They said it: The most memorable quotes of 2018
Each December we gather up the most memorable quotes from the preceding year and share them with our readers.
Quotes may be poignant, sad, exuberant, funny or enlightening. They're drawn from stories that may be familiar or completely foreign to you. But they're the words of your friends, neighbors and public servants in this great state we call our home.
Enjoy.
Education
"We will get our house in order. This will be hard but important work." — Jim Gallogly, two weeks before he became OU president, on news that OU faced a $1 billion debt and inadequate operating cash.
"OU and OSU are in a competitive business with lots of other comprehensive research universities. We're all competing for students, we're all competing for faculty and we're all competing for research dollars. And right now we are losing." — Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis in November, regarding cuts to higher education's state funding of $274 million in the past decade.
“They don't understand the mind and heart of a teacher. You can do a lot of stuff to us, but don't hurt our kids; and you are doing it every single day when you don't give them what they need.” — Vicki Cooper, a 39-year teaching veteran from Blanchard, speaking on the final day of a two week teacher walkout in April.
"All my ex's live in Texas Don't make me go back! #FUNDOKED." — Sign carried by Piedmont teacher Kalee Morales during the walkout. Many Oklahoma teachers have left the state seeking better pay.
Government
"It's an amazing thing, to go from no name ID to becoming governor of this great state, but people are ready for change, and I've been saying that from the very beginning." — Gov.-elect Kevin Stitt on Nov. 6, the night of his election victory.
"I was sort of going against Goliath, so I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. But somehow, I won. I did not raise a single dollar or spend a single dollar. I did it all by wordof-mouth." — State Rep. Logan Phillips, R-Mounds, on how he defeated the incumbent Democrat on Election Day.
"What we heard today was nothing but 'Reefer Madness.' This is the exact same people who put all their money into the 'no' campaign. This is the same information they put in the commercials. We all know this to be false information. This is Reefer Madness 2.0." — Medical cannabis advocate Chris Moe after hearing doctors testify at the Legislature's Medical Marijuana Working Group policy meeting.
“In 1,000 doors that I've knocked, the topic of gay marriage never came up a single time. Not once.” — State Rep. Louise Redcorn, R-Pawhuska, talking about issues she faces on the campaign trail.
"Here I am, Chad Mullen with 2,600 days left on a 10-year sentence for an addiction. I need help. I am ready for recovery. Actually past due." — State prison inmate Chad Mullen in a letter to Oklahoman reporter Dale Denwalt. Mullen was convicted on charges that would have been misdemeanors after a law that changed on July 1, 2017. He and others are seeking post-conviction relief.
"Ultimately, I could not in good conscience continue to serve as a state representative. I fundamentally disagree with the direction the Republican caucus is headed inside the Capitol, and I have been disappointed in decisions that were made that I believe are detrimental to our state." — Former state Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, on why he was one of 14 GOP lawmakers who didn't file for reelection.
“You keep cutting off my microphone. You can silence me, but you can't silence them." — Former state Rep. Scott Inman, D-Del City, on the House floor with throngs of teachers in the viewing gallery.
"The image that is created by our Legislature in many, many ways such as our obsession over guns, social issues and other issues that continually get us national press that keeps companies from even engaging with us is a problem." — Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, answering a reader’s question during the April 7, 2018 OKC Central Live Chat.
Courts
The U.S. Supreme
Court "has yet to recognize a constitutional right to bring crack- or methamphetamine-addicted babies into this world." — U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot before announcing a lesser punishment for
Summer Thyme Creel, 34,
because she voluntarily
underwent a sterilization procedure to prevent her from birthing more babies. Creel had lost parental rights to six of her seven children and likely used illegal drugs, including crack cocaine and methamphetamine, during her pregnancies.
“They had made this so complicated that they couldn't even understand it." — State Auditor Gary Jones, on the state Health Department's muddled
finances. "I have begged God's
forgiveness, and I hope that this all is another example to everyone to live a true life and to be what you say you are." —
Former state Sen. Ralph
Shortey, R-Oklahoma City, after pleading guilty to child sex trafficking.
"I never had a job that I didn't like." — U.S. District Judge Vicki MilesLaGrange, the first black judge in Oklahoma and the five other states in the 10th
District, upon her retirement late in the year.
Crime
"I just reacted. I just did it. I wasn't thinking about anything other than I had to stop this guy and I'm not going to die here." — Bryan Whittle, a master sergeant in the Oklahoma National Guard, one of two men who shot dead Alexander C. Tilghman, who had shot three people outside Louie's Bar and Grill in May.
