Thursday, August 03, 2006

Mel Gibson

From the BBC News website:

"Please know from my heart I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith," he said.

Mr Gibson has also asked to meet Jewish groups to "discern the appropriate path for healing".

Drunk folks tend to say what they would avoid saying when sober. But what people say when they are drunk reveals their hidden thoughts. Think of Plato's Symposium. Drinking frees the mind and unleashes the tongue. Gibson is a repulsive. His movie "The Passion of the Christ" was revolting. And now this. I think of all the fights I had as a kid, defending myself when I was ridiculed for being Jewish. Where did kids get their views? They heard them from parents, friends, parents of friends. I had a swimming coach who always spoke of "jewing them down" when trying to get a lower price on something. When I quit his team--and was berated constantly by other teachers for being "a traitor to my team...no pride...no school spirit"--a few enlightened ones congratulated me for protesting, in my own not-so-small way. Before I quit our team was undefeated season after season. I was among the highest point-earners on my team. After I quit, they were defeated, and they never regained their supremacy. And I don't regret it for one moment. Recently my sister told me that that coach had suffered a severe heart attack. I felt nothing.

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