We <i> Can </i> Make a Difference

The March 8 Viewpoints column by Steven D. Lyndenberg, “Consumers Can Use Social Responsibility in Shopping Choices,” was a well-written and meaningful article. It clearly indicates our fundamental strength as individual consumers to directly affect the social policy decisions being made in countless board rooms across the country.

Social consciousness--referred to so often in the many communications spewing forth from executive suites--is and has been nearly nonexistent with many well-known companies with which many of us do business.

While we would not contribute to someone collecting door-to-door for an organization that fosters discrimination of any kind or any ideal that runs counter to our own, we may at the same time be indirectly generating profits for companies supporting those same causes.

We are a nation of beliefs, and it is time that consumer complacency be set aside and be replaced by a conscious effort to support only those companies whose social actions correspond with our personal beliefs.

I sincerely hope that the consumer research organizations mentioned in Lyndenberg’s column receive continuing attention in the media until the public becomes fully aware of their existence and their utility.

C. B. ANDERSON

Northridge