Larry Hogan (R) signed following the conclusion of the 2021 legislative session in Annapolis. The bill, which will take effect July 1, was the first Gov. Marylanders can sign themselves or their loved ones up for the program early by texting “HealthCheck” to 211-MD1 (211631), according to a news release from Raskin’s office. “We just want the young people out there who are in crisis to know that there are lots of ways they can get help,” Raskin told the News-Post after the event. 31 at the age of 25.Īs a congressman in a historically partisan House of Representatives, Raskin said it was refreshing to see the state’s political leadership rally behind such a prevalent and personal issue. “Let’s hope that we get to a place where we don’t lose anybody else.” “My family is just really happy that Tommy is being honored in this way,” Raskin (D-8th), who represents part of Frederick County, said at the event. The Thomas Bloom Raskin Act (SB719 and HB812), which the General Assembly approved this year, will use the state’s existing 211 mental health crisis agency to establish periodic check-ins and connections to mental health resources for people who opt in. Jamie Raskin’s son died by suicide, the congressman joined state leaders in Annapolis Monday to praise the enactment of a namesake bill that will expand the state’s mental health services. For full article, please visit the Frederick News-Post website here. ![]() Right now.Article originally published by Frederick News-Post, June 21, 2021, by Jack Hogan. The world needs him, and will miss him terribly. Marc was right: Tommy was an exception to all the rules. His too-short life brought us all the gift of a bright light, a magical mind, a daring compassion. Tommy Raskin was a person the world needs, right now. The entire IPS family mourns the loss of this extraordinary young man, who died on December 31 at 25. He took nothing for granted – except for the recognition that he needed to learn all he could, and that he needed to understand positions and ideas he disagreed with so he could better confront and defeat them. He taught me some great lessons in what assertions I could take for granted, and what I certainly could not. He challenged me, forced me to defend my positions even as I pushed him to defend his. “In truth,” he wrote, “colonial enterprises were welfare cesspools replete with military protection, relocation subsidies, and exceedingly cheap land for European settlers.” In his 2015 Amherst College student blog article The Irony of Colonial Apologetics, he uncovered the economic support provided to colonialists often falsely portrayed as rugged individualists. Tommy was always willing, even eager, to challenge assumptions that undergirded false histories and sham analysis. IPS Director John Cavanagh remembers him arguing with me over the war in Afghanistan with the same eloquence and confidence as his grandfather Marc and his father, Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin. He would never accept conventional ideas – even progressive ideas – without interrogation. Tommy was at least five years younger than any of them – yet somehow he was the one who took responsibility for making sure everyone was doing okay, that no one felt left out, that everyone was connected.Īnd Tommy’s intellectual rigor was uncompromising. The others in our intern cohort that summer were all college students – juniors and seniors, maybe a couple of graduate students. And beyond that, he held a rare level of empathy and compassion. Intellectually curious, open, eager for new ideas to challenge his steel-trap mind. Marc assured me that Tommy was an exception to all the rules. Marc was the co-founder of IPS, of course, and had been my mentor for many years - but really, Tommy was only in high school. When Marc Raskin persuaded me ten years ago to have his grandson Tommy come to the Institute for Policy Studies to do a summer internship with me, I worried I’d regret it. The below words are written by IPS fellow Phyllis Bennis, who worked closely with Tommy and knew him well. We send to all the Raskins our love, our tears, and our commitment to live up to the spirit and power of the light of Tommy’s life. Tommy was part of our IPS family, along with his grandfather and IPS founder Marc Raskin, and all the amazing Raskins of now four generations. ![]() ![]() All of us here at IPS are grieving with the Raskin family for the loss of their son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, uncle and more.
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