Annie Potts: Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims

Quotes 

• Mary Elizabeth : You son of a bitch! You scared me when I was a kid but you do NOT scare me now!

  Jimmy O'Brien : What're you talking about?

  Mary Elizabeth : Cross! Gasoline! My front yard!

  Jimmy O'Brien : Calm down, Peanut, what's happened?

  Mary Elizabeth : You burnt a cross on my yard and don't peanut me!

• Matthew O'Brien : Why were you over there?

  Mary Elizabeth : He

  [Jimmy] 

  Mary Elizabeth : burnt a cross on our front yard.

  Matthew O'Brien : What?

  Mary Elizabeth : Your brother, burnt a cross, on our front yard.

  Catherine O'Brien : Mary Elizabeth, that is ridiculous.

  Mary Elizabeth : Oh no it was really quite spectacular, what was it Colliar? About 8 feet, turned into a block party, neighbors brought lawn chairs, everybody had such a good time we hope he does it again next week.

• Mary Elizabeth : Colliar, do you ever that maybe we're doing something wrong here?

  Colliar Sims : Now don't go there.

  Mary Elizabeth : No no, really, think about it. The FBI has been on our front lawn all night, my parents have opened a home for wayward Hitlers, our credit cards are maxed out, we have no money coming in, our whole life is a MESS!

  Colliar Sims : Too bad Jim didn't burn down the house, we could've collected on the insurance.

  Mary Elizabeth : Got a match?

• Mary Elizabeth : [Jimmy's in the hospital]  They'd tell us if he was dead, wouldn't they?

  Colliar Sims : [takes coffee from her]  Is this decaf?

  Mary Elizabeth : Once when I was 6 he took me to the circus. I loved it: clowns, elephants, acrobats. And then the monkeys came out. He said they were unshaved niggers. I despise him. I wish he needed my kidney or my blood or something so I could just LAUGH in his face!

• Colliar Sims : Mary Elizabeth, calm down!

  Mary Elizabeth : I have SIX FBI AGENTS on my front yard, I don't want to calm down!

• Rene Jackson : Please tell the court if you had any recent conversations with your uncle where my name came up.

  Luke : Objection, leading the witness.

  Judge Leonard : Overruled, and she's not leading, she's getting to the point. You may answer the question.

  Mary Elizabeth : Yes, your name came up.

  Rene Jackson : What did he say?

  Mary Elizabeth : He said 'I had a chance to kill that little nigger a long time ago, and the one good thing about getting older is you have a chance to correct your mistakes'.

• Jimmy O'Brien : Somebody take me home.

  Mary Elizabeth : [under her breath]  It's alive.

  [to her father] 

  Mary Elizabeth : Ask him about the cross, he'll brag about it.

• Colliar Sims : Did you get any sleep? Man I feel like I got hit by a truck.

  Mary Elizabeth : Yeah I got about a half hour, the whole time I dreamt you joined the Klan, white sheets and all.

  Colliar Sims : Nice.

  [gets his breakfast] 

  Colliar Sims : One egg?

  Mary Elizabeth : Chickens are having a cash flow problem, remember?

• Kelly Sims : I'm still kind of creeped out. I just, it makes me so mad, I want to do something, I hate people who think like that.

  Mary Elizabeth : Let's see, you hate people who hate, there's something not quite right with that picture.

  Colliar Sims : Did you get any sleep?

  Kelly Sims : I kept seeing that stuff Davis found on the internet last night. Talk about hate!

  Mary Elizabeth : What kind of stuff?

  Kelly Sims : He got on your uncle Jimmy's website. It was disgusting, Mom.

• Mary Elizabeth : What are you doing?

  [switches off computer] 

  Davis Sims : I'm just playing around.

  Mary Elizabeth : On HATE sites?

  Davis Sims : Your uncle Jimmy is NUTS, Mom.

  Mary Elizabeth : Davis, I'm tired and I'm hungry, and I'm angry, and I don't want to take it out on you. That said, I will not have you fooling around on these hate sites. I don't want that filth in my house.

  Davis Sims : How else am I supposed to find out about this stuff?

  Mary Elizabeth : Like any normal human being, just ask: I will talk to you about anything, but I don't want this garbage in my house. And you're sitting too close anyway, your retinas are going to detach. Now come have breakfast.

  Davis Sims : I think you should see this first. It's from his website: it's a hit list.

  Mary Elizabeth : A what?

  Davis Sims : A hit list, Rene's name is on it.

  Rene Jackson : [cuts to Rene seeing it]  And my MOTHER's name, and her PHONE NUMBER, and the schedule of her prayer meetings at the CHURCH?

• Matthew O'Brien : This morning, Rene served him papers, you know she's suing him?

  Mary Elizabeth : You know he threatened her AND Sara?

  Matthew O'Brien : Where do you get these CRAZY ideas?

  Mary Elizabeth : Crazy? Davis found these on the internet: the first one is a HIT LIST with Rene and Sara's names, addresses, and telephone numbers! The rest of them are just you know, your everyday run-of-the-mill hate sites like The Jew Patrol, God Hates Homos.com, or my own personal favorite, the Nigger JOKE Center, trust me, none of them are funny. The organization that puts all this out is called New Patriotism, and your brother's name is on EVERY ONE OF THEM.

• Matthew O'Brien : [talking about Jimmy]  I guess there's nothing more to say. We can agree to disagree.

  Mary Elizabeth : I'm sorry, you're wrong, and he's wrong, any day now maybe you'll be able to realize that. I hope I'm alive to see it.

• Kelly Sims : Have you heard of the Birmingham Pledge, Mom?

  Mary Elizabeth : The what?

  Kelly Sims : The Birmingham Pledge, if everybody signed it and believed in it, then there wouldn't be any racism.

  Mary Elizabeth : Well I wish it were that simple.

  Kelly Sims : Well I already signed it, you want to?

  Mary Elizabeth : Sure.

• Catherine O'Brien : [reads M.E.'s article on racism]  You left out all the horrible things I did.

  Mary Elizabeth : I decided to write instead about the woman who took a black child to an all-white hospital and demanded help. You must've been so scared.

  Catherine O'Brien : Rene was hurt. You asked me if I ever think about those days, of course I do, and of course I'm ashamed of the way I acted.