World Gone Mad

Amongst the many things that Mel Gibson ranted about in his drunken roadside discourse this week was about coping in a "world gone mad".

Two things are clear to me.

First, Mel Gibson - who I've defended before on this blog - is toast for a while and rightfully so given his comments about Jews that can't be explained by mere overindulgence in the spirits.

Second, the world is gone mad.

It's hard enough to wrap your mind around the sudden volatility in the worlds hotspots. Bombings killing 50 people a day in Iraq. War in Lebanon and Gaza. Bombings in India. Big events that just keep escalating beyond my mere power to comprehend.

That's hard enough.

But, it was a little story that pushed me over the edge this week into utter incomprehension of man's inhumanity to man. It was the story of the 50-ish businessman from Chicago who died in Miami for the sin of asking for directions in the wrong neighborhood. He travelled to his ex-wife's new city to be with his son on his 17th birthday. After dropping his son off at work, he pulled into a gas station to ask a passerby for directions. Whereby the savage stranger shot and killed him for the little that he could rob out of the man's car.

This is senseless tragedy, and it's relatable. The majority of us are not going to get killed in the Mideast. But I know that I have been on the road and found myself out of my element and needing help in rough neighborhoods. I guess the Chicago businessman made the mistake of being in a neighborhood where he wasn't a neighbor, and for that he paid with his life.

The world has indeed gone mad.