Column: Thoughts from Dr. Joe: No doughnuts, but plenty of food for thought
Typically, I’m up by 5 a.m. each day, sometimes earlier. After reading for two hours and checking my email, I’m off to Starbucks, hopefully, to write another page for the sequel to “Girl with the Purple Ribbon.”
Last Thursday morning I began to have visions of a freshly baked apple fritter from La Cañada’s Golden Donut. But since I had promised my buddy Charlie Kamar that I’d attend the LCF Chamber of Commerce meeting, I didn’t have time to swing by the doughnut shop. Instead, I headed to the meeting, hoping they’d have an assorted dozen or more on hand there.
Upon arriving, I was greeted graciously by Dr. Rion Zimmerman, the chairman of the chamber’s board. I thought to myself, “I hope he didn’t think I came for the doughnuts.” Zimmerman set the tone for the collective spirit emitted by the chamber. “Doc,” I said, “you look like you’re 18.”
I sat in the back of the room, a Bronx wise-guy habit. There, I realized that many of our locals begin their day serving the community.
The essence of any stable society begins at the grassroots level, those members of a community who are early to rise and through their endeavors assure the collective good becomes the focus of yet another meeting.
Plato was instrumental in defining the importance of community advocacy. In “The Republic” he speaks to the importance of the volunteer as the glue that binds the citizenry. Although I was sitting in the back of the room, it was nice to be among such volunteers.
The La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce is a local business network, an organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of their respective endeavors. What is unique about the La Cañada Chamber is its symbiotic relationship with the greater community. Their motto, “Big enough to serve you, small enough to care,” speaks to the synergistic relationship between commerce and the community. I was pleased that the chamber’s interest was inclusive of the community of La Cañada.
During the meeting, I found it interesting that the LCF chamber has various liaisons between local and statewide governments. As the liaisons reported to Pat Anderson, our chamber’s president chief executive, I noted that their rationales were founded in the interconnectedness of legislation, business and community. Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher king, was the first emperor of the Roman Republic to assert that legislation is a triad between the state, its people and its commerce.
Chambers of commerce date back to Marseille, France, in 1599. Historically, their emergence was the evolution of the business community’s incursion into the dominant monarchies of Europe and their hold on the economic well-being of the people.
According to the history of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it was just such a trade association in Boston that organized a tax protest in 1773 popularly known as the Boston Tea Party.
In the 1950s and ’60s, my family’s delicatessen, Puglia’s, belonged to a chamber of commerce of sorts. The “Don” of the North Bronx, Mr. Davia, protected the local businesses and often interdicted on the people’s behalf, bringing either financial or emotional support. If we needed muscle, he’d bring that too. Mr. Davia helped my dad’s deli recover from vandalism and supported me as I trained for the Golden Gloves. There was only one unspoken cost for his benevolence: respect.
The La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce has a philosophy that is defined as service to the community. Its members adhere to political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s contention that there needs to be a balance between commerce and social responsibility. The LCF chamber promotes Fiesta Days, sponsors Miss La Cañada Flintridge, community mixers, the December Festival in Lights, the farmers’ market, movie screenings and numerous scholarships.
Although I didn’t get my apple fritter, I enjoyed the morning hanging with my buddies Charlie Kamar, Nick Sarkisian and all the others. That’s community.
JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.
