Mel Gibson asks Jewish community for help 'healing'

LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson said yesterday he is not a bigot or an anti-Semite, and that he apologizes to "everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words" he used when he was arrested for drunken driving early Friday. "Hatred of any kind goes against my faith," he said in a statement released through his publicist Alan Nierob. "I Advertisement "I'm not just asking for forgiveness," Gibson said. "I would like to take it one step further and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing." It was the second apology the 50-year-old Oscar winner has issued through Nierob since his arrest. Gibson said he is "in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display," and hopes members of the Jewish community, "whom I have personally offended," will help him in his recovery efforts. "There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark," Gibson said. "But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith."

Honesty IS the best policy and believe it or not, I find this post of yours to be THE exemplar of good postings, when faced by a hearty debate. Good for you!

Just as you are a composite of your up bringing, so is Mel. His father is some kind of far fringe Catholic, who HATES Jews, is a Holocaust denier, was such an anti-war warrior, that he packed up his family and ran off to Australia. As you are now learning, it is often difficult to subsume and/or overcome one's earliest nurturing/raising.

There has NEVER been any public act nor words, by Mel, that would have made anyone say that he is a conservative; yet, that IS what some people here have believed. Now, we have a CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL SITE, FR, where some people are still supporting him because of their hero worship and benighted assumptions. Go figure?

We all learn new things every day; at least we should. Keep posting, but do so based on facts.....NOT on emotions.

I look forward to debating with you in the future! :-)

First of all, EVERYTHING we have seen has not only been scripted by and put out by Mel Gibson's PR team, none of us has heard a single, unscripted word from Mel, since this whole thing happened, except for what he said to the police. Those words and those ALONE, are his own words; bigoted, hateful, misogynistic, slurred, egomanical, self pitying words!

You may not have read them, but there absolutely were DENIALS. Go read ALL of the threads here, for the past six days and then get back to me.

It isn't just his antiwar speeches, he also has said a lot of nasty things about President Bush, which have nothing at all to do with the WOT. I won't do your scut work for you...go look this up yourself.

Of course this is political! Anti-Semitic diatribes ARE political. So are all of the idiotic posts where some people claim that Mel is a Conservatives, based on absolutely NO facts. And don't forget, Mels said, "ALL OF THE WARS IN THE WORLD ARE CAUSED BY THE JEWS", at a time that wars ARE ragging and Israel is fighting the same terrorists that WE are fighting. If THAT isn't "political", then nothing is.

Dear nopardons,

I've read a bunch of threads on Mr. Gibson's current predicaments. I read no denials from Mr. Gibson or anyone officially speaking on his behalf. I read a lot of POSTERS saying, "This couldn't be. It's not true." But nothing from Mr. Gibson or his lawyer or his formal spokesman.

The first peep out Mr. Gibson (or at least that was issued in his name) was a general apology that pretty much admitted everything, although without specifics.

If you can point to a thread I may have missed, where Mr. Gibson is quoted denying all this, I'd appreciate it.

"It isn't just his antiwar speeches, he also has said a lot of nasty things about President Bush, which have nothing at all to do with the WOT. I won't do your scut work for you...go look this up yourself."

What does this have to do with his anti-semitic rantings, or his public drunkeness?

"Of course this is political! Anti-Semitic diatribes ARE political."

In the sense that their subjects involve politics, sure. But the sort of thing that Mr. Gibson was spewing is more of a sign of mental disease than of well thought-out political philosophy.

"So are all of the idiotic posts where some people claim that Mel is a Conservatives, based on absolutely NO facts."

I never said for a moment that Mr. Gibson is a conservative. However, that's irrelevant.

I'm unwilling to condemn as "nasty garbage" everything my political adversaries say. I don't like it when they do the same to me. Anti-semitic spew IS nasty garbage, but criticizing the president is fair game. Politics ain't beanball.

sitetest

The denials were in an early thread; one from his PR team, one supposes. It c laimed that he was 1)suicidal 2) was a blackout drunk 3) didn't remember anything he said 4) denied, by inference, that he was capable of saying anything like what was claimed he has said.

I'll see if I can find the thread/s that you apparently missed, but I don't do links and this is not all that high on my todo list. ;^)

I'll repeat the quote: "ALL WARS ARE CAUSED BY JEWS!". That one statement, alone, is bot only antiSemitic, but political. If you don't agree that that is so, then I don't know what you consider to be political.

