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I don't often comment in this blog about celebrities, and I was just gonna let this whole thing blow over, but Mr. Gibson keeps bringing up the incident himself, and now people are encouraging boycotts of his films, so I have been thinking about it more than a little. I have not exactly taken sides, but I do have some opinions to express. And it occurs to me that perhaps my readers would like something more from me than complaints about headaches, heh heh.

Anyway, in case you've been offline or in a power outage or in a cave, it would appear Mr. Gibson got drunk recently, a bit over the legal limit in California, and attempted to drive while intoxicated. He took offense at being detained and subsequently arrested. That in itself would be embarrassing to be sure. But he was so furious that he said some rather inflammatory things. Yeah, that happens to a lot of people who are arrested while drunk. They take out their indignation on the cops. But he wasn't just calling the arresting officer an asshole or whatever. He both threatened the police and went off about how he hated Jews. Here is a link to an article that tells the tale better than I do:

Gibson's Anti-Semitic Tirade -- Alleged Cover-Up

I will start off by saying that I'm very liberal and do a poor job at being politically correct. So I will admit that when I read that Mel Gibson called a female cop "sugar tits", I laughed. Yes, it's a sexist term, and I should be offended or whatever, but I really do find it funny. I have myself been called much worse by someone who was drunk and have just pointedly ignored the comment. If that's all Mel said and did, he could have said later that he was joking at the time and now realizes it was a jest in poor taste. Some people would still be offended, of course, because America has more than its share of self-righteous, overly sensitive people, but the majority would have just made light of it, and eventually Mr. Gibson would be able to go back to his self-proclaimed ownership of Malibu.

But I will admit I found the other things he said and did to be much less amusing. He did not appear to be joking when he said he hated Jews and wanted to know if the arresting officer was Jewish. Nor did his threats to ruin lives and bring down the police department appear to be in jest, even in the absence of any such power. And that is the part that had me thinking: is Mel Gibson really anti-Semitic? I believe the answer to be yes.

Ok, so he was drunk when he said it. But I have spent enough time in bars and around drunk individuals to know that bigotry doesn't exist in a vacuum. What is said by an intoxicated individual is often a gross exaggeration of what they really feel, but somewhere in their subconscious, there is a tiny kernel of truth to what they say. When a person is put under hypnosis, they will say things they are normally too inhibited to say, but they will not outright lie or ever do things that they haven't the slightest inclination to do. You can't force a person under hypnosis to commit murder if they are 100 percent opposed to the idea. Alcohol also removes inhibitions. But it doesn't create bigotry where none existed. Now, Mr. Gibson may not have consciously been anti-Semitic, but subconsciously, it was there all along, and the righteous indignation that accompanies too much alcohol caused him to speak what may have been hiding within. I also suspect Mel isn't the only anti-Semitic celebrity. It's just that the rest of them have up to this point been wise enough (and sober enough) to keep their mouths shut in public.

It occurs to me that perhaps Mr. Gibson was upset about the goings-on in Israel and Lebanon. I'm upset about the violence too. But never in a million years would I decide that because I don't agree with Israel's tactics that all Jews are to blame or are even necessarily in support of what is going on there. Maybe Mel Gibson made that misguided leap in judgement, though. Or perhaps I'm wrong and he really dislikes Jewish people all the time. Either way, it's a damned shame that he is so narrow-minded.

Some of my readers are going to think I'm cutting him too much slack. Maybe. But I don't think anyone could say with 100 percent certainty that they have no bias. Bias is part of being human. One would hope that the majority of people do see the harm in making blanket judgments about entire races, religions or sexual orientation. I do try to avoid this kind of judgement myself. But I have relatives that are racist, homophobic and intolerant of other religions. I will not name names here, and to be fair, the family members that were the worst offenders are now deceased. I do not hate my bigoted family members. I still love them, but I DO hate their bigotry. How do I deal with my hatred of their intolerance? I avoid all conversation about it. Yes, that's the chicken shit way out. I'm not proud of it. But I keep my mouth shut to keep the peace. It does occur to me, quite often in fact, that I am indirectly harming minorities, gays and other cultures by not standing up for them and telling my relatives how I really feel. But were I to do so, I would permanently harm my relationship with my family, and I expect certain relatives would never speak to me again. While at times I am tempted to be honest and take the risk and relieve the guilt of my silence, I have not yet found the courage to do so. I wonder if my creator is disappointed in me? I know I am disappointed in myself.

So, will I boycott Mel Gibson's films? Truth is, I haven't made up my mind about that. I'll probably still watch the ones I have in my home. Lord knows I listen to a lot of music by artists who had addictions or did unsavory things (I'm listening to "The End" by The Doors at the moment). And I still watch movies starring actors who have made complete asses of themselves at some point in their lives. I tend to separate the private person from their product. But will I see his films differently now that a darker side of him has been revealed? Probably only one.

I was taken to see "The Passion of the Christ" by my in-laws, both of whom are pastors. They felt I needed to see it. I was curious about it, so I did not object. I was not sorry I saw it, but it did occur to me while viewing it that it seemed very narrow-minded. There was a tunnel vision to it that seemed almost sinister. Now, I have seen many controversial movies, and I figure film-makers are entitled to their own opinions, so I took this movie as Mel Gibson's viewpoint. I was not offended, but I felt no desire to see it again. Once was enough for me. On the way home, my in-laws wanted to discuss the movie, the importance and the truth of it. I refused to talk about it because I knew I would offend them if I told them what I really thought, which that it was just one interpretation of the last days of Jesus and not one I agreed with. Did I agree with the allegations at that time that Mel Gibson was anti-Semitic? Not exactly, but I could see where the criticism was coming from. Now I realize the critics were perhaps onto something.

Am I going to forgive Mel Gibson? I admit that him going into rehab and getting some help is a step in the right direction. But I would have a lot more respect for him if he would just quit trying to put a spin on the situation and be honest. I could respect someone that said, "Hey, I have an anger problem and am going to psychological counseling to find out why and how to resolve it". I do hope he does get proper psychological help in rehab. Even if he kicks the booze habit, the underlying hatred will remain unless it is addressed. So until I hear that he has completed proper counseling, I will consider him to be a bigot. A bigot whose movies I like for the most part, but a bigot nevertheless.

I'm still gonna chuckle at the "sugar tits" comment, though.