Changing Hawaii

By Diane Yukihiro Chang

Friday, August 21, 1998

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Similarities between
two notorious cases

BILL and Monica. There hasn't been this much titillation and excitement in the national news media since O.J. Simpson became the prime suspect in the fatal slashing of his ex-wife, Nicole. Actually, the sensational cases involving football player/actor O.J. Simpson and President/actor Bill ("I never had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky") Clinton have quite a bit in common.

How so? Let us contemplate the ways:

Everyone in town, bar none, has an opinion about the sordid circumstances involving these two high-profile men. Did O.J. Simpson, in a fit of jealousy, go over to his ex-wife's home one night and slay her and an acquaintance, Ronald Goldman? (A criminal jury said no, a civil jury said yes.) Are Republicans doing everything in their power to discredit President Clinton by encouraging women to come forward and disclose his sexual predilections? Few folks straddle the fence on questions like this.

Tremendous media interest has engulfed both incidents, invoking the same love/hate response from the two-headed monster known as the person on the street. One head exclaims, "I'm sick and tired of all this hoopla!" while the other asks hungrily, "So, what's the latest leak?" Do you think TV and newspaper reporters are falling all over each other to get the newest scoop because there is absolutely NO public interest out there? Hardly.

The death of Nicole Simpson brought domestic violence into the spotlight. The notoriety of Monica Lewinsky (and before her, Paula Jones) is bringing sexual harassment in the workplace to the forefront of mainstream consciousness.

In both cases, when the perpetrators (alleged or otherwise) were confronted with their misdeeds, it was the women victims who were trashed instead. Nicole, a doting mother and an ex-wife who got tired of being bullied and beaten, was personified by O.J.'s defense team as a partying, promiscuous druggie. Monica was made out to be a conniving tramp determined to get her "presidential knee pads," instead of the naive and infatuated intern she really might be.

The reputations and purported past actions of the perpetrators in these messes have not exactly been exemplary. Who can forget the tape of the 911 call made by Nicole as O.J. was trying to break down her door? As for Clinton, his alleged past flings are legion.

There are innocent victims in both families: namely, the Simpsons' two children and Chelsea Clinton. Whether Hillary Clinton is a victim, a facilitator or in deep denial remains in question.

In both cases, the women "stars" are dead -- Nicole, rest in peace, is literally deceased; Monica is dead in just about every other sense of the word. Her chances of regaining a normal life are nil. Her self-confessed private "meetings" with the president in the White House will forever conjure up unseemly images. If you don't agree, what do you think of when hearing the name Gary Hart?

THE most striking similarity between O.J. Simpson and Bill Clinton, however, is that although both may have been admired and loved earlier in their careers, and while they may have accomplished many great things in their respective professions, they have both done damage to the psyche of this country and forever tainted their own names.

From now on, they will be the butts of bad jokes, even though what they did, or what people think they did, was not very funny at all.

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Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.