leading by example
In times like these, it is all too easy to succumb to exhaustion and pessimism. Unbridled criticism, without a model to aspire to, leads to despair. Therefore while we denounce the actions of Drain and Barr, we also celebrate those whose work has been crucial to our movement.
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Artist and activist Nan Goldin founded the group Sackler P.A.I.N. and has led large-scale protests against the acceptance of Sackler donations. Noting the growing cultural disinterest around the Sackler scandal, she launched OxyJustice.org to help individuals file claims and raise awareness about the crisis. In the wake of the COVID crisis, which has made organizing more difficult, she continues to launch petitions and bring information to the population​—we commend Nan for her moral courage.
Nan Goldin
Sackler P.A.I.N
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Attorney Gerald Posner and legal academic Ralph Brubaker penned a July op-ed in the New York Times, taking Drain to task and alerting the public that the Sacklers “could get away with it.” (Read it here). Naturally, Judge Drain did not take kindly to the expose. In open court (recorded in legal transcripts obtained for Law and Crime) he hurled insults—“misinformed,” “idiot,” “numbskull,” “irresponsible,” “clickbait,” “trash”—at the writers and even insinuated he wished he could “muzzle” our First Amendment-guaranteed free press. Posner and Brubaker’s display of integrity is a breath of fresh air in this climate of complicity—we commend them for their moral courage.
Gerald Posner
Attorney and Investigative Journalist
Ralph Brubaker
Legal Academic
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The manager of the Hildene Capital hedge fund, who in 2018 refused to continue managing the Sacklers’ money. (See here) (Learn more...) Jefferson stated “An opioid-related tragedy affected someone with a personal relationship to me and other members of Hildene.” (About Opioid Crisis). Jefferson was one of the first in the finance world to cut fiscal ties with the Sacklers, and he credits “the weight on [his] conscience” for motivating him to “terminate the relationship”—we commend Mr. Jefferson for his moral courage.
Brett Jefferson
President and Co-CIO of Hildene Capital Management.
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"Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and the author of the New York Times bestseller Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, as well as two other books: The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream, and Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping. Patrick started contributing to The New Yorker in 2006 and has written investigative narrative nonfiction on a range of subjects, from the hunt for the drug lord Chapo Guzman to the tragic personal history of the mass shooter Amy Bishop and the role that the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma played in sparking the opioid crisis". Read Here his the article: The Sackler Family’s Plan to Keep Its Billions.
Patrick Radden Keefe
Writer and Investigative Journalist
More to come...