THE YEAR IN REVIEW 1995 : Voices

Rams and Raiders

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“Today’s Special: Lack of Ram” --sign in front of the Catch restaurant across from Anaheim Stadium, upon the announcement in January that the Rams football franchise was moving to St. Louis.

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“Yesssssss!” --banner headline in the June 23, 1995, Oakland Tribune, upon the announcement that the Raiders were returning from Los Angeles.

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“I didn’t want to leave California. I mean, it’s hard for my friends and family because everybody says, ‘Why is she so mean, taking the team away?’ It’s business; it has to be business.” --Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, struggling to explain why she was moving the team to St. Louis.

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“The words ‘Oakland’ and ‘Raiders’ are synonymous. It choked many people’s throats to have to put ‘Los Angeles’ and the ‘Raiders’ together. And it wasn’t just the smog that made that happen.” --Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, exulting at the football team’s decision to return to the Bay Area.

O.J. Simpson

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“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” --O.J. Simpson defense lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., to the jury in Simpson’s double murder case.

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“I wish to assert my 5th Amendment privilege.” --LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman, asked whether his testimony in the Simpson case had been completely truthful.

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“I would not, could not and did not kill anyone.” --O.J. Simpson, after being found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman.

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“Oh God! Nicole was right. She said he was going to kill her and get away with it. He always said he was above the law.” --Faye Resnick, a friend of Nicole Simpson, after the Simpson verdict.

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“We came here in search of justice. You’ll have to be the judges. I’m not sure whether any of us found it.” --Prosecutor Christopher A. Darden, on the Simpson verdict.

Transit

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“They’re going to open this thing with great fanfare--and I’m delighted to have it open--but I don’t believe there is going to be anyone to ride it because it doesn’t go anywhere.” --Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, on the Aug. 12, 1995, opening of the $950-million Green Line railway between Norwalk and Redondo Beach.

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“This is a money train, and if you get between the people who want the money and the people who spend the money, you’ve got problems.” --Franklin E. White, shortly before he was fired as the first chief of the massive Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Schools

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“California casts a long shadow or a long sunbeam. This is a long shadow.” --The Rev. Jesse Jackson, as the University of California regents took the historic step of abolishing affirmative action on campus.

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“You don’t get shot at.” --Seventh-grader Dieon Murphy, on the advantages of having to wear a uniform in the Long Beach Unified School District, whose mandatory uniform policy is credited with a decrease in campus crime.

L.A. HEALTH CRISIS

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“Society should be proud to provide care for citizens who can’t afford it. It’s not too popular to be poor right now. There’s this idea that the poor are taking advantage of us. But there are a lot of hard-working poor. And the people we’re serving here aren’t all freeloaders.” --Dr. William French, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center cardiologist, at the height of the county’s debate over dismantling its public health care network.

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“It would have been criminal to permit these clinics to close.” --President Clinton, announcing a $364-million bailout designed to rescue Los Angeles County’s teetering health care system from collapse.

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“I just hope that nobody thinks that the crisis is over. It’s not.” --David Langness, spokesman for the Healthcare Assn. of Southern California, in the wake of the federal aid announcement.

DAILY LIFE

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“We need the money. One day we may not have a job.” --Cong A. Long, a supervisor at Express Manufacturing in Santa Ana, on why he volunteers for 20 to 30 hours of overtime a week.

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“These are places where people go to see what the hell’s going on. It’s going to be an impulse thing. . . . The secret will be plugging in enough stuff so people will say, ‘I’ve got to go there.”’ --A shopping center consultant, on the importance of mega-entertainment malls such as the Irvine Entertainment Center, which will feature a 21-screen cineplex, a 3-D Imax theater, a virtual reality arcade and a 100-foot-long snack bar.

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“We should all be shocked by such numbers.” --Caswell A. Evans Jr., director of public health programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, on a study showing that local gangs have killed 7,288 people during the last five years.

CITY HALL

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“We’ll put this behind us, and then I’m going to Disneyland.” --Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden after being acquitted on sexual harassment charges--and before the release of photographs showing Holden in the company of topless women on an official city junket

Orange County Crisis *

“It’s the belief of everybody but me, to be honest about it, Bob, ... [that] you’ve got too many eggs in one basket.” --Bond salesman Michael G. Stamenson, in a taped conversation with then-Orange County Treasurer Robert L. Citron two years before the county’s investments in high-risk securities drove it into bankruptcy. The tape was released this year.

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“Chicken Little was wrong. The sky didn’t fall this time.” --Claremont Graduate School professor Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, on the real-world impact of the Orange County bankruptcy.

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“County government right now is dysfunctional at best--and at worst, dangerous.” --William J. Popejoy, the retired business executive who served briefly as the county’s first chief executive officer before throwing in the towel.

PETE WILSON

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“We have not only had an agenda for change, we have a record of making change. I’m convinced, because of that, we have not just an opportunity, but a duty to bring that same kind of change to the entire nation.” --Gov. Pete Wilson, March 23, 1995, announcing his bid for the presidency.

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“To go on would simply be to run up an unacceptable debt. . . . I have savaged Washington for deficit spending. I can hardly pursue it in my own campaign.” --Pete Wilson, Sept. 29, 1995, concluding his run for the presidency.

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“This old Marine ain’t about to just fade away.” --Pete Wilson, on his political future in the wake of his aborted bid for the presidency.

SACRAMENTO

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“Those white boys got taken, fair and square.” --Former Speaker Willie Brown, heady with victory after outmaneuvering Assembly Republicans to secure the speakership for his ally, Doris Allen, a GOP renegade.

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“The first thing she ought to do is her hair.” --Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), as newly elected Speaker Doris Allen assumed the podium.

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“Do I let a group of power-mongering men with short penises tell me what to do?” --Assembly Speaker Doris Allen, facing a mushrooming recall campaign.

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“I done won!” --Ex-Speaker Willie Brown, upon being elected mayor of San Francisco

GALILEO

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“It’s all in the laps of the gods. And if they fail us, there’s always the engineers.”

--Galileo project scientist Torrence Johnson as the spacecraft prepared to complete its 2.3-million-mile odyssey to Jupiter.

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“We can report burn complete.” --Galileo Mission Support, announcing the mission’s success.

Hollywood

“I did a bad thing.” --Actor Hugh Grant after being caught by police with a Sunset Boulevard prostitute.

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“Sexual services. Hetero sexual services.” --Brat Packer Charlie Sheen, when asked under oath what he had bought with more than $50,000 worth of checks that ended up in the hands of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

“A line has been crossed--not just of taste, but of human dignity and decency. It is crossed every time sexual violence is given a catchy tune. When teen suicide is set to an appealing beat. When Hollywood’s dream factories turn out nightmares of depravity.” --Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, in Los Angeles to raise money for his presidential campaign.

“I have nothing against Mr. Dole. I just wish they would find something else to pick on besides movies and TV.” --Aaron Spelling, producer of television series “Melrose Place,” responding to Dole’s attack on Hollywood.