I’m out of town for the weekend and just heard about the fatal stabbings in Portland. As someone who recently moved back to Portland and consider it home, this is deeply disturbing to me.
The incident started when Jeremy Joseph Christian, who has a history of posting white supremacist screeds on social media, started screaming anti-Muslim insults at two young women on a light rail train, one of whom was wearing a hijab. It makes me proud to know that at least three men tried to intervene to protect the women. But Christian pulled out a knife and stabbed them. One died immediately, and another one died later at a hospital, the third was injured but is expected to be ok.
The two women were unharmed, but in a statement they thanked the men who intervened for saving their lives.
One of the things I have always loved about Portland is that people look out for each other. They show kindness to others, even if they are strangers. I too have personally intervened in a situation where two people were angry and yelling at each other in a crowd and it felt like a fight might break out.
Will that now change? Will I, and others, be afraid to stick up for other people? I feel like I have no idea how I will react in a similar situation in the future.
That makes me very sad.
I hope that our president sees fit to speak out about this, as I’m sure he would have if it were a Muslim who had done the stabbing.
Otherwise, if we accept this as the new normal, the terrorists have won.
3 Comments
Strange, I just heard about this this morning too, from BBC… Imagine if it were a Muslim who was yelling at two christian women and then stabbed the guys who came to their aid. I think I would have heard about it sooner…
Our gun crazy society, now fueled by Trump is a scary place. I think it might get a lot worse before it gets the attention of those who are voting for the alt right group candidates, even though they don’t exactly see eye to eye with them. These horrible people have always been out there, but now they feel as if they have the right to behave like the monsters they are, thanks to the so-called leaders of this country.
I would hope this will not deter the heroes in this country, but I think it probably will in some cases. IK I just hope you never have to again.
This was a terrorist attack. That is not being mentioned. “make America White again” is the slogan. This terrorist is trying to make this happen. Lives were lost because of it.
I still compare this all to Baby Bush who started the beginning of ISIS by invading Iraq for no reason and giving the Sunnis to respect. I believe 50 were killed in Baghdad today. More notches in Bush’s gun.
And REagan who hired the Princes of Saudi Arabia to go into Afghanistan to keep Russia from gaining access to the sea. (ultimately forming the Taliban)
We keep stomping down the fires we started. They keep reigniting.
Then Trump tells NATO that while we are responsible for the Muslim terrorists, we aren’t going to help EU in the fight.