By Alex Stanley ’12
THE ROUNDUP

“Just do it.”

Buy Nike.

The temptation is back as Jim Keady’s message from last year’s Summit fades in many students’ minds.

It appears that his words have become less powerful after the summer break, and now students face a difficult decision: Should I give in to the temptation of showing that Swoosh?

The Swoosh seemed much less attractive when Keady faced the student body with many harsh realities, including that Nike has a long history of valuing profits above people and Nike workers must work overtime just to live.

Brophy students often hear the doctrine “committed to justice,” although sometimes this motto seems to have been replaced by the Nike Swoosh, as it is all too common to see a Nike product around campus.

When confronted about this issue, a Nike-wearing student may merely joke or shrug off the accusations about supporting this brand.

But did they feel differently last year after listening to Keady’s warnings about Nike’s exploitations of workers in underdeveloped countries?

If not, consider this: Within the last few months, Keady has been investigating another Nike wrongdoing.

He has watched, first-hand, Nike’s claims of recycling their rubber soles go up in flames, literally.

According to TeamSweat.org, Nike has been lying about recycling their rubber soles, and Keady has been gathering evidence that their trucks unload scraps in village dumps to be burnt.

This is detrimental to a person’s health, as the burning of rubber releases hydrocarbons that produce ozone, smog and carcinogens in some cases, according to The Coalition for Clean Air’s website.

A theme from last year’s Summit speakers was doing what is right rather than doing what is easy.

Doing what is right falls under the category of not supporting a company whose want for profit overshadows their value of humans.

Perhaps we should not “just do it.”