Cynical by Da Fault

I have to confess that at times when I've seen Waste Management's trucks go by proudly proclaiming "Our landfills provide over 17,000 acres of wildlife habitat," I've said to myself, "Yes, seagulls and rats are indeed wildlife. Can't argue with that." I've actually visited landfills, by the way. I didn't see a lot of soaring ospreys or deer nibbling at leaves while was there. But in the interests of fairness and balance I did some googling and maybe the claim is for real. Sorry, Waste Management: I sinned against you in my heart but make public confession here. If you want to put me in a commercial about my conversion to believing in you I'm available for a reasonable fee.

Seriously, for the record, I think it's a little facile to automatically assume that everything a corporation does is wrong and bad and venal. For instance, I happen to know that Verizon is a committed supporter of literacy, and they do it without a tremendous amount of fanfare, financially supporting education over the long term. This is a contrarian position in some circles but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.