Happy 20th Anniversary - Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Tuesday evening presented me with a unique opportunity to be among business and political leaders celebrating liberty, free market enterprise and the 20th anniversary of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The event was held at the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Over 700 people attended. I was asked to give the prayer of invocation and was introduced by Master of Ceremonies, The Honorable Clifford G. Taylor, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. At left is my wife and me.

The keynote speaker for the event was John Stossel, ABCNEWS reporter and co-anchor of the program 20/20. He began his career as a consumer reporter investigating defective products and companies that defrauded the public. As time went on he began to notice politicans reacting to his programs by enacting legislation to eliminate the problems he exposed. But soon he realized that those new laws only added another level of bureaucracy to a bloated government without actually doing anything to reduce fraud. This led him to realized that the free market is much more powerful than previously thought. Informed consumers can reward honest businesses by patronizing them and punish fraudulent businesses by avoiding them. The free market is able to react much quicker and more thoroughly than government ever could.

Here is what one prominent journalist says about The Mackinac Center...

"The Mackinac Center is one of the two or three finest state-focused think tanks in the country. It has always shown great strength in two areas that are rarely compatible — rigorous public policy proposals based on solid facts, and clear language and real-world solutions that take into account the existing political reality. It is a rare feat to pull off both principled advocacy and practical politics, but Mackinac has found the formula."

— John Fund, Wall Street Journal columnist

Click here to read additional comments commending the Mackinac Center for its work.

At left is a photo of yours truly (left), Joe Lehman (center), President of The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and mutual friend Wes Reynolds (right). The night was made even more special when Joe's parents surprised him by arriving at the event after previously saying that they probably couldn't be in attendance. They had driven several hours from southern Illinois to share this evening with him and his family.

We were glad to share this evening with friends from Midland and Lansing. Our guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves.