THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 6, 1995 TAG: 9511020019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
The article ``CIVIC hopes to develop leaders'' (Oct. 15) was excellent. I attended a forum on Community Leadership sponsored by CIVIC and ODU as a result of that article. Several thoughts come to mind.
Community has been stunted in America by the operation of four factors: social mobility, geographic mobility, the vast expansion of urban existence and ethnic/national/social-class prejudice.
However, there is a distinct possibility that an altered climate of education can constitute an effective counterforce to the inculcation of prejudice.
A community and ``community'' are separable, different things. A community, in the ordinary sense, is a group of people who know one another by name and face (and history); who frequently meet. But ``community'' is a set of internalized propensities to feel and act in certain ways with other people.
Our community recognizes the existence of neighboring communities; it seeks exchanges of learning among them.
WALTER DICKERSON
President, Coronado/Inglenook
Civic League
Norfolk, Oct. 17, 1995 by CNB