Letter to the editor: The audacity of Coke

I question the motives of Coca-Cola and other Atlanta-based companies boycotting the MLB All-Star Game and forcing the game’s move to Denver. Many Atlanta restaurant, hotel and stadium workers, many minorities, will not have the advantage of baseball fans nationwide coming to town. This only to protest honest voting measures that are already the law of the land?

Coca-Cola wants to be identified as a liberal warrior for social justice, but look at its corporate values. I am a Pepsi drinker when it comes to soft drinks, but recently I uncoupled a six-bottle pack of Coke to refrigerate for my wife. Each bottle was encased by two bands of plastic holding the bottles together, with the whole group bound with, yes, plastic.

Imagine the environmental impact of this packaging. When burned, plastic releases toxic pollutants into our already compromised atmosphere; buried in landfills, it needs centuries to fully decompose. Uncounted masses of these bindings end up in our watershed, killing fish and the birds that prey on them. Millions of plastics float in our oceans, again destroying not only marine life but the shorelines where they wash up. It will take decades to fully appreciate what damage Coke has done, and is still doing.

Social justice is important, but so is our environment. Coca-Cola relishes the accolades it receives with regard to its boycott; when will it be held accountable for the damage it is doing? Shouldn’t Coke be boycotted for its irresponsibility?

Ed Klein

Shanksville