Tag: profile

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general freedom individual achievement

Hardy at 89

Hardy Johnson, work ethic, retirement, birthday, profile

Hardy Johnson marked his 89th birthday by doing what he’s always doing, working as a cobbler at Custom Shoe Builders in Knoxville, Tennessee. His son, who manages the business that his dad founded in 1953, was out of town. The back orders had been piling up. And Johnson takes only one day off each week anyway.

In a profile for The Knoxville Focus, Steve Williams observes that many people make it to 89, but few “still work six days a week like Hardy … or on their birthday.”

Friends dropped by all week long, and on the day itself neighbors at Henson’s Automotive and Alignment swung by with cupcakes and coffee. Johnson also enjoys an ongoing sweet barter deal with the owner: Johnson supplies Steven Henson with shoe and other repair work, Henson supplies brake jobs and oil changes.

Henson testifies to the cobbler’s work ethic, saying he “can set my clock to Hardy every morning at 7:15 when he pulls into the parking lot. He’s the best neighbor I’ve ever had. He’s a great guy.”

Why didn’t Hardy Johnson take it easy on his birthday? 

Maybe because doing work that he enjoys and does well is one of the things he’s celebrating as he enters his golden years. Maybe that — and being a great guy — is how you get to be 89 to begin with.

Not that he’s perfect. It doesn’t seem to bother him that his dog is an admitted Democrat.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Categories
ideological culture national politics & policies

Prez States Obvious; News at 11 

A magazine profile of President Barack Obama has set the commentariat a‑talking.

On racism, the president says that “some” folks hate him because he’s black; and others support him because he’s black.

Wow. What was obvious in 2008 seems … painfully obvious now.

Similarly, the prez ’fessed up (again) to his past marijuana use — and his long-​term tobacco habit. He uttered the word “vice.” He noted that marijuana doesn’t seem any more harmful than alcohol … which implies that the prohibition of marijuana makes less sense than the once-​prohibited but now-​legal hootch.

A reasonable opinion. Held, before President O’s pronouncement, by a clear majority of the public  … not as radical, but as obvious.

So why make such a big deal about these statements? Because of previous taboos? It’s not as if Obama took leadership on any of these ideas, moving them from “horrors!-false” to “blah-​true.”

Years ago, the movie Bulworth featured Warren Beatty as a senator who, all the sudden, started blurting out things he believed to be true, but which were not usually said in public. It was a comedy. (Your tastes and appraisals may vary.) The prez comes off as nowhere near as outrageous (or straightforward) as the Beatty character, though he, too, has rapped in public.

But perhaps we grade on a curve. A president speaking obvious truths is memorable not because the truths are daring, but because of the novelty: a politician has deigned to acknowledge truth.

File the brouhaha under O, not for Obama but for Obvious.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.