By David Mark Greaves
On the Passing of District Attorney Kenneth Thompson
Because of the life Ken Thompson lived, people are now free who were once in prison, minor offenders had their lives transformed and Brooklyn was blessed with a District Attorney who tempered justice with wisdom and set the gold standard for public service in Kings County.
To lose him so young, a man of such substance, so central to efforts of fairness in justice, so powerful and sure-footed on decisions whether popular or not, feels like something went wrong in the world of expected tomorrows, and the sorrow of the loss of his wife and children ripples across the borough and state and in exoneration movements across the country. Words cannot express the pain of his passing, but the diversity of Brooklyn in mourning together will be a fitting testament to the man and the county he served.
The Most Dangerous Terrorist: Donald J. Trump
Never has a terrorist threatened the institutions of the nation as Donald Trump has promised as we close out the last three weeks of this campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America. The world must be aghast that in a world where climate change is changing the planet and our grandchildren will not know the world we grew up in, where North Korea has nuclear weapons in the hands of a tempestuous dictator, where Israel builds more settlements and the Middle East has endless turmoil, where hundreds of thousands are being killed in wars and millions are refugees, and in this the greatest of nations is having debates about sex and calling each other liars. Oh my God!
There can be disagreements with President Obama on issues of foreign and domestic policy, but there can be no disagreement that with the three generations in the White House living quarters, we have had eight years of scandal-free grace and wit and a living example of what an ideal First Family would be.
After we’ve all taken a shower to wash off the stench Trump promises to bring to the next debate, let’s redouble our efforts to swamp him at the polls and ensure that the likes of him do not come this way again. David Mark Greaves