OPEN LETTERS: Dear…

MEL GIBSON,

Words are, perhaps, futile.  The threat of jail was certainly not enough.  The public condemnation you endured after your last arrest only seems to have inspired a level of vitriol, the likes of which the world rarely sees.  And now you’ve officially gone to the proverbial freaking zoo.  Assuming that leaked tape is authentic, there is absolutely no apology broadcast that can salvage this train wreck.

Personally, I am past the point of debating whether or not the ugliness you have spewed is genuine or the product of addiction.  Addiction does not create new thoughts.  And the thoughts you have shared with the world are both alarmingly hateful and utterly revealing, compounded with the more immediate and punishable crime of hitting your girlfriend.  I’m sorry.  Did I say hitting?  I meant KNOCKING HER F-ING TEETH OUT.

I’m disgusted.

Is this really you?  Has it always been you?  Is there anyone you don’t hate?  Are you really beyond redemption?

You have lost your way, Mel.  Truly.

Half of me wants to believe you can still turn it around.  The other half of me thinks you are so buried in self-loathing, you wouldn’t even know what to do with that kind of forgiveness, should anyone feel compelled to give it.   And I’m sad.  I’m sad for you and your fans… and for all that talent you’ve managed to distort and misuse.

Something is amiss in your world, Mel.  I can only hope you find the culprit and expel it from your life.  And I do hope you figure it out.  I really do.  For yourself and your family and the people who love you.

… and also so I am one day able to watch Lethal Weapon again, without envisioning the word RACIST tagged over your face.