Seeking justice
24/05/19 04:16
I am not a money person. I have tried to be responsible with the amounts entrusted to me and I’ve signed my name to mortgages and made the payments. I can read the financial statements of our church and the other nonprofit boards upon which I sit. I served a term on the corporate board of Local Church Ministries, which at the time had tens of millions of dollars in designated investments and a very large budget for a church organization.But managing money is not my most capable skill and I think of myself as one better suited to small amounts of money than large sums.
My father set a goal for himself to become a millionaire and he achieved that goal. As he passed the age of 50 his net worth was steadily going upward and he became more active in managing investments. It allowed him to make a six figure gift to a beloved college. It allowed him to spend the last two years of his life replacing roofs on cabins at church camp and historic buildings at the college without affecting the budgets of the organizations. It allowed him to create a pension for our mother that saw her through 35 years of widowhood and several changes of address.As his son, I felt that there were times when he became a bit obsessed with his financial goals, but he did well and I’m proud of the decisions he made.
So I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the reported settlement between disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein and his former studio’s board members to pay a settlement to the women who accused him of misconduct. The settlement is reported to be worth about $44 million.
My first reaction is that I don’t know how someone can be rich enough to pay $44 million. If I were ordered to pay a tenth of that amount, I would not be able to do so. Bu there is a picture of Mr. Weinstein on the BBC web site with a smile on his face, presumably pleased with the figure. I don’t know how many women were abused. I don’t know how the amount will be divided. I don’t need to know. What I do know is that the pain and suffering inflicted on the victims is something from which they can never recover and it appears that Weinstein can pay the money and recover. The amount may be sufficient to support victims and aid in healing, but it doesn’t seem to have punished Mr. Weinstein very much. It seems that the comparative cost of the abuse is born disproportionately by the victims.
I’m glad I’m not the judge in the case. I’m glad I’m not the negotiator for the victims or for Mr. Weinstein. I really don’t know what fairness would look like in the situation.
I remember a famous case years ago in which a woman was burned by extra hot coffee in a disposable cup that was spilled at a McDonalds drive-through. The amount she was awarded by the jury seemed to be radically disproportionate to the small amount of suffering of some surface skin burns. The jury members, however, felt that the settlement had to be that large in order to inflict at least some punishment on the giant corporation. They didn’t want to establish a precedent that those with large amounts of money could buy their way out of punishment for damage they had done. The case was argued at many of the coffee circles in which I have participated with various people taking various opinions in the case.
Around the same time the cost of product liability insurance caused Cessna and Piper, two of America’s oldest and most popular brands of general aviation airplanes to cease production for about eight years. The result was that the cost of used airplanes went out of reach for people like me. New laws were enacted and the companies have resumed production, but the issue remains. What is a fair number for an accident, in which a manufacturer is ruled to have a share of the liability, that takes the life of a person. Is there any amount of money that will replace the one who is lost? I believe that the answer is no. You can’t measure the value of a human life in dollars and cents.
The work that I have done with the victims of sudden and traumatic loss leads me to believe that there is no compensation which can make up for the loss of their loved one. Trying to value their life in monetary terms just doesn’t work. But insurance companies and courts try to restore some sense of justice and the tools they have to do so are limited. Often what is able to be done is to give some financial compensation at the point of loss.
I work with C.O.P.S. (Concerns of police survivors) who work to rebuild the shattered lives of survivors and co-workers affected by line of duty deaths. Line of duty deaths are relatively rare for police officers, but when they occur, they can tear a community apart. C.O.P.S. works to make sure that surviving family members get the compensation that they deserve. More importantly, the organization works to provide emotional support through events, classes, commemorations, memorials and a host of other activities that provide on-going support years after the loss has occurred. My observation is that the on-going support is far more important than the checks that come to the family.
So we are left with an imperfect situation in an imperfect world. We can’t fix all of the wrongs that have occurred. We can’t make everything better. We have to learn to live with grief and loss and brokenness.
