It’s not that it happened in our neighborhood, at our max stop. It’s not even that it was a time of day and train Margaret could have been on. Or that the bus she did take stopped in the midst of the chaos of the early responders. It’s that it happened in our country, period. On a holiday weekend that is about honoring those who made the greatest sacrifice for the sake of this country, it is deeply disturbing and just…incredibly sad… to observe the current state of our country. The emboldening of white supremacy, the increase in hate crimes, the normalization of hate. Nationalistic hatred poses as much or more of a threat to me, my family and friends, my community and my country as international terrorism. The two men who stood up for those young women and sacrificed their lives doing so embodied the best of this country: courage, compassion, equality, protecting the vulnerable and doing the right thing. They are the America I believe in, that is worth fighting for. Heartbroken for everyone touched by this tragedy. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/05/police_responding_to_ne_portla.html#incart_river_index