There is more to being right than having the law on one’s side. That’s particularly true in the case of a cell phone company which this week received an appeals court’s blessing to build a tall, lighted cell phone tower on the edge of the treasured Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The cell company, AT&T Mobility, ought to reconsider building the tower.

Americans have become inured to the presence of cell transmission towers everywhere they look, not least because most Americans treasure their cell phones more than they do the view out their windows. But building a tower on the edge of one of America’s premier wilderness areas, atop a hill where the tower’s blinking light is likely to be visible to paddlers in the BWCA, may be going just a bit too far. Although wilderness advocates couldn’t prove to the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ satisfaction that the proposed 450-foot tower would degrade the environment, it doesn’t take a judge to know that many people are likely to consider the structure a nuisance.

We don’t fault AT&T for pushing the issue to the appeals level after losing a lower court fight. Establishing the privilege to build cell towers where they are needed is clearly an important business consideration. Now, however, the point having been made, perhaps the phone company could win again by magnanimously finding another solution and garnering positive public relations rather than pushing its court victory into the faces of Boundary Waters visitors. Surely there is some other tower location which, if not perfect, would meet the interests of everyone concerned.

Having the law and the right is one thing. Doing what is right is another. We hope AT&T chooses to do what’s right by protecting one of America’s few remaining wilderness areas.