Namkai-Meche's mother posted about the tragedy on Facebook Saturday, calling him a "hero" who will "remain a hero on the other side of the veil."In a statement to media, the family also said Namkai-Meche "lived a joyous and full life."His enthusiasm was infectious. We lost him in a senseless act that brought close to home the insidious rift of prejudice and intolerance that is too familiar, too common."

Rick Best 53, one of two men killed in a brutal attack Friday aboard a MAX train, was a city of Portland employee and  Army veteran

We all hope we would rise up against that kind of vitriol, but the reality is, most of us would not. It makes what Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, Rick Best and Micah David-Cole Fletcher did that much more extraordinary. It's one thing to post on Facebook that you, too, would speak up in defense of a young Muslim woman. It's quite another to actually do so in front of an armed and violent man.

A Jeremy Christian white Christian extremist is accused of murdering two men who stood up to defend a pair of teenage girls being harassed for their religion on a MAX train.This is where unchecked hate can lead.