ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
FOR THE folding of the Roanoke Valley's League of Women Voters chapter, one could cite any number of causes.
Membership has dwindled from about 90 to 45 in the past 15 years. While it includes a loyal contingent who have remained active since the chapter's founding in 1953, the group has had a hard time attracting new, younger members.
Sign of the times? Perhaps. Once the mainstay of civic and voluntary efforts, women in increasing numbers are holding down jobs in the paid labor force. People don't join anything as much these days. Many fill what free time they do have with TV watching.
The League might seem, to some, a bit anachronistic, not just because it's a Progressive Era product, but also because "Women" remains in the name. It was formed nationally by suffragists in 1920, to educate women about hard-won voting rights. In 1974, it was opened to men, but they remain a minority.
Then, too, there's the general disenchantment with all things political that we hear so much about today. Women stayed away from the polls in droves in 1994, for example. It's not surprising that the nonpartisan League's good-government focus and its efforts to promote involvement by a well-informed electorate don't resonate with the politically alienated and apathetic.
And yet, while the Roanoke chapter's woes reflect national trends, those trends don't seem to be having the same impact on some of the League's other Virginia affiliates or on the statewide organization.
Membership in the Montgomery County chapter, for instance, has grown from about 70 to 90 in the past year, and chapters in some urban areas have claimed a 25 percent increase during this period. The statewide League has grown by about 7 percent, ranking it in the top 15 in the nation.
So what gives with Roanoke? Do residents of this area have less time than those in the New River Valley to devote to worthwhile political-education projects? Do they care less about good government? Not likely.
The Virginia League is considering Roanoke as the site of its 1997 state convention. Perhaps if the convention is held here, it may prove an impetus for the Roanoke chapter's resurrection.
Certainly, the broader trend toward civic disengagement is cause for worry, because without involvement of the kind exemplified by the League, democracy itself may be threatened.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB