Saturday afternoon, just as the sun emerged from the rain clouds, Congressman Jamie Raskin bound onto the Great Barrington bandstand to greet his former law student Andrea Harrington with a hug. He related how she had been a star student, and was now a colleague in the fight for fairness, compassion, and equity in our justice system.
Campaigning for her second term, District Attorney Harrington is running on her record of values and policies, and a diverse group of citizens spoke of their effect on their lives.
Among the highlights was community activist Shirley Edgerton’s reminder of the over-representation of Black Americans in the prison population and the importance of Harrington’s emphasis on diversion and opportunity for our youth, her focus on keeping women safe, and her effectiveness in listening to people’s voices and concerns.
With poise and power, high School student Ndey Awa Touray described how Harrington changed her “hard-headedness” and feelings of being ignored to feeling listened to and purposefully engaged.
Gary Pratt, project manager for economic impact in South County, praised how Harrington’s policies toward helping people with substance use disorders to build bridges toward a self-directed life. “And I am one of them,” he said.
Leigh Davis, vice-chair of the Great Barrington Selectboard, and Harrington’s husband Tim Walsh also spoke of her values, commitment, and effectiveness.
In their remarks, both Harrington and Raskin spoke of the need for prosecutors who believe in racial justice, who recognize when people are struggling and need help rather than punishment, who stand strongly against domestic violence, and who end prosecution for minor offenses with services offering new pathways for productive lives.
Harrington cited research finding that young offenders for minor crimes who were not prosecuted were 58 percent less likely to commit more crimes. “Treat kids like kids,” she said, and connect them with services. Harrington ended with a reminder that this is not about her; it is a movement toward fair and equitable justice for all.
Following Andrea Harrington’s event, Jamie Raskin moved across the street to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to deliver the Mona Sherman Memorial lecture, presented by Berkshire OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute). He was introduced by Ellen Kennedy, President of Berkshire Community College, and Lisa Sharkey, daughter of Mona Sherman and SVP Director of Creative Development at HarperCollins Publishers.
In his address Raskin spoke about trauma, his own with the loss of his son Tommy, and the trauma we are suffering as a nation today. Raskin distinguished between misfortune, which can happen to anybody, and injustice, which is the denial of something that is available, such as health care, but you can’t have it.
Raskin described this moment in time as a test of morality, defining morality as the seriousness with which we act to make real the right of the people to govern themselves. Facing a breakdown of our social contract, he said, we are in a race between the popular will and the forces of distortion, corruption, and bags of tricks. He asks, “Can we make government the effective instrument of the common good again? If we can’t do it, who will?”
Rep. Raskin ended by describing how he feels his son Tommy in his chest and speaks to him every day. “We pray for the dead by fighting like hell for the living.”