"I believe this is a concerted effort to destroy my reputation to win an election by character assassination. This should not happen in a democracy." — Tulsa County District Judge Joe Caputo in October, after being accused of going to a massage parlor specializing in prostitution. "It's certainly something we don't see every day, somebody with knives fighting with somebody who has nunchucks. But thankfully, nobody was hurt, considering both of those types of weapons can do a lot of damage." — Oklahoma City police Master Sgt. Gary Knight, on the strange battle in June between an apartment complex security guard and someone who had been banned from the complex. Jerome Dwayne Thompson, 31, the alleged knife wielder, was arrested. The guard fought back with nunchucks, a martial arts weapon consisting of a pair of wooden rods connected by a length of chain. "It's not fair the boys got left without a mom. She's supposed to be here watching them grow up. She's supposed to be going to the ballgames. It's just, it's not fair that they don't get that, and she doesn't get it either. All of them were cheated that part of life." — Carolyn Parnell, whose daughter, Desirae Parnell, was shot to death on Dec. 7, 2016, by an exboyfriend.
Politics
"They threw the kitchen sink at us. It's quite daunting when you look back on it. My wife and I, we don't know beans about politics." — Pontotoc, Seminole and Hughes County District Attorney Paul B. Smith, after international best-selling author John Grisham backed his opponent in the November elections. Smith won despite Grisham's robocalls.
“If you don't study the issues, like a dog lapping up antifreeze, you'll lick it up; it tastes good. There's consequences." — U.S. Rep. Steve Russell, R-Choctaw, on voters in the 5th congressional district. Russell narrowly lost his race for re-election Nov. 6 to Democrat Kendra Horn in one of the biggest political upsets nationwide this year.
"I'm kind of embracing the American experience." — Reimann-Philipp, who is originally from Germany but became a U.S. citizen four years ago, after he cast a ballot in the August runoff election.
Health
"Your job is to take care of the guy on either side of you, bring them back alive. Well, we should be doing the same thing with suicide." — Retired Oklahoma Air National Guard Maj. Gen. Rita Aragon, discussing suicides among military veterans. A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report released in September revealed that Oklahoma had the highest national rate of suicides among veterans age 18-34.
“I think this is going to become cannabis row, to be honest." — Jerame Cuthbertson, about opening a dispensary on NW 23. There are several dispensaries in that area now.
“All it takes is one slight miscalculation or an illness, and I'm having to go break the bank to get more insulin. It rules our financial life.” — Diabetes patient Chris Pickering, about the high cost of insulin.
“It's my reality, so why not make fun of it? When I wake up every morning, it's like having a gift of life, because you just don't know.” — Nancy Hughes, about living with incurable cancer.
“None of these people are going to be more employable if they lose access to their inhalers." — Carly Putnam of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, talking about a Medicaid work requirement that could force people into minimum-wage jobs and cost them access to health care.
“That's really scary. That's a wake-up call for all of us." — Dr. Ali Mokdad, one of the researchers who published a study showing that Oklahoma girls born in 2016 will have shorter life expectancies than those born in 1990.
“If all we were doing is the best care we've ever done, 35 percent of our patients are still going to die." — Dr. Robert Mannel, about the need for continued cancer research.
Other topics
“Oklahomans have yet to really figure out the difference between charity and justice. While we may be a generous people when it comes to responding to disaster and crisis, what we really need is to turn our hearts and our minds to the idea of justice. How do we get to equality? How do we get to a society where the ‘least of these' know that they can find help that is not a hand out, but a hand up?” — Lori Walke, an associate minister at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.
“I love Oklahoma City. I think it's time to love ourselves. It seems like there's people with a lot of money in this town that wanna build a lot of cool stuff, but we all know people with a lot of money ain't cool. If you wanna be cool, support art.” — Oklahoma-raised rocker Garrett Dale, frontman for Red City Radio.
“Playing music and making art is one way to cheat mortality at least for a couple centuries.” — Nashville-based singersongwriter Margo Price. CONTRIBUTING: STAFF WRITERS SILAS ALLEN, NOLAN CLAY, WILLIAM CRUM, DALE DENWALT, BEN FELDER, DOUG HOKE, KATHRYN MCNUTT, DARLA SLIPKE, JUSTIN WINGERTER AND MEGAN WINGERTER.