Photograph: Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images Trump supporters clash with police on 6 January 2021. His father described his illness as “a kind of relentless torture in the brain … Despite very fine doctors and a loving family … the pain became overwhelming and unyielding and unbearable at last.” Like so many others with clinical depression, the catastrophe deepened his symptoms. Tommy was a second-year student at Harvard Law School when Covid began. In the state legislature, Raskin helped outlaw the death penalty and legalize same-sex marriage. Jamie Raskin taught constitutional law then ran for the Maryland senate, with Tommy, then 10, his first campaign aide. When Raskin was the only one acquitted, he famously demanded a retrial. In 1968, Marcus Raskin was indicted with William Sloane Coffin, Dr Benjamin Spock and others for conspiracy to aid resistance to the draft. His grandfather, Marcus Raskin, was one of the earliest opponents of the Vietnam war when he worked in the Kennedy White House. His maternal great-grandfather was the first Jew elected to the Minnesota legislature. Tommy Raskin was the fourth generation in a great liberal family.
Raskin’s astonishing story of tragedy and redemption, of “despair and survival”, depended entirely on all the “good and compassionate people” like Tommy, “the non-narcissists, the feisty, life-size human beings who hate bullying and fascism naturally – people just the right size for a democracy … where we are all created equal”. “I’m not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021,” he told CNN, less than three weeks after Tommy’s death. He found “salvation and sustenance … a pathway back to the land of the living”. Instead of succumbing to unfathomable grief over the death of his son, Raskin seized a lifeline thrown by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and agreed to lead the effort to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the riot which might have derailed the peaceful transition of power. This is where the superhuman part came in. Never had he felt “so equidistant … between the increasingly unrecognizable place called life and the suddenly intimate and expanding jurisdiction called death”. Raskin suffered “a violent and comprehensive shock to the foundations”.
Six days later, a vicious mob invaded Raskin’s workplace, the cradle of democracy, leaving several dead and injuring 140 police officers. On 31 December, his beautiful, brilliant, charismatic 25-year-old son, Tommy, took his own life. When 2020 began, he had no inkling that just 12 months later his country and his family would face “two impossible traumas”. We are relieved to hear that he and his doctors are optimistic about his prognosis," Hogan tweeted.Jamie Raskin is a fine writer, a Democratic congressman, a constitutional scholar and a deeply loving father. "As someone who has beaten cancer in the past, I send my heartfelt prayers and best wishes to Congressman Raskin and his family. Outgoing Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan also addressed the news. Jamie, we are with you every step of the way," wrote Trone. "If you know you know that he's a fighter. David Trone (MD-6) tweeted out well wishes for his colleague. “My love and solidarity go out to other families managing cancer or any other health condition in this holiday season-and all the doctors, nurses and medical personnel who provide us comfort and hope.”įellow Maryland congressman, Rep. “With the benefit of early detection and fine doctors, the help of my extraordinary staff, the love of Sarah and our daughters and sons-in-law (actual and to-be) and family and friends, and the support of my beloved constituents and my colleagues in the House, I plan to get through this and, in the meantime, to keep making progress every day in Congress for American democracy. I am advised that it also causes hair loss and weight gain (although I am still holding out hope for the kind that causes hair gain and weight loss). In addition to destroying cancer cells, chemotherapy impairs natural antibodies and undermines the body’s immune system. “I expect to be able to work through this period but have been cautioned by my doctors to reduce unnecessary exposure to avoid COVID-19, the flu and other viruses. Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment. I am about to embark on a course of chemo-immunotherapy on an outpatient basis at Med Star Georgetown University Hospital and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “After several days of tests, I have been diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which is a serious but curable form of cancer.
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