THREAD: This statement from @RepRaskin and his wife @SBloomRaskin about their late son Tommy is the most important thing you'll read this week and it's not even close. I couldn't help but think while reading this that this could have been me. repraskin.medium.com/statement-of-c…
He comes across in this as someone who was a friend to all, despised cliques, and found such joy in debate and the free exchange of ideas: "On Prom Night, he threw a dinner party for 24 fellow students, including classmates who had no date...He hated cliques and social snobbery."
He seemed like THE guy to go to bookstores with: "He ordered and devoured books on the Civil War and Maryland’s history in it, World War II and resistance to Nazism, Jewish history, libertarianism, moral philosophy, the history of the Middle East conflict, peace movements....."
He was an ardent progressive and vegan, but not the kind of person who wouldn't strike up a conversation with someone who had a different background and/or views.
Later, there was this that had me stopped cold and I identified with: "He began to be tortured later in his 20s by a blindingly painful and merciless ‘disease called depression,’ as Tabitha put it on Facebook over the weekend, a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him."
This is something not enough people understand: "[A]nd despite very fine doctors and a loving family and friendship network of hundreds who adored him beyond words and whom he adored too, the pain became overwhelming and unyielding and unbearable at last for our dear boy[.]"
And this was the ending, which will break you (as it did me) 
I'm here to say that this pain is real and, unfortunately, growing in numbers as this pandemic continues with such radical physical isolation.
In 2015 and 2016, I felt like this on a daily basis.
In 2015 and 2016, I felt like this on a daily basis.
Every day since, I've continued to fight and even though I've had many more good days than bad (thanks to our Lord and Savior, my family, my therapist, coworkers, and some friends but not man), it's a war that I and millions go through. Education is growing but it must be better.
So if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. If you haven't, check out my pinned thread. And again, the Raskins will be in my prayers. [END]
https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1324628175268306956
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