Martin Henry

"Columnists Required", the advertisement in the September 13, 1987, edition of The Sunday Gleaner said. September 13, incidentally, is the founding date of The Gleaner. "Do you have interesting views on national and international issues, the advert asked. And, "Would you like to write a newspaper column?"

Editor, Dr. Dudley Stokes, himself unconventionally and controversially appointed outside of journalism to succeed the illustrious Hector Wynter, was taking the unconventional - and controversial route of advertising for columnists.

Well, yes, I was interested. Writing was in my blood from ever since I had learned to read and write and the paper had already published a string of letters and articles I had submitted, never mind the many politely returned pieces. So, with a little push from Maureen Kerr-Campbell, the librarian of the Scientific Research Council where I then worked, who knew that words ran through my veins, I overcame my trepidations and applied.

Ten of us were taken on, on a 10-week trial basis. My sample column for the application was run on Tuesday, November 3, 1987. The first regular column was run the same week on Thursday, November 5.

Well, 10 weeks have extended into 20 years, and, except for short-planned annual breaks, I have seldom missed a deadline.

Guinea pigs

Of the 10 guinea pigs, only two others now hang around the media writing trade. Byron Buckley is now a senior news editor at the paper, and Dr. Henley Morgan writes a column for another paper. Stokes never mentioned what he received from the request to readers of the paper for "frank and constructive comments" on his new columnists.

But after he gave up the editorship, almost every time we met he would tell me, "you are one of my favourite columnists." He has certainly been one of the great door openers and mentors of my life, and, generally speaking, the paper has been very good to me - except in the pay department.

In 20 years I have written about almost everything. I have never shared the view that columns in a popular newspaper must necessarily be written by technical specialists in this or that. I write as a citizen entitled to engage in public affairs and grateful for the privilege and responsibility to do so through the powerful mass media.

I specialise in generalisations, I have advised many enquirers. You can count on audiences to challenge errors of fact and sloppy thinking on the part of media commentators. And this unrelenting critique of the critics keeps them on their toes and weeds out slackers.

'Jook dem' culture

From quite early, I had to decide how I planned to place my personal stamp on a newspaper column. I would imitate no one. It was pretty obvious what gave columns top billing in a 'jook dem' culture, not just deep analysis and elegance of style, but lashing things and people, digging up dirt, cracking jokes, telling stories, brashness, and pushing hard positions. I opted for cool balance, philosophical and moral reflection, historical grounding, problem-solving advocacy. "Come now and let us reason together."

Cherished responses

But one of the most cherished responses I have received came from that champion dueller who held top spot right up to his death. A year before his early death, Carl Stone began his March 24, 1992 column on 'Poverty and Violence' saying, "For some time now I have avoided commenting on what other columnists are writing. But I must depart from that trend to commend colleague columnist Martin Henry for consistently trying to deal with the deeper moral, developmental and philosophical issues and taking us away from a total preoccupation with day to day occurrences and events."

Three years earlier, in March 1989, Hugh Gentles, himself an accomplished writer and broadcaster with whom I later developed reciprocal admiration and a warm friendship, wrote: "I have been reading your columns with increasing interest. I think your columns are both well written and thoughtful.

"I am the more impressed because you are one of a handful of writers and commentators who seem to really value individual liberty and who are sceptical about the benignity of big government."

Morris Cargill, perhaps both my most consistent praiser and attacker over the years, up to his death in 2000 and never one to waste words simply titled one of his exit columns, "Martin Henry thinks too damn much." Well, thank you, Morris. I am not offended at all.