By Gabe Smith
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 21, 1997

Stop whining about Nike, McDonalds

Editor:

OK, enough is enough. I am getting very sick and tired of reading letters to the editor every day just to find another letter from some joker crying about Nike sponsorship of the Athletic Department or the opening of McDonald's. I want all this madness to end.

Now everyone is whining about Nike's terrible human rights record. Honestly, so what? If you really stop to think about it, it's not that big of a deal. First, off, Nike commands so much business from everywhere that any company in their right mind would try to discredit them. Elimination of the competition. If you can't beat them, destroy their reputation. Secondly, think about how many clothes and other stuff we buy is made in the same places as Nike apparel. Do you people honestly think that Nike abuses their workers but the Levi Strauss or Disney factory three blocks down the street in Indonesia doesn't? Get real.

The other bothersome point for me is this whole McDonald's situation. First of all, I know 99.996% (OK, closer to 100%) of you people have eaten a hamburger. Well how the hell can you all sleep at night, you conscienceless souls? OK granted, maybe they hurt the rainforest a little. But think about it. Did some of you heathens not write letters? Well what a waste of paper. And don't most of you students have BOOKS? There's the death of another couple trees.

Now I'm sure there's a few of you out there who buy strictly recycled paper and don't eat fast food or even meat and when you go to the grocery store you don't even get a bag in order to save the Earth. But here's the kicker. Even if you only eat salad, can't you hear the screams of the carrots a they're torn form the ground? Oh god, the terror.

Basically this all means that there are some of you out there who need to get a life. If you hate Nike, don't buy it. If you hate McDonald's, don't eat it. But quit whining about it and let others enjoy them if they want to.

Gabe Smith
Undeclared sophomore