![]() ![]() Tributes to Tommy have poured in over the past few days.Ī neighbor wrote to the Raskin family about a time when Tommy organized a group dinner in high school so a classmate of his who didn't have a date to the prom wasn't left out. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Takoma Park, represents Maryland's 8th Congressional District in Congress. The stories of his love and compassion are absolutely astounding." But it wasn't his mind that marked him as so extraordinary. "He had a photographic memory and, like some other kids in our family, knew all the presidents and vice presidents in order. "Tommy was remarkable from the beginning," Jamie Raskin tells NPR's Scott Simon. Tommy, as his father Jamie Raskin calls him, was also tormented by depression. ![]() All my love, Tommy.By the age of 25, Thomas Bloom Raskin had already accomplished a great deal: He was a graduate of Amherst College who went on to intern at the Cato Institute and J Street, among other prominent organizations a passionate vegan who wrote philosophical defenses of animal rights and converted those around him to giving up meat a political writer who had essays published in The Nation and elsewhere and a law student and teaching assistant at Harvard Law School who donated from his teaching salary to charities in his students' names. Please look after each other, the animals, and the global poor for me. “He left us this farewell note on New Year’s Eve day: ‘Please forgive me. “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. 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). “On January 30, 1995, Thomas Bloom Raskin was born to ecstatic parents who sa w him enter the world like a blue-eyed cherub, a little angel. He could have done much good in this world but his depression killed him. He sounds like a young man with ethics, smarts and great heart. And cute!Įverything I read in this piece about his son made me sadder. My younger daughter is not very political but she thought he was wonderful. Although these are teenagers who are usually very critical of (and often mock) adults, they all loved him. He’s stayed connected to young people - about 4 years ago, he came to my daughter’s high school and spoke to her class. 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). We know what this pain is like.Īlso, he’s our Congressman and his kids went to the same wonderful high school as our kids (though in different years). This is very personal to us because our older daughter was killed in an accident almost exactly 22 years ago. Just read this and cried for quite a while. Statement of Congressman Jamie Raskin and Sarah Bloom Raskin on the Remarkable Life of Tommy Raskin
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