Irreplacable

Like many San Franciscans, I am stunned and horrified to learn this morning that our Public Defender, Jeff Adachi, is dead. He was always there for the underdog; of what other current civic official can we say that?

I became viscerally aware of Adachi in the awful days immediately after the 9/11 attacks. Those of us whose fear of what our own government might do outweighed our fear of terrorism gathered at a "Power to the Peaceful" concert at the base of Bernal hill. Adachi, though in the midst of his own election campaign, dared speak out against racial profiling of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asian immigrants which he anticipated. After all, as a California Japanese American, he knew what this country was capable of when badly led and panicked. We now know he was prescient.

Jeff Adachi, ¡presente!