Grieving Son's Death, Maryland Lawmaker Fights to Impeach Trump. [View all]

[elleng]

Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, lost his 25-year-old son to suicide on New Year’s Eve. Then he survived the mob attack on the Capitol. Now, he leads the impeachment effort.

'On the last awful day of the brutal year 2020, Tommy Raskin, a 25-year-old Harvard University law student, social justice activist, animal lover and poet, concluded that the pain of the world was too deep for him to be in it anymore. He left his parents an apology, with instructions: “Please look after each other, the animals and the global poor for me.”

Tommy Raskin was buried last week in a simple Jewish graveside service. The next day, his father, Representative Jamie Raskin found himself hiding with his House colleagues from a violent mob incited by President Trump, and fearing for the safety of a surviving daughter, who had accompanied him to the Capitol to witness the counting of electoral votes to seal Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.

Within hours, Mr. Raskin was at work drafting an article of impeachment with the mob braying in his ear and his son’s final plea on his mind. (It was introduced in the House on Monday.)

“I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to live up to those instructions,” Mr. Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, said in an interview on Monday, reading aloud the farewell note as he reflected on his family’s grief and the confluence of events. “But what we are doing this week is looking after our beloved republic.”

Mr. Raskin likes to say that “change is made by people who show up.” When the House convenes Wednesday to consider impeaching Mr. Trump for a second time, he will have to draw on every ounce of strength he has just to be there.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/politics/jamie-raskin-trump.html

“change is made by people who show up.”