oe THEY AUD UB ON eS Vel Diy 
Nader of your block.” We need to become Athenians—people who care 
more about our world, he said. 
“A friend of mine from California sent a New Year’s card which 
contained this message: ‘Choose your division and enlist in the army that 
is fighting for human rights. Don’t be a neutral or a camp-follower. Get 
in the fight and stand back to the wall. Be one of a glorious minority. Be 
a Greek, and never let yourself be swallowed up by a Persian mob. Dare 
to stand alone, to fight alone, to live alone, and to die alone! Otherwise, 
you will not live at all—you will merely exist.’” 
Representative Mann, one of the widely respected men in the General 
Assembly who has served five terms, remarked that the office belongs to 
the people—it does not belong to the temporary occupant of that office, 
although we sometimes look upon it as such. Mann summed it all up when 
he said, “The decision-making is in Springfield; the Scenic Rivers Bill 
goes up or down in Springfield; the Lake Michigan Bill of Rights bill goes 
up or down in Springfield, and I keep having to remind my holier than 
thou friends, my self-righteous friends who don’t want to get involved in 
political action, that this is where the ball-game is, and if you want to 
leave it to the wolves—if you want to suffer the consequences—at least 
know that ycu are doing it.” 
The Illinois Planning and Conservation League is not a tax-exempt 
organization and thus can speak more forcefully on all legislative matters 
than either grcups who have that preferred status, but is thus somewhat 
limited in its actions. Some groups hide behind that status and do nothing. 
Some citizens hide behind all kinds of excuses, though they have no 
tax-exempt status. 
By the time this article is printed, the Illinois Primary election of 
March will be over. Federal, state and local elections will be held in 
November. Political action by organized conservationists who care about 
their ccuntry could have a salutary effect upon the outcome. Will they 
accept the challenge and the opportunity? 
Another Example of the Successful One-Person Crusade: 
Thanks in great part to the efforts of Mrs. Myra B. McCormick, 
President of the Southwestern New Mexico Audubon chapter, the 
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has set aside approximately 1,000 acres 
of land in the Gila National Forest as the Lower Gila River Bird 
Habitat Unit. The area provides a habitat for some 265 species of 
birds with at least five “rare” species, including the zone-tailed 
hawk, the gray hawk and the Mexican black hawk, and is a breeding 
place for some of these species as well. National Audubon has 
commended Clifford M. Hardin, then Secretary of Agriculture, noting 
that this “precedent-setting action on the Gila might well serve 
as an example for other public land-holding agencies.” (Let us hope 
that President Nixon’s replacement choice for Sec. Hardin, Mr. Earl 
C. Butz, will continue and expand upon his predecessor's leadership 
in future decisions of this kind.) 
