Osler's Razor

Earlier this week, I was in Washington working to push through a sentencing reform bill that recently passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 15-5 vote. It has several provisions-- dealing with mandatory minimums, retroactivity for prior reforms, and elimination of life without parole for juveniles-- that I have pressed for many years. Now there is some hope.

Traveling between the offices of Sen. McConnell and Fienstein and Congressmen McCarthy and Chaffetz, I was in remarkable company. In the picture above (taken by Jody Kent Lavy) I am in the super-cute Senate subway with three men. On the far right is Aqeela Shirrells. His son was murdered in Los Angeles, and since that tragedy he has done remarkable work in that city to reduce violence. Next to me is Glen Mitchell, who also lost his son to murder. In the middle is Ellis Curry, who was convicted of involvement in a murder, did his time, and since has become a welder and valuable member of his community in Jacksonville. Not coincidentally, the person Ellis Curry was convicted of killing was Glen Mitchell's son, Jeff.

There was something deeply humbling about working with people for whom these stories run so deep. I felt out of place making my usual policy arguments, but in a way they fit very well with the stories of the men beside me.  I hope that telling those stories to the people who can create change will matter. Either way, it certainly mattered to me.