HOME SWEET STATE

We're getting quite the reputation in Arizona. To review: we are racists, we are ethnocentric, and we love our guns more than our family. Since we are the reddest of the red states, that means were are short in intellect. We live in a big sandy desert: how smart can we be?

Flat Stanley arrived in Arizona recently. If you don't know him, he's a cut-out figure who likes to help primary students from other parts of the country learn about the rest of our land. He likes to have his picture taken with landmarks and everyday items that make each place unique. It's a much better way to teach geography than rotre learning.

Stanley found that Arizona has lots of mountains, too. Along with lakes, many which are man-made. They get much of their water from snow melt in the higher elevations.

In the desert he saw many cacti or cactuses (either is correct) and had his first picture taken by a huge saguaro (pronounced sah.war.o with the first syllable accented). The saguaros are only native to certain parts of Mexico and Arizona, though some have been taken and transplanted in California. The saguaro is the one with the big arms, sometimes numbering seven or eight. It takes 75 years for the saguaro to sprout its first arm. They can grow to about 40 feet tall and live for 200 years.

The inside is very woody. He saw a wreath made of the inside of the cactus and he thought it was pretty cool to have his picture made standing in the wreath.

Other trees are acacia, ironwood, evergreens, palms, and of course fruit trees. Oranges, grapefruit, and lemon trees are numerous.

He also found that in the valley of the sun (it's called that because of sunshine 330 days a year ) there are lots of golf courses. Nearly 200 in the area.

He learned that Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country. Copper mines, gold and silver mines, cattle ranches, Indian reservations--today called Native American nations, cotton farms, national forests, cowboys-- well, he learned that Arizona has a lot to offer.

Rattlesnakes, coyotes, bobcats, javalinas (wild pigs), along with water fowl are some of the wildlife, too. And stars. Most nights are clear and if you go away from the city and as one church I know did have a service "under the stars", you can appreciate the beauty of God's wonderful creation.

When Stanley returned, he found out we weren't such a bad place to live at all. It was a valuable lesson for him to learn, that things are not always as reported by tv and newspapers.