By DEBBIE Ogunjobi
Last week was a rather interesting one, news wise! While the World Cup was going on another drama was unfolding in Newcastle, England. A man was released from prison and paid his ex girlfriend a visit for the sole purpose of shooting her and killing her new consort.

Next in line was a police man who was shot in the face and a game of “catch me if you can”, began with the Northumbria police that would last a whole week.

The man in question was Raoul Moat and even though the cat and mouse game ended with him dead, the story that emerged was that of a broken man who decided to lash out and hurt as much as he was hurting.

Last week I had written about a day that was pressure filled and saved by prayer and a concerted effort to calm down. Another interesting drama is unfolding in the United States and it involves a hitherto celebrated actor and director.

Mel Gibson found fame in films like Mad Max and won accolades for numerous productions including Braveheart, his most celebrated work and even most commercially viable was the biography of Christ.

He had shocked everyone by separating from his wife not long after and taking up with a Russian singer. She went on to have his baby and it once again surprised everyone when they announced their separation. One could say he was having a midlife crisis as most of us are entitled to but Mel seems to  be intent on self destruction and what better way to do it by announcing himself as anti

Semitic, racist, homophobic, sexist and an outright idiot?
Watching the life of the once celebrated actor and director being dissected and rubbished on international news programmes was as sad as watching the Raoul Moat saga. It was like watching a spool of thread unravel and tangle beyond repair.

The two men had one thing in common; they suffered fits of rage and during those fits had managed to do themselves and others colossal damage. Mel Gibson had not gone as far as venting his rage with bullets but he had been recorded admitting to hitting the mother of his child, calling black men niggers who raped women arbitrarily, and who could forget his anti Semitic rant at policemen just a couple of years back?

It’s almost incomprehensible to believe that a man known as a devout Christian who had been married earlier on in his life with, I think six children, who made the best film in recent history about Christ, turned out to be the same man vilified for doing the most unchristian things one can think of.

I personally hold the opinion that condemnation finds its loudest voice in the family; our greatest accusers are those who should support us, so I won’t be surprised to hear and see Christians, family members and fellow actors casting the biggest stones.

I thank God for the grace to be able to separate the sin from the sinner and will say a prayer for Mel to be delivered from the demons that plague him and find redemption; the rest will be judged by posterity.

One can talk all witty and dress rage in costumes of honour or even notoriety but we all suffer from it.

For most people, it is wounds of the past, which have been buried under veneers of sophistication and success; it’s still there, rage; the monster within. Not many people have the luxury of confidence in every area of life; there is always a but somewhere.

Like a donut, we all have a hole in the middle. Our holes are sometimes filled up with food, alcohol, drugs or lust but they don’t stay filled. The Mel Gibson we all admired was a closet alcoholic who’s unraveling began when he started drinking again after years of sobriety.

What you now see is a man, broken, drunken and desperate. He can barely keep the rage bottled so he lashes out, unfortunately he has the whole world as an audience; more the pity. Raoul Moat, last week was dubbed the most wanted man in Britain.

When he finally was surrounded, the whole world saw him unravel; broken and beaten! His last hours spent crying, in pain, wishing he had a father who loved him and a girlfriend who never left.

For a man who scared the public, killed and maimed, his death elicited more pity than condemnation. We all saw a little bit of ourselves in Raoul Moat; most of us have thought murderous thoughts we just never acted on them. Raoul on the other hand did and it leaves me wondering just how to fix a broken heart and soul.

I wish I had answers, sadly all I can offer is advice that we deal with the demons of insecurity, heartbreak, rejection on a day to day basis, looking to God for help and asking our fellow men for support! The alternative is a world filled with a lot more Raouls and Mels!!