My prayer for the victims of Mr. Weinstein is that they will be able to go on with their lives with as little contact with the man as possible and that the courts will commit themselves to doing whatever can be done to make sure that there are no new victims.That will be worth more than all the money in the world.
My father set a goal for himself to become a millionaire and he achieved that goal. As he passed the age of 50 his net worth was steadily going upward and he became more active in managing investments. It allowed him to make a six figure gift to a beloved college. It allowed him to spend the last two years of his life replacing roofs on cabins at church camp and historic buildings at the college without affecting the budgets of the organizations. It allowed him to create a pension for our mother that saw her through 35 years of widowhood and several changes of address.As his son, I felt that there were times when he became a bit obsessed with his financial goals, but he did well and I’m proud of the decisions he made.
So I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the reported settlement between disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein and his former studio’s board members to pay a settlement to the women who accused him of misconduct. The settlement is reported to be worth about $44 million.
My first reaction is that I don’t know how someone can be rich enough to pay $44 million. If I were ordered to pay a tenth of that amount, I would not be able to do so. Bu there is a picture of Mr. Weinstein on the BBC web site with a smile on his face, presumably pleased with the figure. I don’t know how many women were abused. I don’t know how the amount will be divided. I don’t need to know. What I do know is that the pain and suffering inflicted on the victims is something from which they can never recover and it appears that Weinstein can pay the money and recover. The amount may be sufficient to support victims and aid in healing, but it doesn’t seem to have punished Mr. Weinstein very much. It seems that the comparative cost of the abuse is born disproportionately by the victims.
I’m glad I’m not the judge in the case. I’m glad I’m not the negotiator for the victims or for Mr. Weinstein. I really don’t know what fairness would look like in the situation.
I remember a famous case years ago in which a woman was burned by extra hot coffee in a disposable cup that was spilled at a McDonalds drive-through. The amount she was awarded by the jury seemed to be radically disproportionate to the small amount of suffering of some surface skin burns. The jury members, however, felt that the settlement had to be that large in order to inflict at least some punishment on the giant corporation. They didn’t want to establish a precedent that those with large amounts of money could buy their way out of punishment for damage they had done. The case was argued at many of the coffee circles in which I have participated with various people taking various opinions in the case.
Around the same time the cost of product liability insurance caused Cessna and Piper, two of America’s oldest and most popular brands of general aviation airplanes to cease production for about eight years. The result was that the cost of used airplanes went out of reach for people like me. New laws were enacted and the companies have resumed production, but the issue remains. What is a fair number for an accident, in which a manufacturer is ruled to have a share of the liability, that takes the life of a person. Is there any amount of money that will replace the one who is lost? I believe that the answer is no. You can’t measure the value of a human life in dollars and cents.
The work that I have done with the victims of sudden and traumatic loss leads me to believe that there is no compensation which can make up for the loss of their loved one. Trying to value their life in monetary terms just doesn’t work. But insurance companies and courts try to restore some sense of justice and the tools they have to do so are limited. Often what is able to be done is to give some financial compensation at the point of loss.
I work with C.O.P.S. (Concerns of police survivors) who work to rebuild the shattered lives of survivors and co-workers affected by line of duty deaths. Line of duty deaths are relatively rare for police officers, but when they occur, they can tear a community apart. C.O.P.S. works to make sure that surviving family members get the compensation that they deserve. More importantly, the organization works to provide emotional support through events, classes, commemorations, memorials and a host of other activities that provide on-going support years after the loss has occurred. My observation is that the on-going support is far more important than the checks that come to the family.
So we are left with an imperfect situation in an imperfect world. We can’t fix all of the wrongs that have occurred. We can’t make everything better. We have to learn to live with grief and loss and brokenness.
My prayer for the victims of Mr. Weinstein is that they will be able to go on with their lives with as little contact with the man as possible and that the courts will commit themselves to doing whatever can be done to make sure that there are no new victims.That will be worth more than all the money in the world.