FILE -This
Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 file photo
shows Former Michigan Gov. William
Milliken before the dedication of
the William G. Milliken State Park &
Harbor in Detroit. William G.
Milliken, Michigan’s longest-serving
governor who established a record of
environmental conservation and
bipartisan cooperation that made him
popular among Republicans and
Democrats, died Friday, Oct. 18,
2019 at age 97, a family spokesman
said. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio,)
Gov. Wm.
G.
Milliken,
A gentle
but
strong
political
leader By
Rev. Dr.
Wendell
Anthony,
President,
Detroit
Branch
NAACP
DETROIT
- “To
everything
there is
a season
and a
time to
every
purpose
under
the
heaven,”
Ecclesiastes
3:1. No,
I am not
necessarily
trying
to go
biblical,
but I am
trying
to
recall a
more
harmonious
time of
the
political.
Former
Governor
William
Milliken
served
our
state
and the
nation
in a
season
that
possessed
not just
the
harsh
and cold
indifference
of
winter,
where
hearts
and
minds
were
frozen.
He also
served
as a bit
of
sunshine.
He had
the
ability
to warm
the
heart
and to
cause a
spring-like
birth of
a
different
political
discourse.
He
brought
new life
into an
old
game. As
a
teenager,
when
Governor
Milliken
took
office,
I didn’t
always
understand
the
nature
of the
political
games.
Yet, as
an
activist
student
I
understood
who was
for our
community
and who
was
against
it.
Governor
Milliken
always
impressed
me as
someone
who was
for the
people
and the
city of
Detroit.
It
is
indeed
worth
noting
that two
political
giants
have
passed
within
one week
of the
other.
Congressman
Elijah
E.
Cummings
of
Baltimore
and
Governor
William
Milliken
of
Michigan.
One was
a
Democrat
and the
other
was a
Republican.
One was
the son
of South
Carolina
sharecroppers
(Cummings)
whose
parents
were
poor and
according
to him
“not
well
educated
but yet
still
brilliant.”
The
other
was the
son of
northern
Michiganders
(Milliken)
whose
parents
were
wealthy.
His
father
was a
mayor
and
state
senator
from
Traverse
City.
His
mother
was a
member
of the
school
board.
She was
the
first
elected
woman to
serve
public
office
there.
Both
Milliken
and
Cummings
reached
beyond
themselves
to work
with and
to
deliver
for all
of the
people.
It was
not just
about
party.
It was
really
about
principle.
As a
young
black
activist
in
Detroit,
I used
to wear
a ‘Black
Mayor in
Detroit
in 1969
button’.
The
Committee
for
Students
Rights
at the
time was
advocating
for
former
Secretary
of State
Richard
Austin.
This was
not to
be. Yet,
we did
work
hard for
a state
senator
named
Coleman
A. Young
who
would
win in
1973.
During
the
course
of his
tenure
as
Detroit’s
first
black
mayor he
would
make
history.
He made
even
more
history
by
working
with a
Republican
governor
to bring
progress
and
development
to
Detroit.
Together
they
demonstrated
how
folks
with
different
ideologies
and even
philosophies
could
work as
a team
in spite
of
themselves.
They
didn’t
give a
‘darn’
who
didn't
like it.
They
were
after
results.
As an
inspiration
of their
unity
and
camaraderie
it even
motivated
me to
vote for
Bill
Milliken
for
governor.
I have
often
expressed
the fact
of
voting
for Bill
Milliken
and
wishing
there
were
more
like him
to vote
for in
this
season.
Oh, how
those
days and
that
caliber
of
leader
is
desperately
missing.
No
tweeting
your
policy
today
and
denying
that you
announced
it
tomorrow.
There
was no
refusal
to
implement
good
policy
just
because
a
Democrat
or
Republican
was the
sponsor.
Good
policy
is just
that,
good
policy.
From
revenue
sharing
and
state
equity
packages,
to being
the
example
of how
the
races
could
work
together,
they
leave us
a
legacy.
Governor
Milliken
once
said,
“If he
wanted
his
party to
change,
he’d
have a
better
shot at
it from
the
inside
looking
out
rather
than the
other
way
around.”
He
clearly
understood
that if
you are
not
sitting
at the
table
you can
very
easily
be
served
up on
the
table.
In
celebrating
the life
of
William
Milliken,
the
words of
his
partner
in
policy
Coleman
A. Young
are
illuminating.
“I
suppose
I’d like
to be
remembered
as the
mayor
who
served
in a
period
of
crisis
and took
some
important
steps to
keep the
city
together,
but left
office
with his
work
incomplete.”
Well to
all that
are
concerned,
this is
now our
season.
Let us
honor
this
gentle
but
strong
leader
and
complete
the
work.
I
HI TECH NEWS
I
SPORTS
I
DETROIT
- “To
everything
there is
a season
and a
time to
every
purpose
under
the
heaven,”
Ecclesiastes
3:1. No,
I am not
necessarily
trying
to go
biblical,
but I am
trying
to
recall a
more
harmonious
time of
the
political.
Former
Governor
William
Milliken
served
our
state
and the
nation
in a
season
that
possessed
not just
the
harsh
and cold
indifference
of
winter,
where
hearts
and
minds
were
frozen.
He also
served
as a bit
of
sunshine.
He had
the
ability
to warm
the
heart
and to
cause a
spring-like
birth of
a
different
political
discourse.
He
brought
new life
into an
old
game. As
a
teenager,
when
Governor
Milliken
took
office,
I didn’t
always
understand
the
nature
of the
political
games.
Yet, as
an
activist
student
I
understood
who was
for our
community
and who
was
against
it.
Governor
Milliken
always
impressed
me as
someone
who was
for the
people
and the
city of
Detroit.
