Yoon Park, student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, writes in the Colorado Daily, April 16, 1998:

Again I will say that most things in life are political. Even the most inconspicuous act holds some political undertone. And speaking of under, let me tell you that buying underwear is a political act! I was buying underwear the other day, and I had a moral dilemma. Checking the tags, I compared the locations where the different companies made their products. OK, I thought, do I exploit the workers in Honduras or the workers in Taiwan? I would've bought undies made in the U.S.A. if I found some, but not for national pride. I'd buy "made in the U.S.A." because at least I'd be keeping the exploitation within bounds where I can take more direct action against it.

So there's the rub. I ended up picking the "evil of two lessers," as Michael Moore put it when he came to campus last month for a special preview of his latest documentary, "The Big One." I ended up picking the non-pink underwear and went home feeling crappy.

Choices like that come up daily, whether we're aware of them or not. It can get overwhelming when there's news about a different corporation that you should boycott being circulated almost every day. I find myself having to take inventory on my closet, cupboard, and medicine cabinet every couple of months to see what I shouldn't buy anymore. It gets frustrating, even for someone who doesn't own that much stuff to begin with.

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