[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 4 (Monday, January 8, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E7]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





             HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MARCUS RASKIN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JERROLD NADLER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 8, 2018

  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life 
and legacy of Marcus Goodman Raskin, who passed away on December 24, 
2017 at the age of 83. He was a committed civil rights advocate, 
staunch antiwar activist, respected academic, and prolific author.
   Born in Milwaukee on April 30, 1934, Mr. Raskin, whose father was a 
plumber and mother was a seamstress, was a musical prodigy and studied 
piano at the Julliard School. Nevertheless, he abandoned a musical 
career to study politics at the University of Chicago and graduated 
from the University's Law School. He later worked for Robert W. 
Kastenmeier, a highly respected liberal Member of the U.S. House of 
Representatives from the State of Wisconsin. Thereafter, he joined the 
Kennedy Administration as an assistant to National Security Advisor 
McGeorge Bundy.
   Based on this experience, he went on to found, together with Richard 
J. Barnet, the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank 
studying nuclear disarmament, economic inequality, civil rights, and 
national security. With the advent of the Vietnam War, Mr. Raskin 
actively opposed the draft and aggressively urged resistance to the 
war, for which he became the target of law enforcement prosecutors. He 
played a significant role in facilitating the publication in The New 
York Times of the Pentagon Papers, a comprehensive classified study 
that exposed the faulty decision-making leading to the United States' 
entry into the Vietnam War. As a result of his antiwar activism, Mr. 
Raskin was added to President Richard M. Nixon's notorious ``enemies 
list'', along with such other luminaries as journalist Daniel Schorr, 
movie actor Paul Newman, and various Members of Congress.
   Notwithstanding the loss of Mr. Raskin, we are fortunate that his 
son, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Representative from the State of 
Maryland, currently serves as Vice Ranking Member of the House 
Judiciary Committee. In addition, the Committee has benefitted from the 
outstanding service provided by Maggie Lopatin, his granddaughter, who 
was the administrative backbone of the Committee for six years.
   Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to commend the life and inspiring 
achievements of Mr. Raskin and to offer my heartfelt condolences to his 
loving family.

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