Dear Readers, As this is being written, around the nation telephone workers from several companies are presently on strike. This in itself is not so terrible. Strikes, work stoppages and job actions happen frequently in our day and age, and some are necessary. But there is something attatched to this one that makes me, and many others very angry. Intentional vandalism. Telephone lines and switch boxes have been cut, torched and smashed causing thousands of telephone users to loose service. Some people must have their telephones in proper working order for medical purposes, others for business. To a lesser extent we ALL need those phones working. They have become a necessary instrument of our modern daily lives. Phone company employees deny they are responsible for these actions. Yet, the way the vandalism was perpetrated signals an inside knowledge of how the telephone system works. Do you know where the major trunk lines are located? Do you know which switching stations would cause the most disruption of service if damaged? I believe the answer is no. But, those who work with these systems day in and day out know. I don't know what these people think they will achieve by these actions. If they are out to win public support for their causes they have surely failed. The public has lost respect for these men and women, even if their grievences are just. They will not be able to win back public support unless they themselves turn in the guilty parties. Coal miners shoot people and damage property and consider it a justifiable method to win contract agreements. Truckers tie up traffic on our busiest highways for the same reason. Perhaps we should all follow their examples and do the same each time we have a problem with our employers. Forget enemies foreign, we have domestic enemies and that is a much closer, and more dangerous threat. These acts of vandalism and violence wherever they occur and for whatever reason must stop. It is not in the interest of the striking parties to allow or condone these actions. Moreover, the public must take a stand to let these forces know that we will not stand for it either. It is a fact not to be forgotten that without Union pressure we might not have our 40 hour work week, nor most of the benefits that each and every one of us enjoys on the job today. There was, and still is a need for unionized labor, but not when that labor force feels it is necessary to allow acts of violence and vandalism. We suffer. They do not. This is not fair. Jeff Green, Editor