It has been said that alcohol doesn't change a person — it simply amplifies who they really are inside. If that is the case, I think most of us would agree that Mel Gibson doesn't seem like the kind of person who you'd want to baby-sit your kids.

For a guy who's been trying to distance himself from rumors of anti-Semitism, Mel's drunken tirade (which included a comment about how Jews are "responsible for all the wars in the world") represents a public relations disaster that comes pretty close to a worst-case scenario.

Just how bad things get probably depends on how much humble pie Mel is willing to consume. So far his public apology where he claimed to be "deeply ashamed" of his "belligerent behavior" has failed to impress many people. In the coming weeks he'll have some quiet time in an alcohol rehab center to consider how he will try to make amends.

What really confounds me about this situation is how a man can reach 50 years of age and still harbor the sort of worldview that stamps a whole race of people as evil.

I realize that every one of us harbors prejudices. I for one have had to unlearn a lot of the twisted thinking I was exposed to growing up. I heard plenty of derogatory things said about Jews when I was a youngster, but quite frankly Catholics, liberal Protestants and (of course) non-Christians didn't fare any better.

Heck, where I grew up if you weren't a white, middle-class Southern Baptist who was born and reared in the Deep South, you were looked on with a great deal of suspicion. And of course I bought into it, for a while. But eventually I got out into the world and met some of those people who didn't look or live quite like me. And I made a startling discovery.

Some of them were good people. Some of them were complete jerks. Just like the people I lived next to or went to church with. By getting out into the world and mixing with all sorts of races and religions and classes, I found out that you can't generalize. You have to get to know an individual to know anything about them.

That is the lesson that Mel apparently has yet to learn. Most Jews are good folks. A few of them are jerks. Just like everyone else. It isn't complicated, but it is something that is best learned experientially.

A good start on his road to recovery would be for him to repeat his heartfelt apology, in person, to as many Jewish people as possible. Hang out with them. Engage in charity work with them. Maybe, down the road, make a movie or two about them.

Eventually, I hope, the light will come on in his head. People are people. We are all flawed, but redeemable. One thing nearly all religions have in common is the possibility of redemption and forgiveness. It's out there waiting for Mel, just like it is for all of us.

The first step is realizing that you need it. As Mel has found out, that first step can be a real doozy. As the old gospel song suggests, maybe God is trying to tell him something.

Bill Ferguson is a columnist for the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph.