My father was at one time an Orthodox Jew and my mother was Catholic and both were brought up in Poland. My mother, sadly, was an unrepentant alcoholic as very many Polacks were in those days. I've been to Poland three times in my life (back in the 60s) when most of the country was extremely poor, unemployment was rampant, and opportunities to feed your family were minuscule. In those days you could not throw a rock in any city in Poland without hitting a drunk (or anti-Semite). I do not excuse drunks nor do I tolerate them well.

But there were many occasions when I so infuriated my mother that she would curse me with the epithet "it's a shame Hitler did not finish off all the Jews". When she was drunk and angry she would yell this out. When she was sober and calm she would apologize profusely, telling me she didn't know where THAT came from.

I know where THAT came from. You grow up in one of the most anti-Semitic cultures in the world and you will say things that you have heard all your life. I have no doubt that Mel Gibson must have heard some doozies about Jews from his holocaust denying, anti-Semitic, low-life scumbag father. Why do I treat Mel differently than his father? Because Mel has enough sense to at least deny that he has anti-Semitic leanings. If he's struggling with his upbringing, they are his personal struggles, I'm not going to judge him on what he says when he's drunk.

Perhaps because my mother was an alcoholic, I've never been drunk in my life but I'm not going to worry what people say when they have no clue what planet they're on.

Some Jews have complained that his apology was not filled with enough "Passion". It sounded fine to me. He said he didn't believe what he said was true, it was despicable and that he was deeply ashamed. That does it for me. What do you want? For him to be beaten, scourged and nailed to a cross?

Let's all do the right thing here. He's said he's sorry. Let's forgive him. It's the Christian thing to do.

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Disclaimer: I haven't been to Poland recently so I can make no valid observations as to the number of drunks, if there are many, or the number of anti-Semites, if there are many in modern Poland. My first wife, whom I love dearly, was Polish and brought up an atheist and communist. Although she was an atheist she never bought into the communist lies and did not have an anti-Semitic bone in her body and curiously never drank at all.

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Related blogs:

Tor's Rants - Mel Gibson, DUI. Mel Gibson's Career, RIP., Excerpt:

There's no doubt that Mel Gibson's recent DUI arrest and alleged anti-semitic rant (tho he seems to have acknowledged it in a vague apology) are the talk of the blogosphere at the moment.

What I really want to know is, who are the folks who have been posting the hundred or so posts each day for the last three months, before all this happened? Must be some splogs.

point five Blog, Green Helmet Guy To Helm Shelved Mel Gibson Holocaust Miniseries

After a drunken anti-Semitic diatribe on Pacific Coast Highway turned Mel Gibson from Hollywood heavyweight to radioactive road warrior, ABC execs canned his planned mini-series on the Holocaust. The drama, based on the story of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew who survived World War II, had been in production two years, but no script had been submitted.

red state blue - Mel & Me, Excerpt: it is unlikely that a true and full anti-Semite would want to make a film on the Holocaust that was sympathetic to the Jewish People. Second, that the depth of his apology, as well as what he offered towards exculpation, seemed more than sufficient to grant him the benefit of the doubt by any who were not themselves steeped in bigotry.

3legged dog reminds us that Mel Gibson is just an actor, Excerpt: The guy is paid to memorize lines, show emotion, and make us think he really believes there are aliens in his corn field...or where ever the hell they were in that movie. I don't care what Mel thinks of me or my people. I don't care if Mel thinks the Holocaust was made up. He's an actor...that's all he is.

Mike's Noise has this view:

Pastor Mark Daniels believes that Mel Gibson is through in Hollywood. I think it might be too early to make that call. Hollywood has been extraordinarily forgiving of all kinds of repulsive and immoral behavior: adultery, drug abuse, alcoholism, adolescent pornography, and even statutory rape. Mel Gibson is a talented filmmaker and actor who has made a number of extraordinarily good movies. It would be difficult for Hollywood to simply throw away anyone with the kind of money making potential that Gibson has.

Mel was drunk. What's the Anti-Semitic left's excuse?

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