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Jim Magay |
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This morning I’m sitting at the 97-year-old workbench in my shop. It was an American Optical adaptation of a jeweler’s bench with bins for cribbing glass. You don’t remember glass lenses? You young kids! My dad (Bob
Magay) and my grandfather worked at this bench for many a year – through the glass lens eons into the dawn of the plastic lens era.
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The bench now serves as a reminder of where we’ve come from, is a great repair station, and not a bad computer desk and ordering area. My Dad lived a good long life and saw a lot of changes in the business and in society. He was a staunch Republican (Eisenhower style) and thought Rush was terrific – he also thought Richard Nixon got a raw deal!
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I wonder what he, a kind and gentle man, thoughtful and considerate to a fault, would think of our public conversation today. Kanye West, Tea
baggers, birthers, religious fundamentalists, foaming at the mouth cable news talking heads, Even his idol Rush seems to have slipped beyond the pale, substituting invective for intelligence. I know this is not a political forum so I’ll confine this to a discussion of style not substance. I think what Dad would miss would be the moderation that used to prevail. Edward R
Murrow, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and others of that ilk were the dignified and impartial newsmen of the day; contrast them with Michelle
Malkin, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, and you get my drift. |
Bob Magay was one
of the first 100
licensed Opticians
in Massachusetts.
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Show business has taken over the news networks, pretty girls (and pretty boys) with drama training as opposed to journalism, flashy news sets, an abundance of stories about the most ghastly events taking place that news cycle. Variety is the spice of life they say – a trip around the various cable channels at any time of the day brings a truly spicy variety of points of view and many bombastic ways of presenting them. Right or left, it makes no difference – the same story or factoid can be reported to suit the politics of the target audience. Repeating it loudly and often makes it true, or at least a good sound bite!
In our daily life in the real world, as opposed to the echo chamber of today’s TV world, we hear a surprising bit of people’s points of view. Not so much in our stores because we try not to talk about politics, religion, or sex in our business dealings with customers – if a customer wishes to expound on one of the above and I don’t agree, I usually can gracefully change the subject. At home or out with friends it’s another matter, people insist on confessional style discussions about everything! Money, personal health, family problems, etc. but what are friends for? Still, I wonder what my dad would think?
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