Sprint not so “cost-effective”

It seems Sprint has an excuse for everything.

They can afford to make numerous so-called improvements to what they call “state-of-the-art wireless service,” but they can’t print their cellular bills on recycled paper.

Sprint already prints their regular bills on recycled paper because phone bills are among the shortest-lived paper products. The fact that they refuse to use anything but virgin paper for their cellular bills is inexcusable.

One of Ecopledge.com’s top-10 targets, Sprint, is on campus this week. Students thinking about going to the Sprint recruitment should consider whether they want to work for a company that defines “cost-effectiveness” as providing poor service and practicing destructive environmental policies.

Ian Brunswick, UW freshman

I just finished a conversation with Sprint that was eerily familiar to the one in “SprintPCS: Pretty Crappy Service.” I had tried calling on my PCS phone, but was informed by the service rep that my signal was too choppy, and I needed to call back on a land line (how poetic). When I got through on the land line, the rep I talked to admitted there was a problem in Madison, and gave me a one-month service credit. I suggest that everyone with SprintPCS do the same. One word of warning: when the phone system tells you that there is a 30-minute wait, don’t believe it. I got connected in under five minutes. If the phone system with the voice-activated menus takes your call, say “Technical Support” and then “Customer Service Representative.” Good Luck.

Richard Gamble, UW senior

Debunking protesters’ myths

Over the past few weeks we have been hearing the same verbiage repetitiously from people protesting military action. The problem is that when there is no information presented that shows otherwise, what is to prevent people from thinking that what these protesters are saying is untrue?

Myth #1: Military action is meant to whet America’s appetite for retribution. The U.S. Military was formed to protect Americans from countries and organizations that would like to harm us. If we had no military, what would protect us from those people? Nothing is the correct answer, and the idea behind any attack on Afghanistan would be to prevent any further deaths of innocent Americans.

Myth #2: The best way to end a cycle of violence is not to perpetrate more. This statement is true, but the problem is that this statement assumes we are dealing with a rational foe. The disregard for innocent lives shows that we are not dealing with rational enemies, but rather with people that have a deep hatred for everything American. If we extend an olive branch to these people, they will only use that opportunity to lash out at us again.

Myth #3: America’s reaction is meant to demonize Islam. You know, it’s not often that you see a country so prejudiced against a culture that they donate over $100 million a year to. According to the U.S. Department of State, over $180 million was contributed to humanitarian aid for the Afghan people, and this makes the United States the world’s largest donor to Afghanistan.

Matthew D. Reuter, UW-Madison student

Protesters should be ashamed

If the true motives of the “peace protestors” weren’t obvious before, they are now. Let it be known that the organizer of the main demonstration in Washington, D.C. this past weekend was the International Action Center. Searching their web site shows that they are leftist, anti-capitalist radicals that have defended such pillars of morality as Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Kim Il Jong and the Chinese leadership. Although they haven’t explicitly endorsed Osama Bin Laden yet, they believe we framed him in the past.

It is clear from their own writings that the whole point of their agitating for U.S. inaction is not that they love peace — in fact, they explicitly endorse the use of violence by leftists — it’s that they simply hate the capitalist principles of the United States and want us to be subjugated by tyrants and despots worldwide until we abandon our economic freedoms. A direct quote: “The citizens’ campaign against the WTO must be integrated with the anti-war movement against the bombing of sovereign countries by the U.S. and its European allies.” Anybody who is guilty of exploiting the deaths of Americans to score political points against free trade should be ashamed of themselves. As for the rest of us, see this movement for what it is — an irrational hatred of America and the freedoms it stands for, and a deep desire to see America on its knees and held hostage by the scum of the Earth.

Abraham Liebsch, UW-Madison student