Celebrating the Many Things That Made Hon. William G. Milliken a Great Governor

We Honor the Traits That Made William G. Milliken, Michigan's Longest Serving Governor, a Superb Example.

Let's start by enumerating the things Gov. Bill Milliken was NOT about:

He was not about raw power...
He was not about ambition...
He was not about profit before charity...
He was not about instituting arbitrary/dictatorial authority over local communities...
He was not about retribution or revenge...
He was not about looting the public's investment in civic institutions...He built and sustained them, even in several severe economic downturns...
He was not about sanctioning the majority to abuse or undermined the rights of the minority...He sat at the governors conference table, week after week, with both sides, and helped to build both cooperation and consensus...
He was not about putting profit and loss above the public good...

So What Did Milliken's Excellent Example Teach Us About Good Governorship? He Taught Us Statesmanship With Character.

He was about community and our children--the future!
He taught us it is all about credibility- expressed in constructive public policy.
He showed us all about serving to protect and enhance the commons, the natural resources.
He excelled in modeling for us honor and respect for the historic achievements of human and individual rights...especially in his concern for Inner City Detroit.
He reminded us governing is all about protecting the weak, the poor, the elderly, and the victims of crime, the disadvantaged, and the mentally ill; and it is about defending the public servants who serve them.
He knew it is all about the deeply human spirit.

Gov. Milliken has a personal understanding, that sacred sense of the high office and knowing the hearts of the people of his state, coupled with a driven sense of leadership that encompasses, yet today, the broader and deeper spiritual sense of the "common welfare of all."

In a word, Gov.William G. Milliken, tutored Michigan about doing the right thing in good times and bad: Acting on an equal basis regardless of race, class, achievement or life circumstance, putting people ahead of enterprise, denying favoritism and powerful players, for the good of every soul dwelling within one's state; so help us God.


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