Writings
Columbus Marion "Dad"
Joiner
1860 - 1947
We Called Him "Uncle Lum"
The Story
Behind the "Other" JFK Space
Speech
Faulkner's
Folly
Meek's Folly
Negotiating with a Dictator
Trying to Persuade Gen. Cedras To Leave Haiti
Two
Enigmatic Presidents From Texas
Two Strange, Faraway Wars: A Comparison
BOOK:
I Might
Just Be Right
A collection of John Martin Meek's newspaper
columns and feature stories
Writings Introduction
Writing, with the exception of speeches, always has been fun for me.
Back in the fifth or sixth grade, the teacher told us to write
something I seem to remember was called a “theme.”
So I wrote about a guy and his problems with an old car. We each had
to read our theme in front of the class. When my turn came, the entire class was
ready to roll on the floor laughing by the time I finished.
I thought I had done a really great job writing my theme. One of my
classmates later told me they weren’t laughing at my story. They were laughing
at me. Oh, well.
Years later I finessed journalism school at the University of
Oklahoma and started my newspaper career. A few months out of OU I had a lot of
GI Bill left, so I went to Syracuse University for two years of graduate school
and worked on the morning newspaper.
At Syracuse I took courses in writing including fiction, wrote short
stories and made a good start on a novel set in the Southwest. Recently when I
went back and looked at all this fiction written 49 years ago, I had the sense
that maybe I wrote better then than I do now. It would be pretty discouraging if
I haven’t improved in a half century since Syracuse.
Early on career-wise I was a U.S. Senate press secretary and spent
eight years in politics, before going back to the private sector with one of the
largest international public relations firms.
Probably the best speech I ever wrote was for one of the two
partners who founded the multibillion dollar empire called Amway. The two men
were Richard DeVoss and Jay VanAndel.
Rich was considered to be by far the most charismatic of the two. My
main account executive for Amway, Mark Rosenkur, went to an Amway rally and
reported Rich could really whip up the crowd to something akin to a revival
meeting.
One day Jay was invited to speak at the Detroit Economic Club, and
the word was passed along for me to write the speech. What an honor.
But I had in my mind been saving up a list of how things had gone
wrong in this country, including the auto industry. So I wrote for Jay a
hard-hitting speech about the downfall of America innovation and industry. Both
Jay and Rich were known to be right-wingers and I guess my words, though not
intended to be conservative, fitted their views.
After the speech an Amway exec called and said Jay had received a
standing ovation after his talk - only the second in the history of the club.
The other recipient was Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
When I left DC in the fall of 1999 I jumpstarted my journalism
career by writing occasional features and guest columns, primarily for the
Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. Jim Kiser, editor of the editorial page, wanted
guest columns to be about 600 words and on local issues.
I didn’t write many columns on local issues,
because I brought to my journalistic efforts years of experience in Washington
and far more experience in national and international issues than what was
happening in Southern Arizona.
In December, 1997, I began writing a novel conceived 14 years
earlier. It is called The Christmas Hour. I finished it in the spring of
1999 and it was published in 2003.
Today I have in the final stages a book that is a collection of some
of my columns and features, most written in the last five years. It’s called,
I Might Just Be Right, and due out in the fall of 2005.
I hope you enjoy the various pieces you read here. They represent a
small but important part of my life. You can respond through my novel Web site,
www.thechistmashour.com.