What he spewed is a "sign of mental illness"? ARE YOU KIDDING? "Mental illness"????????????????????? Hitler was mentally ill too then, as were Czars, Kings, Queens, Popes, priests, ministers, Emperors, Henry Ford, Lindberg, Thomas A. Edison, Mussolini, every member of the KKK, Storm Front, Empress Maria Theresia, and a whole lot of the general public, for millenna.

No, it is NOT "irrelevant", that some people here have claimed that Gibson is a conservative, based on absolutely NOTHING b ut their own feelings.

Calling the president a "chimp" isn't nasty garbage and you are more than willing to overlook stuff like that? Do you also walk on water?

Perhaps Mel should have defined his terms before he made his statement.

When I go into one of my diatribes about some of the B/bishops in my Church,I feel totally justified in raging against those who have pandered to,protected and perhaps even participated in homosexual and/or child abuse. Usually I am talking to people who know that I am talking about the "impostor" B/bishops and is not an indictment of good Bishops at all. Unfortunately,I assume too much and I have offended Catholics who didn't realize that I am only speaking about those who say they are Apostles but are not:they lie.Rev.chap:2,2.

There have been times when some who have heard me are not aware of the differentiation I routinely make and thought I was very mean spirited and guilty of bearing false witness,calumny and worse against the entire hierarchy. I have received several apologies from persons who had misjudged me based on my words. It has almost always occurred after I had had some wine and was sloppy with my words and didn't pay attention to who was listening.

I bet that's what happened to Mel and he was probably mad about having a difficult time getting his new endeavors out and distributed. He was probably separating practicing,believing Jews from jews who do not follow the Law,don't think there is a God,and are not Jews but hide under the cover of the name so they can either get the respect normally accorded to Jews and if that fails,pull out the victim card when someone accuses them of being instrumental in the coarsening of this country,or worse. Just my thoughts,of course.

For the record,the drinking and driving should be punished for sure.

Mel is fighting deamons he's been fighting his entire life. His father was a bigot and a Holocaust denier. I think Mel hates his father, I think that is the basis of his drinking problem.

You can be rational when you are sober and think you have conquored your deamons then something happens and they seep out striking you down and you don't know how they were hidden from you.

If he is asking for help, he should get that help because perhaps by helping Mel we can figure out how to help all the millions of Arabs who hate Jews.

Dear nopardons,

"I'll see if I can find the thread/s that you apparently missed, but I don't do links and this is not all that high on my todo list. ;^)"

Fair enough, but I've been following the threads, so without the thread, I'm disinclined to believe it.

I've googled the topic, and the first google results I can come up with dealing with a statement from Mr. Gibson have to do with his first apology. If there's other stuff out there, I couldn't find it.

"I'll repeat the quote: 'ALL WARS ARE CAUSED BY JEWS!'"

I said that the content is political.

However, the kinds of conspiracy theories espoused by Mr. Gibson's father, Hutton, are lunacy and indicative of delusional thinking. If you want to tell me that there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who believe them, I'll reply, and so what? You think those folks aren't looney? Delusional?

"No, it is NOT 'irrelevant', that some people here have claimed that Gibson is a conservative, based on absolutely NOTHING b ut their own feelings."

It is to the question as to whether Mr. Gibson issued denials, or said other anti-semitic garbage before this.

"Calling the president a 'chimp' isn't nasty garbage and you are more than willing to overlook stuff like that? Do you also walk on water?"

Not in anything like the same league as the anti-semitic rantings Mr. Gibson uttered while drunk.

Calling the president a "chimp" may be mean, ugly, and uncalled-for. However, we've all called Mr. Clinton far, far worse. It's political discourse. None of it is beyond the Pale, or taboo.

The garbage spewed forth by Mr. Gibson, while drunk, was beyond the Pale AND taboo.

The two types of comments aren't even in the same league.

sitetest

Captain Canada. It would be different if Mel actually had the type of power to pass laws that made it legal to have Jews conscripted for slave labor. Or made it illegal for them to own property or demanded that they be identified as Jewish by wearing Stars of David on their clothing. It would be different also if laws were passed forbidding Jewish people from owning firearms to defend themselves with. Mel Gibson's words have no legal power behind them. They are not the mouthings of a leader of any Arab nation bent on the destruction of Israel. Nor are they the mouthings of anyone who has the power to make laws that lead to the " legal " destruction of Jews.

