Leonard Crist declares total thermo-nuclear war This week, on Coca-Cola
Leonard Crist
Issue date: 4/12/05 Section: OpEd
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In the waning days of this spring semester, I find I have little motivation to do much of anything, let alone declare total thermonuclear war week after week. Writer's block, apathy, sunny days and 12-page term papers all combine to form an effective nuclear deterrent.
Though laziness is appealing, an absence of longer than two weeks would be an indication that my College Republican opposition has won (through whispers and hearsay, I gather they don't like me much). Not wanting to disappoint anyone, I will keep on trucking. A few topics jump out at me.
I could write an I-told-you-so style column regarding the recent pre-Iraq war intelligence report that showed Bush is a big f--k up and all the intelligence was dead wrong. But to be quite honest, I'm tired of criticizing ODB -- ol' Dubya Bush. It gets to a point where it's like I'm reciting a list: "...reason number 734 why the president is a tool..."
Or I could write something about the Pope and how his narrow sighted view of the world barred the use of condoms as a means to prevent AIDS - and babies -because some passage in the Bible mentions not spilling your "seed." However, we already covered that in a Jambar editorial last week, pissing off regular letter writer Joe Iesue in the process (see Letters to the Editor below).
But what's really been bugging me for some time now is the all-Coca-Cola status of our fair campus.
Youngstown State University has a long-term contract with Coca-Cola that says in exchange for exclusively selling Coca-Cola's soft drinks (read: Sprite, Minute Maid, Nestea) on campus, YSU gets new scoreboards, money and other fun things. The current contract expires in 2014; YSU first became a Coke campus in 1994.
This is a completely common occurrence. Many colleges, universities and high schools have exclusive contracts with Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Still, exclusive soft-drink contracts subvert capitalism. There are anti-trust laws in place that block monopolies and break them up when they gain enough market share to undermine competition. Exclusive contracts are just monopolies on a smaller scale.
Though laziness is appealing, an absence of longer than two weeks would be an indication that my College Republican opposition has won (through whispers and hearsay, I gather they don't like me much). Not wanting to disappoint anyone, I will keep on trucking. A few topics jump out at me.
I could write an I-told-you-so style column regarding the recent pre-Iraq war intelligence report that showed Bush is a big f--k up and all the intelligence was dead wrong. But to be quite honest, I'm tired of criticizing ODB -- ol' Dubya Bush. It gets to a point where it's like I'm reciting a list: "...reason number 734 why the president is a tool..."
Or I could write something about the Pope and how his narrow sighted view of the world barred the use of condoms as a means to prevent AIDS - and babies -because some passage in the Bible mentions not spilling your "seed." However, we already covered that in a Jambar editorial last week, pissing off regular letter writer Joe Iesue in the process (see Letters to the Editor below).
But what's really been bugging me for some time now is the all-Coca-Cola status of our fair campus.
Youngstown State University has a long-term contract with Coca-Cola that says in exchange for exclusively selling Coca-Cola's soft drinks (read: Sprite, Minute Maid, Nestea) on campus, YSU gets new scoreboards, money and other fun things. The current contract expires in 2014; YSU first became a Coke campus in 1994.
This is a completely common occurrence. Many colleges, universities and high schools have exclusive contracts with Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Still, exclusive soft-drink contracts subvert capitalism. There are anti-trust laws in place that block monopolies and break them up when they gain enough market share to undermine competition. Exclusive contracts are just monopolies on a smaller scale.