Because a community's elites are more given to policy analysis than Joe Six-packs are, a conscious, organized effort needs to be made to assure broad representation. These are some of the principles for a civic league. But principles don't start organizations, people do. And Dallas is not bereft of organizations that provide natural stepping-stones toward a regional civic league. Many of them are women's organizations, and not by accident.
Women are often ahead of men in recognizing cultural change.
In today's setting, they take their own aspirations for equal treatment and fair opportunities and extend them to other groups also carrying oversized loads of frustration. By our nature, we're more comfortable with sharing of power. But the civic league would benefit from a convening committee of men and women whose citizenship is already held in high regard. A potential core of early organizers could be the young and middle-aged professionals who' ve gone through the formal community orientation offered by Leadership Dallas. Their appetites for civic activity whetted, many of them want to keep on growing and practice what they've learned.