Yes words can have power if they are backed up by several things: The ability to implement the thoughts into action by use of law or force. Mel Gibson has neither.
Anti-Semitism is ugly and wrong but words on their own do not kill.

Dear Stone Mountain,

Thanks!

LOL! That's it??

Some rumors about "I'm told by a source intimate..."???

I got it from a friend of a friend of a friend???

LOL!

The funny thing is, there isn't even a denial in this piece of nonsense. Look:

"As for his anti-Semitic slurs during his DUI arrest, I'm told that Gibson doesn't remember saying them. 'Why? He had alcoholic blackout syndrome. I don't know a lot about it. I've not had a lot of experience with it. He has some recollection of parts of the evenings. But he's not denying he said those things,...'"

So much for that theory!!

ROTLFMAO!!!

sitetest

You're not only splitting multitudinous hairs there, but the picking of nits, that you are engaging in, is now becoming patently ridiculous.

Don't GOOGLE, use FR's search engine.

Then the Catholic church was delusional for almost 2 millennia,as well. Ditto for most Christians, for even longer. Is that what you're saying?

Bigotry is bigotry; sometimes it's also delusional as well, but each can and does exist without the other.

You have a very strange, not to mention low, threshold of what's beyond the pale, I see. Where do you place Michael Moore and what he says/films?

I'll see if I can find you the title/s of the threads of denials.

Dear nopardons,

"Then the Catholic church was delusional for almost 2 millennia,as well."

I have no interest in going off-topic, but I wouldn't accede that the Catholic Church ever taught that the Jews caused all the world's wars, etc.

"Bigotry is bigotry; sometimes it's also delusional as well, but each can and does exist without the other."

That's true. And folks who just don't like Jews are just bigots. But folks who buy into the stuff that Hutton Gibson says are delusional. Anyone who denies the Holocaust, who says the Jews just left Europe en masse, and then says that there were more Jews in Europe after the war than before, well, that's actually inherently contradictory. Folks who go in for that sort of stuff are drooling at the mouth.

"You have a very strange, not to mention low, threshold of what's beyond the pale, I see."

Actually, I have a very high threshold of what's beyond the Pale. Calling President Bush a "chimp," or calling Mr. Clinton various names are not beyond the Pale.

However, saying that the Jews caused all the wars, or accepting as real the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, these things are beyond the Pale.

If you don't think that kind of language and belief is beyond the Pale, then...

sitetest

Anti-Semitism is ugly and wrong but words on their own do not kill.

If enough influential voices spew hatred for a particular group, it may incite certain impressionable types to take independent lethal action. We see that repeatedly now within the Muslim community where the feeble minded, mentally ill and easily impressionable are willing act out the rants they hear from influentials in their community. The Muzzie wanker in Seattle who shot up a Jewish community center a few days ago comes to mind..

I think the fighting in Lebanon is a real tipping point for America’s support of Israel. Most people do not understand how these terrorists have insinuated themselves into the civilian population, and they mourn the possible loss of a fledging democracy due to “Israeli atrocities.” Do you think it’s a coincidence that Gibson freaked out now, at this point in time, when Israel needs our support most? No. I think a lot of people are starting to buy into the Euro-centric/ Cindy Sheehan view of Israel, that the Arabs are victims and the US and Israel are Satan’s spawns.

Mel Gibson has a lot of followers (as is evidenced by the simpering, mush-headed apologists in the conservative community who are willing to turn into liberals and excuse his behavior as just a result of 1) a bad childhood, 2) the ‘disease’ of alcoholism or 3) the stress of being a troubled, over-worked, suicidal, self-indulgent multi-millionaire.)

I do believe his words will influence those on the fence about Israel. He seemed to have finally reached his tipping point, as evidenced by his complete inability to keep his long latent anti-Semitism under control. What makes you think someone with so much less to lose wont make life that much worse for Israel? All it takes is a block of voters, a bunch of latent Cindy Sheehan’s, some money given to Pat Buchanan and his “cause” and what you have is a groundswell against Israel. The LAST thing this ally needs now- or ever.

Finally, why do you think it was such a big deal when people like Charles Lindberg, Joe Kennedy, the Duke of Windsor and nuts like Margaret Sanger embraced the Nazi's and their love of eugenics? You don't think that had any affect on people? Celebrity endorsements. It's one of the the oldest, and certainly best, marketing tools for your (in this case, sick) product.

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