So, my admiration doubled for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the mayor of New York City and a contestant for a U.S. Senate seat, when he demonstrated recently that he knows how to act.

When the Brooklyn Museum put on an exhibition, "Sensation," that he didn't like (I didn't like it either), he tried to block the city's funding for the museum. A court determined that his action was illegal and unconstitutional, but after all, should a mayor of New York know about the law and the constitution? Where would civilization be if we demanded that men of action obey the law? And besides, taxpayer-paid lawyers can defend the mayor when he breaks the law, so he doesn't have to worry about legal costs.

When the mayor discovered that there's an overwhelming shortage of parking spaces in New York-since the number of cars far exceeds the number of legal parking spaces on the streets and in parking garages-he sprang into action once more. He mandated that double-parked cars be ticketed, since double parking could prove hazardous for emergency vehicles.

Right away the police started ticketing thousands of double-parked cars, except, of course, for police vehicles and vehicles belonging to police officers. After all, it's difficult to find parking in New York.

Ticketing double parkers didn't solve anything, but it did demonstrate that the mayor is a man of action.

He further showed his action orientation in response to a recent tragedy. A deranged individual bashed the skull of an innocent passerby with a paving brick. The injured woman, 27-year-old Nicole Barrett, had been walking in midtown Manhattan in broad daylight.

Again, the mayor leapt to action. Since somebody said that the individual looked like a homeless person (though it's not quite clear what a homeless person is supposed to look like), the mayor declared that homeless people would no longer be permitted to sleep on city streets. If an individual was caught sleeping on a city street (or on a park bench), that person was to be arrested.

The mayor never indicated how arresting people who sleep in the street at night would prevent some deranged person (who looks like a homeless person) from committing an outrage in broad daylight.

But he did point out that a civilized city should not permit people to sleep in the streets. He didn't address the question of why there are so many homeless people in a civilized city, but he did demonstrate once again that he is a man of action.

The mayor's action should inspire us all. We need leaders like that in our industry.

Or do we?