By Rick Wagonheim

People ask me how I am, and I tell them depressed, confused and sad. Just like everyone else. We’re all trying to find some balance. The mayor says go back to work and resume normalcy, that work is a healing process. However, the mayor never sold talent and managed creative careers. The mayor never sent a reel. So, we’re not certain how to behave professionally. We’re in a results-oriented industry. We pursue potential business and close on jobs. This a great deal of positive energy on a good day—so right now we don’t want to pursue and no one wants to be pursued. What is proper business decorum and what is improper business decorum? Is there someone who really knows? Because we don’t, quite yet. There is common sense, but common sense also dictates that we can’t ignore our payroll and overhead. So, where is the balance? What is proper and what is improper?

Red, white and blue is evident everywhere now. Television has draped its coverage with the American flag. The lapels of news anchors are adorned with flag pins. A friend of mine owns a souvenir store, and he sold 3,000 American flags on Thursday, the 13th. In 20 years, he had never sold more then a dozen flags altogether. Every car, taxi and bus has American flags waiving from their antennas or displayed in their windows. Old Glory is young, new and fresh again. Corporations display Old Glory where before there was no flag. We walk by advertising agencies and see the red, white and blue stripes in their windows. Everywhere we turn, the American Flag is hanging. East Village teens are getting American flag tattoos, and the armed services have never had as many inquiries as they received during the week of the tragedy.

We ride the subway hanging on to the pole in the middle of the train. Everyone is from somewhere else. Our hands reach out to grab the pole and we see hands that are African-American, Caucasian, Latino, Asian, Arabic and Jew. Yet we are all Americans. There is a new sense of national pride. There is a new sense of New York pride. We are all from somewhere else, but we are all Americans. We love this country and our freedoms: freedom of dissent, freedom of choice, freedom to feel, freedom of religion. We are Americans. We are patriots once again.

For the past week, there have been numerous full-page ads in The New York Times from corporations like Sun Microsystems, American Express, CitiGroup, and from many others claiming to do their parts to rebuild America and rebuild our economy.

So, this may be improper, and this may be insensitive on my part. I say to corporate America, put your money where your mouth is, and buy American. Stop going to Canada to shoot and post. Why go to South Africa and shoot? Why go to Australia, New Zealand, London, Spain or Prague to shoot? Encourage the idea, the notion that our clients should stop sending their dollars overseas when we need the dollars here, in the United States. Be a part of rebuilding our economy with money, not words and promises in ads. The U.S. government is pledging $40 billion in relief to New York, as well as another $17.5 billion for the airline industry.

Patriotism doesn’t start with waving a flag and placing a full-page ad, then end with making a donation to the Red Cross. Patriotism is more than a pledge. Patriotism is a sustained effort. We can’t save the lost lives, but perhaps we can contribute to saving the economy and helping the lives of the living.

If this is improper business decorum, forgive me. I’m still trying to find balance.

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