, black another eye for the ol’ Catholic Church here in Boston. The story so far: Robert Haddad, the CEO of the local Catholic hospital system, has been found to be a serial sexual harasser, and is finally to be canned – of course, only after the Archbishop originally refused to do so, saying the guy would be let off with a stern talking-to. Which gambit only brought more victims out of the woodwork, as the Church – which has a wee bit of experience with this sort of thing – ought to have realized.
But wait, the CEO has an excuse – he’s Lebanese! It’s an affectionate culture! Hugs and kisses for all, with the exception of the unattractive and the unwomen! Needless to say, the local Lebanese community was not amused.
Okay, fine. But now there’s a fresh outrage: apparently the guy’s lawyers are wanting severance. How much? How about THREE MILLION DOLLARS? Yeah, I know, it’s a negotiating tactic. The archdiocese, to their limited credit, are offering a couple months’ pay. Hey, here’s a brilliant cost-saving idea, offered free of charge, from the goodness of my heart, to the Archdiocese of Boston: pay him nothing. In Arabic numerals, that looks like this: 0. So they’re afraid the guy will sue? BFD. They’ve got him dead to rights. Save his couple months’ pay to get decent legal advice, and use the rest to send out for Chinese. Why on God’s green earth should the guy be rewarded with so much as a nickel? Because he’s a CEO?
Call me a Jacobin, but I think he ought to get the exact same treatment the peons would get for this behavior – a hastily arranged meeting between his ass and the pavement.