As I read Paul Slansky’s op-ed, “Mel Gibson’s unscripted slur just won’t slink away” (BDN, Aug. 5-6), I wondered how much headline news would we be seeing right now if this was about Christians – particularly fundamental Christians – or Muslims, or Buddhists or Hindus. Very little, I suspect.

The irony of articles like Slansky’s is that his disdain and, yes, hatred of Gibson is as transparent as Gibson’s supposed hatred of Jews of which Slansky declares in his lynching of Gibson.

I’m not defending Gibson’s alleged drunken behavior or his alleged drunken remarks on the evening of July 28, but I think the reaction by the Hollywood elite and anti-Gibson writers like Slansky is as excessive as what these same types are currently accusing Israel of: overreacting against terrorists who are bent on the destruction of Israel and all it citizens.

My reaction to all this Gibson hysteria is not tempered by any anti-Semitism on my part, however, I’ll probably be lumped in with “those twisted millions of Americans who were as delighted with Gibson’s comments about the Jews as those Arabs dancing in their streets were with the events of 9-11,” of whom Slansky refers. Who are these “millions” and where are they?

They’re certainly not in my circle of friends and associates.

Roy Duguay

Columbia Falls