

“In the fall of 2020, I was many times conscious, while at dinner with Sarah and Tommy, of censoring stories on the tip of my tongue about the ordeals of immigrants or refugees that we had heard in the Judiciary Committee, because I knew how much they would upset and pain Tommy,” he writes. Jamie represents Marylands Eighth Congressional District. This in turn led to Mr Raskin not speaking of his work as a congressman lest he upset his son. January 6, 2021, was Jamie Raskins first day back to work after his son Tommys death. Mr Raskin notes how many young people like his son also dealt with depression and suicide has spiked in people in his son’s age group. The two Raskins marched in a Black Lives Matter rally, which was the last protest the two would attend together. I tried to comfort him, and we talked about what to do in response.” “Tommy looked heartbroken and astonished, as though his mind and heart could not assimilate the reality of so much viciousness and cruelty being densely concentrated in one man, a lawless agent of the state. “He was in our kitchen when he handed me his phone,” Mr Raskin writes. “Relationships were strained, forced into a premature or awkward intimacy, or more likely, into a melancholy virtual oblivion.”Īt the same time, Mr Raskin writes how his son was despondent at the death of George Floyd. “With in-person school closed, social life was reduced to a fragile and masked minimum,” the elder Raskin writes.
