Statement of Congressman Jamie Raskin and Sarah Bloom Raskin on the Remarkable Life of Tommy Raskin
Just read this and cried for quite a while. He sounds like a wonderful young man.
This is very personal to us because our older daughter was killed in an accident almost exactly 22 years ago. We know what this pain is like.
Also, he’s our Congressman and his kids went to the same wonderful high school as our kids (though in different years).
Many years ago, before he was in Congress, he represented a group of kids at our high school when the school system refused to allow their video to be released (I think it was about abortion). He’s stayed connected to young people — about 4 years ago, he came to my daughter’s high school and spoke to her class. Although these are teenagers who are usually very critical of (and often mock) adults, they all loved him. My younger daughter is not very political but she thought he was wonderful. And cute!
Everything I read in this piece about his son made me sadder. He sounds like a young man with ethics, smarts and great heart. He could have done much good in this world but his depression killed him.
It begins:
“On January 30, 1995, Thomas Bloom Raskin was born to ecstatic parents who saw him enter the world like a blue-eyed cherub, a little angel. Tommy grew up as a strikingly beautiful curly-haired madcap boy beaming with laughter and charm, making mischief, kicking the soccer ball in the goal, acting out scenes from To Kill A Mockingbird with his little sister in his father’s constitutional law class, teaching other children the names of all the Justices on the Supreme Court, hugging strangers on the street, teaching our dogs foreign languages, running up and down the aisle on airplanes giving people high fives, playing jazz piano like a blues great from Bourbon Street, and at 12 writing a detailed brief to his mother explaining why he should not have to do a Bar Mitzvah and citing Due Process liberty interests (appeal rejected).
…………..
It ends:
“On the last hellish brutal day of that godawful miserable year of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people all over the world died alone in bed in the darkness from an invisible killer disease ravaging their bodies and minds, we also lost our dear, dear, beloved son, Hannah and Tabitha’s beloved irreplaceable brother, a radiant light in this broken world.
“He left us this farewell note on New Year’s Eve day: ‘Please forgive me. My illness won today. Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me. All my love, Tommy.’”