9 for the ‘90s : Be They 9 or 89, Individuals Harbor Strong Ideas About What the Future Holds : 2 Major Worries

When Rosalind Wyman, 59, a community activist and former member of the Los Angeles City Council, looks to the future, “two things come to mind that worry me. One is the American educational system.

“I think we are falling down terribly, and I have great concern about the future of the people who have to run this world,” says Wyman, who has racked up an impressive list of firsts in politics and public service.

At 22, and just out of USC, she was the first woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council. She then became the first woman on the Coliseum Commission and the first woman to be acting mayor.

In 1973, she was the first woman to chair a Democratic congressional fund-raising dinner, and the first to raise more than $1 million at such an event. In 1984, she became the first woman to head a major political party convention when she became chairwoman and chief executive officer of the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

“In the next decade,” she says, “if we don’t upgrade and realize that our educational system is failing, how can we continue to be leaders in the world?

“That brings me to the second major concern: the environment we live in. It’s a most critical concern. The air, the water, the transportation: How do we make those things better?

“If we don’t make them better in the next 10 years, I think you’ll find many systems that we’re used to living with will just break down and become nonfunctional,” Wyman says.

On the positive side, she adds, “one really good thing is that I’m going to be a grandmother for the first time.

“Another good thing is that in the last year of this decade, the abortion issue has awakened the consciousness of American women. I am hopeful that in the next decade women will emerge as caring leaders of this country.”