This is the story of how two long-time Michigan legislators, originally fierce opponents, learned over time to work together to pass important legislation that today benefits thousands of Michigan citizens.
It makes a convincing case that Michigan’s term limits are damaging to sensible and effective legislation and stands as sharp rebuke to the behavior of our Legislature in recent months.
David Hollister was first elected to the legislature in 1974, representing the 57th district, a safe seat for Democrats located in Lansing. He was a firebrand Democrat, a member of the so-called “Kiddie Caucus” of liberal, young lawmakers, pro choice in no uncertain terms. He served for 20 years.
Fred Dillingham was elected to the legislature in 1978, representing the solid Republican 51st district, including Livingston County and much of rural Ingham County. He was a staunch pro-life, anti-abortion conservative. He served in the legislature for 16 years.
Odd couple, indeed! No two less likely allies could be imagined. Here, in their own words, is how they resolved their initial confrontation over the right to die into collaborative legislation authorizing hospice care in Michigan.
Hollister: “My interest in the issue grew out of my grandfather, who had been a carpenter and never hospitalized. In the mid 1970’s he had a severe stroke. They put all kinds of feeding tubes and resuscitation stuff into him, which he hated – he tried to yank the tubes out and they had to restrain him in the hospital. I convened a task force to look into death and dying. We invited lots of people, including the Michigan Catholic Conference and various doctors and ethicists. The issue generated intense interest, great fear.”
Dillingham: “I remember Dave Hollister sitting on the floor of the House, describing his family experience. I sat with him and learned what he was like, where he was coming from. I represented the purity of pro life movement, so I worried that what he was talking about was some kind of right to die. But as we talked and as our relationship developed, I learned that wasn’t what he was trying to do. Philosophically we were coming from two very different directions, but over time we forged a relationship that enabled us to work together.”
Hollister: “It took a long time, something like eight years. We didn’t want to cause somebody to die. We just wanted people to die in a way they wished, passively and without pain or suffering. Eventually, we decided to try to amend the public health code to authorize palliative hospice care in any setting – home, hospital, nursing home.”
Dillingham: “When we finally reached agreement, we persevered in sticking to it. That wasn’t easy, because each of us had to go back to our colleagues and bring along bunches of people who were critical. David had no standing with Right To Life, but I was able to give him cover with them. And he did the same thing for me. The critics would go after both of us, but I wasn’t about to go back on my word to David, and he wasn’t going to go back on his word to me.”
Hollister: “Both of us came from safe districts, so we could keep our word with each other, perfecting our vision and keeping to it, day to day, month to month, hearing to hearing. We simply could not have done it under today’s strict legislative term limits.”
Dillingham: “We cut a deal and we stuck to it. Today, legislators are often scared – of interest groups, of recall campaigns, of who knows what. But in our case, over the years we got to know each other so well that neither of us was prepared to go back on our word, on what we had agreed to do. I can’t imagine being able to that today.”
And so legislation amending the Public Health Code authorizing hospice care was finally passed by the legislature in 1987 and signed into law by Governor Blanchard.
According to the Michigan Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, around 42,000 people in Michigan avail themselves of hospice care. A more specific number comes from Medicare data, which show that just for 2005 a total of 32,836 people in Michigan had hospice care paid for by Medicare. So what Representatives Dillingham and Hollister wrought together has made an important difference in the lives of many, many Michiganders.
After leaving the legislature, Hollister became the Mayor of Lansing and is now the Director of Prima Civitas, the economic development organization working for Lansing and mid-Michigan. Dillingham became the President of the Economic Development Council of Livingston County. Both lost their mothers within the past three months; they died peacefully in hospice care.
“We’re still friends, still working together with the same passion as we did when we were in the Legislature,” says Dillingham. “Collaboration is the key to legislation, as it is to almost everything of any importance,” says Hollister.
Would that our legislative leaders in Lansing today could understand and follow their example.
