Rebecca:

I’ve often wondered if I would have the courage to confront racial or religious harassment in a public setting.

I wonder that even more now:

A man riding the MAX in Northeast Portland fatally stabbed two passengers who tried to stop him from hurling racial and anti-Muslim insults at women on the train, witnesses tell WW’s news partner KATU-TV.

The suspect is currently in Portland police custody. The stabbing occurred at about 4:30 this afternoon as the light-rail train pulled into the Hollywood Transit Center.

Details of the triple stabbing, which killed two men, are still emerging. But eyewitness reports to KATU and The Oregonian indicate it was an anti-immigrant hate crime.

What is there to say? These dead passengers are heroes. They are martyrs. They stuck up for somebody who needed their help — and they paid price for it. Let us forever be thankful for them.

And let us pray we have the courage to defend the people who need defending, even if it comes with a personal cost.

— Joel