I'm a little skeptical - we've been used as a p.r. tool before.

But at this stage, we'll take the high road and accept Mel Gibson's apology at face value.

The very fact he issued another statement is a step forward. The other one was total p.r., and this one we'll accept - for now.

I'm still skeptical because these are still words from his handlers - the same people who brought you the first statement that didn't acknowledge his anti-Semitism.

I'd like to hear from the man himself. These words are still from his handlers - Mel Gibson's words in the police blotter, we know those are from him.

Two years ago, when we were questioning his film "The Passion of the Christ," his people called us and we were told what a good guy he was, that he didn't have a bigoted bone in his body, and he wanted to get to know us and talk to us.

That was two years ago, and we're still waiting for that call.

Mel Gibson is a man who has risen very high and now fallen very low. Sometimes it takes a traumatic fall to realize you have a problem.

Now he's admitted to the fact he has a very serious disease called alcoholism.

And he's also admitted that he has another very serious disease called bigotry and anti-Semitism.

We're ready to help when he's ready. We'll be there for him.

The man was taught to hate by his father, a Holocaust denier. When he said his father never lied to him, he accepted his truth.

Human nature can love and it can hate. Hate usually comes out of ignorance, envy, frustration, fear, religion or all the above.

Since this hatred was learned, it can also be unlearned - but it's much easier to learn it than unlearn it.

The first step to a cure is to say, "I have a problem" and now he's done that. There's been a consequence to his hatred. It's un-American, it's un-Christian and it's un-Hollywood.

Mel Gibson's peers have turned against him. Whether he's come around to admitting his problem by his own conscience or for pragmatic reasons, it doesn't matter - we'll reach out to him.

Like it or not, Mel Gibson is an icon. He's a role model for success and celebrity in America. If he embraces anti-Semitism publicly and doesn't let go of it, then he lends it legitimacy.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.