Musicians' Association Of Hawaii /Local 677

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Volume IV Issue IV Musicians' Association of Hawaii, Local 677 AFM June 2000

Milton Is Gone

wpe10.jpg (4202 bytes) On the Evening of April 25, 2000, Milton Hualani Carter, Jr, President of the Musicians Association of Hawaii, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack in Honolulu home. So ended a life of incredible public service of one of the greatest and most beloved labor leaders in Hawaii history.

Milton's administration over the last 15 years set the standard for openness and integrity in a union's relationship with its members and gave new meaning to the concept of social unionism in the AFM. His emotional and spiritual involvement with the lives, work, and pain of hi members was inspired and inspiring. There has been no union leader anywhere more beloved by hi members, and none for whom such adoration was more deserved.

The task for those of us who remain at Local 677 will be to preserve and build upon Milton's legacy. But Milton is more than just a hard act to follow; he is utterly unique and irreplaceable. His combination of caring with courage; sensitivity with strength; wisdom with wit; celestial philosophy with earthy humor; condemnation of wrongs with consolation for the wronged; outrage at sins of injustice with temperance, tolerance, and forgiveness for the sinners; compassion for human frailty even while steadfastly railing against it; and balancing the power of law with the power of love made him a charismatic leader of heroic proportions. And he accomplished what he did on strength of character alone---- without money, status, fame, or guile.

Union solidarity was not a distant ideal for him; it was the religion he practiced and lived every day. He was not a general who sat safely atop the hill looking down upon his soldiers on the battlefield below; he was on the front lines, in the trenches with his troops, tending their wounds and being wounded himself. Our local has been under siege from many directions almost constantly since Milton became president, and the siege is not over. Indeed, there can be little doubt that the deep wounds Milton received in the intractable battles he fought for his members contributed to his untimely death. Surely he has borne our grief, and for his courage on our behalf he has paid as high a price as can be paid.

UNION - a group of people who know they can accomplish more together than they can separately.

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