Michael Ratner’s Death Is a Loss for Freedom, Peace and Justice
The human rights lawyer “knew that when you sue the powerful, you will often lose,” The Nation wrote. “But he also understood that such suits could prompt political action, and that … was often more important in achieving justice than the litigation itself.”
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Fellow past NLG president Barbara Dudley noted, “Michael leavened his brilliant mind and his creative legal skills with love and humor and an abundant energy. His work, his laugh, his irony and his enduring belief in the revolutionary spirit will live on.”
Vince Warren, CCR’s executive director, called Michael “one of the great justice warriors of our time,” noting that family members said Michael was born with the “empathy gene.”
In 2002, Michael presciently told The New York Times, “A permanent war abroad means permanent anger against the United States by those countries and people that will be devastated by U.S. military actions. Hate will increase, not lessen; and the terrible consequences of that hate will be used, in turn, as justification for more restrictions on civil liberties in the United States.”
We will not see the likes of him again.
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