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36 REFLECTIONS ON THE ACT strength to stop events that they oppose. It is appealing to "find" a species and use it to forestall an action of which one does not approve and then, once successful, to forget the species. Both of these stratagems are inappropriate applications of the law. Each undercuts the true value, even the sanctity, of the other species with which we are inextricably allied. In retrospect, viewed by one who has administered the act and now looks at it from the perspective of a citizens' conservation organization, the Endangered Species Act has worked at two levels. On one level the act is a statute designed to create an institutional sensitivity toward all species and to provide the greatest possible protection for those found to be at hazard of extinction. On another level, the act has allowed us to gain a better understanding of our species' relationship to all the others with whom our destiny is entwined. We have been obliged to face the reality that what we human beings do has a bearing on the well-being of other species, and, most important, that our own well-being is in large measure determined by how other species fare. We are, perhaps, on the verge of recognizing the absolute necessity to make decisions so there are no losers, even if it means our species must accept compromises of a kind we seldom thought about fifteen years ago. Every retrospective exercise implies a prospect. The noble aspirations of the Endangered Species Act as it was formed over fifteen years ago will prevail only if there is a commitment to vigilance and to assuring there is no steady erosion of the act because we are too impatient or inordinately greedy. There must be resistance to letting the act be used to solve problems more properly resolved by other means, to urgings that the act is "inconvenient" for some, or to the attacks by those who continue to find it an impediment to business as usual. Once in a while a collective decision is made that things must be done right-that we have an obligation transcending the usual day-to-day living of life. That obligation may be to the future, to an oppressed or disadvantaged few, or to an ideal. The Endangered Species Act represents a national pledge to the future-to an emerging understanding of the role we humans play in the transactions of the natural world. If we remain alert, caring, and committed, the prospect for a body of enlightened legislation, as well as for the reality it addresses, is bright.