Wheeler Quotes

Joe Miller: Have you ever felt discriminated against at Wyatt Wheeler?
Anthea Burton: Well, yes.
Joe Miller: In what way?
Anthea Burton: Well, Mr. Wheeler's secretary, Lydia, said that Mr. Wheeler had a problem with my earrings.
Joe Miller: Really?
Anthea Burton:

Apparently Mr. Wheeler felt that they were too..."Ethnic" is the word she used. And she told me that he said that he would like it if I wore something a little less garish, a little smaller, and more "American."
Joe Miller: What'd you say?
Anthea Burton: I said my earrings are American. They're African-American.

Belinda Conine: [Defense opening statement] fact: Andrew Beckett's performance on the job varied from competent to good, to often times mediocre, to sometimes flagrantly incompetent fact: he claims he's the victim of lies and deceit, fact: it was Andrew Beckett who lied, going through lengths to conceal his disease from his employers, fact: Andrew Beckett was successful in his

duplicity, the partners at Wyatt Wheeler did not fire Andrew Beckett because he had AIDS fact: Andrew Beckett is dying fact: Andrew Beckett is angry because his lifestyle, his reckless behavior has cut short his life and in his anger, in his rage he is lashing out and he wants someone to pay

Joe Miller: [Plaintiff opening statement] ladies and gentlemen of the jury: forget everything you've seen on television and in the movies. There's not going to be any last minute surprise witnesses, nobody's going to break down on the stand with a tearful confession, you're going to be presented with simple facts. Andrew Beckett was fired and you'll two explanations on why he was

fired, ours and theirs it's up to you to sit through layer upon layer of truth until you determine for yourself which version sounds the most true. There's certain points I must prove to you: point number one: Andrew Beckett was... is a brilliant lawyer, a great lawyer, point number two: my client afflicted with a disabling disease made the understandable, the personal, and the legal choice to

keep the fact of his illness to himself point number three: his employers discovered his illness and ladies and gentlemen the illness I'm referring to is AIDS point number four: they panicked and in their panic they did what most would do which is just get "it" and everybody who has "it" as far as away as possible, the behavior of my client's employers seem reasonable to you, it does to me, after

all AIDS is a deadly incurable disease but no matter how you come to judge Charles Wheeler and his partners in ethical and moral and inhuman terms, the fact of the matter is when they fired Andrew Beckett because he has AIDS they broke the law.

[first lines]
title card: "To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards of men." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox
President Eisenhower: ...We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. And to do this three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishement. We annually spend on military security alone...

Narrator: January, 1961. President Dwight D. Eisenhowers's Farewell Address to the Nation.
President Eisenhower: ...This conjunction of an immense military establishment and arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office in the federal government. We must

guard against the aquisition of unwarranted influence - whether sought or unsought - by the military-industrial complex. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
M. L. King, Jr.: ...that "All men are created equal."
JFK: Every degree of mind and spirit that I possess will be devoted to the cause of freedom around the world.