They will be there to rename and dedicate the former Tri-centennial State Park, which will now become William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor. That’s an honor both much-deserved and frankly overdue. As Dave Dempsey observes in his excellent and even-handed biography, William Milliken, Michigan’s Passionate Moderate, the man was not only the state’s longest-serving chief executive, but “the greenest governor of the twentieth century.”
Dempsey has been leading a campaign to name a state forest in honor of Milliken, and that still may happen. But it is also fitting that they are naming a park and a harbor in Detroit for him. Besides his environmental record, he cared about and did more to help the Motor City than any other governor in my lifetime.
He did that even though that was bitterly opposed by his fellow Republicans in the legislature and elsewhere. Frankly, most of them didn’t care much for his environmental initiatives either.
He once tangled with Jay Van Andel, the co-founder of Amway and a major contributor to the GOP. Milliken insisted that the phosphorous content of laundry detergent be severely limited, because it was killing our state’s waterway. Van Andel was incensed.
This, he complained, would cost him a lot of money. Milliken held his ground. That decision was a major factor in saving Lake Erie. Within two years, phosphorous dumped into the Detroit River had declined by 40 percent.
Over his fourteen years in office, Governor Milliken signed dozens of major environmental and conservation-related bills. He was the first person to sign a petition for the 1976 referendum that required deposits on beer and soda bottles. Before that, broken bottles and cans littered many a highway and vacant lot.
Yet as his biographer noted, more important than any single law was the perception that Milliken was the guardian of our natural resources. Once, when he was advised that a particular position might hurt him politically, he told an ally on the Natural Resources Commission to go ahead and do what she thought was right.
“Good government is good politics,” he said.
Fortunately, this won’t be a posthumous dedication. Milliken, who is still alive and well at age 87, will be there too.
I don’t know what he will say, but I remember something he said at a banquet a dozen years ago: “The truth is that the quality of human life in Michigan depends on nature. The natural beauty of our state is much more than a source of pleasure and recreation.
It shapes our values, molds our attitudes, and feeds our spirit.
“In Michigan, our soul is not to be found in strip malls. Rather, it is found in the soft petals of a trillium, the gentle whisper of a headwater stream, the vista of a Great Lakes shoreline, and the wonder in children’s eyes at seeing their first bald eagle.
“It is that soul we must preserve.”
Congratulations, sir. You did your part.
Good editorial, Jack. Even though I'm a liberal Democrat, I always admired Republican Governor Milliken's moderate, balanced temperment and his commitment to good government and the politics of the middle. The 'middle',we might remember, is the non-glitzy place where leaders with common sense go to get things done.
Ron F. Rowley
Posted by: Ron F. Rowley | October 20, 2009 at 07:25 AM
It's nice to breathe a breath of good Michigan government, if only as a memory.
Posted by: Jon | October 20, 2009 at 09:16 AM
This Jack Lessenberry's umpteenth tribute to Bill Milliken. And it is clear why Milliken gets special favored treatment from Jack Lessenberry. It is because Bill and Helen Milliken are, in fact, ex-Republicans.
Set aside, for a moment, specific policy debates. Though it would have been hard, in the early days of Governor Jim Blanchard, to find a Michigan Democrat who had anything nice to say about Bill Milliken. They were too busy at that time complaining (rightly, to a great extent) about the horrendous budgetary debt that Milliken left behind when he left office.
But with the passage of time, first came Helen Milliken's warring with the GOP over abortion policy. Then, slowly, Bill Milliken became less and less important to, and involved in, the Republican Party in Michigan. It is hard to think of a single Republican fundraiser, party convention, strategy meeting, etc., in which Bill Milliken has been involved, in teh past ten years. Maybe 15 or 20 years.
Bill Milliken is now that perfect creature in the Lessenberry Political Cosmology; the angry expatriot Republican. Of course, the sensible thing for Milliken to do would be to become a Democrat. And join forces with the other pro-tax, pro-spending, bigger-government politicians in Michigan. But if Milliken did that, his schtick-as-Recovering-Republican would be over. The current Milliken Show depends entirely on his status as "Former Governor of Michigan and Frequent Critic of His Own Party." A good question for someone to put to Milliken whenever he gives anybody a chance to ask one, would be, "Why don't you just change your party affiliation? You endorsed Democrats in the last several Presidential elections; you endorsed Democrats in numerous state elections; you complain about Republican initiatives all the time? Why not just align yourself with the party whose candidates you keep choosing?"
Perhaps it is because Milliken finds personally distasteful much of what also goes along with Democrat politics in Michigan -- the union bosses, the trial lawyers, etc. -- but if that were really the case, you'd think he might have a harder time endorsing all of those Democrats for state and national office, since those groups are the core constituencies of the Democrats.
If I were to select something to name for Bill Milliken, I think it might be a passing cloudbank, or some fall leaves turning color and falling, because Bill Milliken is without a doubt the "most unrealistic Michigan governor of our time." (Jennifer Granholm was disqualified from that honor by virtue of her having recently been named the recipient of the "least effective Michigan governor of our time.")
Posted by: Anonymous | October 20, 2009 at 03:25 PM
William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor sounds good to me. Delighted this isn't a posthumous honor and happy there are still living examples of responsible leadership here.
Ridiculously short-sighted, unrealistic and destructive to see conservation as a partisan issue.
Anonymous is the GOP's Kanye West. Next up, why you shouldn't like Ike, and throwing Lincoln under the bus.
Posted by: Any Salyer | October 21, 2009 at 02:31 PM
To Mr. Anonymous:
Such sour grapes and bitterness! Lighten up man (or woman).
Anonymous2
Posted by: Ron F. Rowley | October 21, 2009 at 05:19 PM