Posted on 08/01/2006 9:03:22 AM PDT by ICE-FLYER
What follows is Mel Gibsons reported apology to Jews around the world for words he said during an arrest for DUI in which he lost control of himself.
-- MEL SAYS SORRY TO THE JEWS Tue Aug 01 2006 11:10:45 ET
August 2, 2006 -- There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of Anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.
I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena. As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words.
The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God’s child, and if I wish to honor my God I have to honor his children. 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.
I’m not just asking for forgiveness. 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.
I have begun an ongoing program of recovery and what I am now realizing is that I cannot do it alone. I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery. Again, I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed.
This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic license. This is about real life and recognizing the consequences hurtful words can have. It’s about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad. ---
I want politicians to take not of this apology. According to other news Mel has had run-ins before with the police. While I can not ascertain the validity of those incidents they seem credible. He got off scot free a few times before. But unlike others in politicians (and Hollywood) he has this time taken the full responsibility he lacked the times before.
Recently, Randy "Duke" Cunningham got caught in criminal activity. His crime was against us all and himself as well as personally against others whom he took advantage of. He ultimately DID take full responsibility for his actions, helped in the investigation, laid it all out for all to see and stood to face the music. Some would say he did so only because he got caught. I don't agree.
Like Gibsons account here and scant few others in public places, Cunningham would have eventually collapsed under the weight of the things he was doing. His personal character, though flawed like the rest of us, was of a moral fiber strong enough to eventually correct him. I don't think he would have continued long. NOT with what he had done for his country in the military and what gets said and done for a man who does such things.
Gibson was, no less, ready for and headed for correction. His words indeed need to be followed by the actions he says he will take, but judging by his character, what he has done in the past and how he comports himself to the world I am confident he will do exactly what he says he will do and more.
I hope that leaders of all stripes and walks could learn to do this. By doing so they could restore a lost faith in our leaders that they have the ability to be accountable for their actions.
Mel Gibson is known in the business as a deeply decent guy; invariably kind to EVERYONE on the set, from his costars to the lowliest person on the crew. He loves his family, supports his church, refuses to malign his appalling father because of the Biblical injunction about honoring him, and struggles with a lot more demons than I've had to face - the price of being raised by such a father, the booze that becomes a kind of poisonous self-medication. He means that apology. Anyone who's known a drunk -- a real drunk -- has seen that person do and say things that would never come out if they were sober. Actually a personality change under the influence is one of the markers of a real problem drinker, as opposed to an over-enthusiastic social drinker. Hate the sin, people, not the sinner. And for heaven's sake, keep him away from Moonshadows.
Nobody on this thread knows what is in his heart. I have had some struggles of my own with alcohol and I have said many hateful things I didn't believe. When you are drunk and under control of the authorities, the only personal power you have left is the power to offend the cops. I have been in that position and said everything I could to offend my captors. Including vile things that I in no way believed.
So I do think it is very possible to spout off hateful words when drunk without really believing them. Only Mel knows for sure what is in his heart.
Either way, he is free to spout what he will and we are all free to judge him as we see fit. At least in America he is only put in jail for his DUI and not his rhetoric, however distasteful.
It's like deja vu all over again.
I knew our guy had heart. ;)
And how does a preference for the latin liturgy make one any less a Catholic? You could go anywhere in the world and feel comfortable with the Mass being the same. Does that make me any less "in union with Rome?" The last four popes were illegitimate? News to me! Well, okay! I'll give you one thing, I am a little ticked off at those nuns who made me learn all that latin stuff. Aw c'mon Sink! Just when I thought you and I were gonna start agreeing on stuph! Sheeesh! Ya can't win!
Bishops permit the Tridentine Latin Mass (the mass celebrated prior to 1962) in their dioceses now with no problem.
But one is not Catholic if they're not in union with the Pope.
Aw, now you've gone and messed up my day. The present pope and others before him do not beleive in Holy Orders for women. (Neither do I) But my old high school classmate, a woman, feels very strongly the other way. She says women should be ordained. So that makes her not a Catholic because she disagrees with the Pope, right? So now after devoting her entire life to the Church, I now have to inform Sister Joan that she really is not a Catholic.
Sink! You've gone and ruined my day dude!
She is wrong, and the Church will never ordain women.
She would be in trouble, however, if she chose to act on her belief in women's ordination.
I disagree with the Pope on capital punishment, but I'm in union with the Pope.
It's those who refuse to submit to a bishop (who is in union with the Pope) that are outside the Church.
Memo to self: Make appointment for physcial exam.
But have no fear Sink! We'll always have the illegal aliens (not immigrants) to tangle our lines over.
It's amazing how so many are ranting about Mel Gibson just saying something about the Jews while muzzies are killing them and being ignored for the most part. Mel has freedom of speech as far as I know. But the muzzies shouldn't have the freedom to kill Jews.
If he's a demoncrat he can just throw money at the problem. That'll solve it.
and whether or not Officer "Mee" was a jew? >>>>>>>
"I don't take pride in hurting Mr. Gibson," said Mee, a 17-year deputy, who is Jewish. "What I had hoped out of this is that he would think twice before he gets behind the wheel of a car and was drinking."
http://www.nydailynews.com/08-01-2006/news/gossip/story/439719p-370438c.html
It will take more than words, however. >>>
and what will it take?
And than he needs to back up his words with actions >>>>
and what should he do?
Increased consumption may produce "Jekyll" and "Hyde" personality changes in drinkers, leading to aggressiveness and cruelty. Radical mood changes (such as bouncing from euphoria to self-pity) are also typical characteristics of intoxication.
People who are dependent on alcohol may: black out
have mood changes (be angry, irritable, violent)
have personality changes (be jealous, distrustful)
And this proves exactly what? Does alcohol change our deeply held beliefs?
Yes. Alcoholism changes the PERSON when drunk. Hence the Jekyll and Hyde reference in the alcoholism link.
We had an alcoholic in the family. The counselor told us to write everything the person said. When sober they were appalled and could not believe they said those things. There is a HUGE difference between simply being intoxicated and being an alcoholic.
I happen to know a few things about alcoholism myself. Any contention that alcohol changes a persons fundamental beliefs is pure BS. It changes behavior but not belief. Alcohol frees the id, the subconscious, which we spend many years learning to suppress. There are monsters in the id, and these monsters are waiting to be released. Alcohol did not create these monsters, it only reduces our control of them.
I never understood why people think that the Latin Mass is proof of a detchment from Rome. I was just in Rome in March and went to 10:30 Sunday Mass at St. Peter's and they said mass in Latin!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.