Well, here we are in the dog days of summer. According to The Book of Common Prayer, published in 1552, the “Dog Daies” run from July 6 through August 17. Originally, the dog days were those when the Dog Star, Sirius, rose just before sunrise. The Greeks would sacrifice a brown dog at the beginning of that period to appease Sirius, believing that the Dog Star caused the hot, steamy weather. That arbiter of all things dictionary, Noah Webster, defined the hottest and muggiest part of the year as: “The period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere,” and “a period of stagnation or inactivity.” We can certainly call this a summer of stagnation and inactivity in and around Our Valley. What strategic plan? Our City Council is stagnating when it comes to the strategic plan they said they would create for Los Angeles (isn’t that one of the deliverables we were promised if we voted to extend term limits which we did?). The summertime malaise is palpable in near-empty retail stores and malls, with shoppers hesitating to spend money during this period of economic uncertainty. (“Economic uncertainly” is a euphemism for that dreaded word recession) “Inactivity” is the perfect word to describe the restaurants around the Valley; no longer need to book Caf & #233; Bizou or Pinot Bistro two weeks in advance. And “stagnation” would be preferred to what is happening in the real estate field in the Valley today. One of the Valley’s largest commercial office building owners reports that just a few months ago he had more than 40 mortgage brokerage firms renting space in his buildings; now he’s down to fewer than ten. Of course, there are exceptions that prove the rule. If there is one thing that is not stagnating it’s gasoline prices. No one has to be reminded that gas prices are well on their way to $5 a gallon. And remember our President’s response “I hadn’t heard about that,” when a reporter asked him about rumors of $4-a-gallon gas. And it’s not even worth a thimbleful of newsprint to write about the residential real estate market in the Valley. (At this point, there is a near-irresistible desire to write again about Angelo Mozilo and Countrywide Financial, but over salsa and chips at Sol Y Luna in Tarzana Ye Olde Editor suggested softly that I had been picking on poor Mr. Mozilo enough). It would be nice to be able to look to our elected leaders to pull us out of the political, economic and governance morass in which we find ourselves, but there’s probably little hope for that. Tied for last Our state’s budgetary process is an embarrassment. The Pew Center on the States gives California a D+ for fiscal management tied for dead last with Rhode Island. It doesn’t get much worse than that. Almost every state began a new budget year the first of July California is just one of four states in the nation without an approved budget by that date. Partisanship in Sacramento is so rampant that there is little chance to see our legislators come up with real solutions to our very real problems. For some reason, my suggestion of locking the restrooms in the Capitol building until a state budget is signed, a redistricting process is in place and term limits are revised, has met with little support. And many of our city, county and state officials act as if they have never heard of the concept of not only being above reproach, but appearing to be above reproach; we call it the Caesar’s Wife Syndrome. Pompeia, Julius Caesar’s second wife, was implicated in a scandal in 61 BC stemming from the annual Feast of the Great Goddess. Though men were not admitted to this ritual, a well-known scalawag of the time, Publius Clodius, allegedly disguised himself as a woman and seduced her. Caesar immediately divorced Pompeia and an inquiry was held. The court asked Caesar why he had demanded a divorce when so much uncertainty surrounded the incident. “Caesar’s wife,” he replied, “must be above suspicion.” Do our elected officials act as if they should expect to be above suspicion? Giving a $100,000 bonus to a staffer for campaign consulting work, buying thousands of dollars of wine with public money for fellow junketers, taking money donated to a campaign and using it for personal purposes these are realities, as they say, ripped from today’s headlines. Perhaps most surprising of all, elected officials in feigned wonderment express surprise that we don’t trust them. So, let’s summarize: the economy’s in the toilet, our leaders can’t agree on what to do, and we don’t trust them anyway. The dog days of summer are a bitch. Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Mark Twain Martin Cooper is President of Cooper Communications, Inc. He is President of the Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission, Founding President of The Executives, and Vice Chairman-Marketing of the Boys & Girls Club of the West Valley. He is a Past Chairman of VICA, Past President of the Public Relations Society of America-Los Angeles Chapter, and Past President of the Encino Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at [email protected].