Awareness Now!

It seems evident beyond the shadow of a doubt that affluence, technology, education and the greatest national product are not assurances that we are making this a better world in which to live. For our editorial purposes we are not directly concerned with the plus or minus qualities of the fiscal, political or commercial aspects of our way of life. We are seriously concerned about ecology, environment, and the problems arising from man's ignorance, unawareness and apathy toward the natural elements related to the survival of all life on this planet.

It has been less than two centuries since millions of buffalo ranged the western grasslands. The Indian followed the buffalo where grass and rivers were the primary elements for survival and movement. The white man and cattle displaced the buffalo and the Indian. The greatest movement of civilized man began in relation to grasses, rivers and animals. In those days ecology was a word known only to scholars and men of sciences and letters.

Dictionaries define ecology as the branch of biology which deals with the mutual relations between organisms and their environment. Today, ecology is one of the most used words in our language and it is gratifying to know that we are sincerely trying to relate the meaning of ecology to the survival of life.

There are many things we will never understand about human and animal relationship. It seems wondrously strange to us how one sub-microscopic virus can be more deadly than a herd of stampeding elephants. It is sad to know that giant mastodons are extinct, while during the same earth life span bacteria and insects increase in number, size and their resistance toward predators and chemicals. In all truth, we'll probably never be able to distinguish good bugs from bad.

We are convinced that in the pattern for survival everything in nature has a purpose. Man can, and must, keep every link in the chain of life strong in order to maintain balance in the ecosystem. Man can only be an instrument in the process of maintaining a high survival rate in any given situation. He may be labeled hunter, fisherman, conservationist or a zookeeper, but the power to control is man's.

Progress and culture are necessary as long as they enhance our civilization. Computers and space laboratories are marvels of men's minds. However, there are pleasures, satisfactions and relaxation in using our minds, senses and physical resources, for the simple down-to-earth pursuits involving exposure to the aspects of our ecological and environmental world. We believe that many of our problems derive from the fact that as society we are not enough with nature and we are slowly but surely becoming aware of the truth that man cannot abandon nature without abandoning himself.

We dedicate this issue of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS to the purpose that the time for a life and death attitude concerning ecology is NOW!

The measure of our civilization will be richer according to the equitable application of our human and natural resources. The responsibility for survival is man's. For he alone has the God-given gift of infinite intellectual development. For our dissertation, biologists aside, we cannot refer to man as an animal. We choose to set ourselves apart from other animate creatures regardless of their higher or lower classifications. No animal, regardless of his size, strength or prior time on earth, can compete with man.

As incredibly wonderful as are the marvels of the natural world, the most "ideal" animal societies, ants and bees for example, reached the peak of their intellectual attainment millions of years ago. Man, on the other hand, is only beginning to learn.

And as God said after admiring his last work of Creation: "That is Good." - JOSEPH STACEY

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

RAYMOND CARLSON, Editor Emeritus JAMES E. STEVENS, Director of Publications JOSEPH STACEY, Editor WESLEY HOLDEN, Associate Editor LOUIS DE MAYO, Art Director WILLIAM C. ANGIUS, Circulation Manager

JACK WILLIAMS, Governor of Arizona

ARIZONA HIGHWAY COMMISSION

Lew Davis, Chairman

Rudy Campbell, Vice-Chairman Walter W. Surrett, Member.

Walter A. Nelson, Member.

Len W. Mattice, Member

Justin Herman, State Highway Director

William N. Price, State Highway Engineer.

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Phoenix ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is published monthly by the Arizona Highway Department. Address: ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, Arizona 85009. $6.00 per year in U.S. and possessions; $7.00 elsewhere; 60 cents each. Second Class Postage paid at Phoenix, Arizona, under Act of March 3, 1879. Copyrighted 1973, by the Arizona Highway Dept.

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