Gary Regich, age 13, of Indianapolis,  Indiana, for his question:

Is it true that mankind is a parasite?

This question, which isn't very flattering to humanity, may have been intended to provoke us to evaluate ourselves. So let's accept the challenge, stand back' and look at mankind    and then decide for ourselves.

Mankind is a species known to science as 'homo sapiens. We stand on two feet and, as a breed, we have the unique gift of being able to evaluate ourselves. The basic human nature in all of us is courageous and cowardly, honest and deceitful, civilized and barbaric, generous and greedy, courteous and crude, hard working and lazy, sensible and stupid. Our list of contradictions seems endless. But mankind can never be called a parasite in the proper meaning of the word.

Basically, parasite is a biological term. The self sustaining balance of nature is maintained by intricate systems of interdependence. Almost all species of plants and animals swap and share their assets, give and take among their neighbors. But a few species are parasites that take without giving. Viruses prey on living cells, bloodsucking lampreys prey on host fishes and certain plants suck their nourishment from living hosts. A parasite is an uninvited guest who arrives for dinner and stays to eat free for the rest of its life. It gives nothing in return and, above all, it cannot make its own living.

True, a few individual humans are greedy grabbers who prey on others and take mote than they give. Some plunder our planet's resources with no sane concern for conservation. These types survive by conniving and using the more primitive human traits. But even this requires work and effort so we cannot call them true parasites. Besides, the greedy grabbers are a minority of our species.

Let's evaluate the majority, and man's prevailing role in the teeming world of nature. His survival actually depends upon his giving as well as taking. In taking all he needs, he has improved nature's plants, enriched her soil,, tended and adopted her animals and brought life to her desolate wildernesses. No creature in nature is cherished as much as a pet dog or pampered as much as a prize dairy cow. Homo sapiens learns from experience and improves himself as he tackles his problems. He knows that his long range survival depends upon working with nature on a fair and sensible basis of give and take.

His survival demands effort. This is fine because a healthy human enjoys using his brains and energy and f ,els proud to earn a living. Oure4irmers and ranchers, Is it true that mankind   for Monday, April 28, 1969 lumbermen and dairymen toil hard to reap their harvests. The intelligent, concerned ones also replenish the soil, tend their cattle and resow their forests to ensure future harvests. Nature also has automatic schemes to make us fair traders. Every time you breathe out you contribute a puff of carbon dioxide that the plant world needs to create its basic food. Certainly this hard working, fair¬trading homo sapiens is not a parasite.

Mankind also is a dreamer. Some idealists try to disown our less worthy traits and decree immediate surgery to slice them from basic human nature. This usually doesn't work well at all because human nature changes very slowly and has to make its own progress in its own time. Over the centuries, noble men and women have appeared to show us that we are dependent upon one another and upon the good earth. If we follow their teachings, no one can accuse us of being parasites in any sense.