Okay, by now I guess everyone has heard one version or another of Mel Gibson's DUI arrest.

First of all, without seeing and hearing an audio video tape of the incident, we can't possibly know what happened.  Knowing what we do about the press, we can assume that the reports are not accurate.  After all, this is the same media that reported before the Passion opened that Mel stated that his wife couldn't go to heaven, being a non Catholic. 

What is obvious is that Mel drove while intoxicated and behaved dreadfully.  He knows it.   His own statement acknowledges that his behavior was disgraceful. 

What his statement doesn't reveal is whether or not he went on an anti semitic rant.

Let's assume he did.  After all, I know many sweet, intelligent people who don't have a bigoted bone in their bodies who have become nasty obnoxious assholes while drunk.  So it's not a reach to assume Mel did, too.

My reaction?

I forgive him.

He did something awful.  He admits he did it, he knows it was awful, he is ashamed of his behavior, he has apologized to those he wronged and he asked for forgiveness.

To withhold it would be churlish.

Few things gravel my ass worse than people who presume to forgive criminals for heinous crimes that 1) they never own up to and 2) they don't ask to be forgiven for.  I remember seeing banners after the Columbine masacre saying "We Forgive Eric and Dylan".  What the hell?  What could possibly have made those people think that they had the authority to forgive the murders of fifteen others by two maniacs who never asked for forgiveness?

To forgive the unrepentant is to condone bad behavior, but to refuse to forgive the contrite is tyrannical.

Forgiveness doesn't mean "off scott free", either.  Mel will have to live with the consequences of last weekend and whatever the legal ramifications are.

Considering that Roman Polanski and Robert Downey Jr. can still get work in the movie bidness, if Mel doesn't it's because of some other reason than a drunken driving bust and an alleged whiskey rant.

 

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