LETTER: A lesson as old as time

To the editor:

Forty million dollars recently awarded to a FOX news female employee seems a bit too much to me.

I obviously don’t know all the details in this case. All businesses should have a professional environment to prevent these cases. Apparently, all branches of our military still have similar cases. These legal problems remind me of an Old Testament story as explained by professor Amy-Jill Levine, Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Joseph is the love-interest of his master’s wife. Potiphar, who buys Joseph, has a wife.

She is not named. We can call her Mrs. Potiphar. Mrs. Potiphar is in love with Joseph, and she keeps saying, “Lie with me, lie with me.” Joseph says, Uh-uh, uh-uh, “I’m not going to touch my master’s wife.”

One day, he gets a little too close to Mrs. Potiphar. She grabs his garment, and he flees away. She says to the people in the household,”Look, he tried to attack me . I have his garment here.” Joseph winds up getting thrown into prison. It is explained that the moral of the story is - watch out for women. I’m sure there are also many stories where the moral of the story is -watch out for men. I believe this Joseph story is at least 3000 years old.

Unfortunately, it looks like we will be hearing these stories for another 3000 years and beyond.

—Doug Bartko

Palmer