David Fishback's Blog: Al Franken: Falling on his sword for the cause. Today, he is a hero.

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Al Franken: Falling on his sword for the cause. Today, he is a hero.

If politics were fair, the allegations of inappropriate behavior by Senator Al Franken would have simply gone to the Ethics Committee. But politics is, sadly, not fair. Whether or not Franken should have resigned is now a moot point.

Everyone should be sure to take a few minutes to watch his statement on the floor of the Senate. Franken showed the grace, wisdom, and patriotism he has consistently displayed during his time in office. He clearly is not going to participate in any Democratic Circular Firing Squad. Nor should we. By falling on his sword, Franken has cleared the way to highlight the hypocrisy of the Republican political class.

Whatever the actual extent of his inappropriate behavior, Al Franken is a hero today. There are no "What abouts?" left for the Republicans to use, unless they want to go back to the last Century with Bill Clinton. Of course, they will try that, but it will ring much less true. (The Clintons should try to disappear from public view; their presence now creates more harm than good.)

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David S. Fishback, a retired attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, is Advocacy Chair for the Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). His involvement in social justice efforts began as a college student in the 1960s, when he ran a tutoring program in Washington, DC. Following a year as a VISTA volunteer at a prison in Memphis, TN, he went to Harvard Law School and worked on Democratic Party reform issues.

After graduation, he joined the Office of General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. In 1983, David went to the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, where he litigated environmental tort matters, most notably the government's successful defense against lawsuits brought by asbestos product and Agent Orange manufacturers, who were seeking to shift their tort liability to the federal taxpayers.

In 1984, David became co-president of the PTA at a magnet integration primary school in Silver Spring, MD, beginning his efforts as an education activist in Montgomery County. He began advocating for LGBTQ youth in 2002 when he was appointed to the County Board of Education's Citizens Advisory Committee on sexuality education issues. During his time as chair of that committee and later through PFLAG, he was integrally involved in the ultimately successful effort to bring intelligent discussion of LGBTQ topics into the secondary school health curriculum and guidance offices.

A past member of the Temple Emanuel of Kensington MD Board of Trustees, David and his wife Bobbi co-founded and co-chaired (from 2002 to 2019) the Temple's Kulanu Committee for LGBTQ outreach. He is also a long-time member of the Temple's Social Action Council. In 2020, David was appointed to the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.