Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Photo: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images
New York Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezis giving up meat for Lent, in memory of the late son of her fellow lawmakerJamie Raskin, and she is encouraging others to join in the tribute.
“A few weeks ago I told@RepRaskinthat this year I wanted to adopt a vegetarian diet for Lent in memory of his son Tommy,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Jamie said, ‘Well you’d have to do it the way Tommy would, which means bring people along with you!’ "
“Does anyone want to join me? Rules are 1) No judgement 2) Make it your own (you can go full 40 days, just veggie Mondays, etc 3) Be inclusive (no need to observe Lent to join),” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
She also requested other social media users share veggie-heavy recipes (to “avoid 40 days of Easy Mac”) and asked that those not interested in going vegetarian for Lent consider instead offering to “give or help others in this time,” as Tommy would have wanted.
“If neither of the above apply but you are in a position to give or help others in this time, please consider doing so in the spirit of Tommy,” she wrote. “He loved the world so much and dedicated his life to reducing suffering around the world.”
Tommy Raskin.FCNL
Raskin announced in early January that Tommy, a second-year student at Harvard Law School, had died.
In a statementat the time, the Maryland congressman and his wife, Sarah, said they were “devastated and demolished to be without him” and called him “pure magic.”
“His brilliance and compassion knew no bounds. He passionately loved his family, friends, and animals, and was devoted to the cause of the global poor,” their statement read.
The family also established a memorial fund in Tommy’s honor, calledThe Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for People and Animals.
Tommy was a “passionate vegan,” according to animal rights groupAnimal Outlook, and spoke at the 2017 event DC VegFest, performing a reading of a poem calledWhere War Begins.
From the poem: “When it comes to the right to live free from the blight of aggression, oppression, from tyrannous might, how smart you are friends shouldn’t matter at all;trauma is still trauma for the creatures that crawl.”
Speaking to NPR’sWeekend Editionafter his son’s death, Raskin said Tommy’s dietary habits eventually rubbed off on the entire family: “I mean, Tommy, he felt all of the pain and the suffering in the world, which is how, of course, he found his way quickly to vegetarianism. Nobody in our family was a vegetarian and now everybody is.”
source: people.com
