Quick thread that has nothing to do with taxes, tariffs or canceled television shows. 1/
It's about life and death, trauma, and local journalism. 2/
A year ago, a man spewed hate speech at two young women on a light rail train in Portland, and then fatally stabbed passengers who leapt to their defense: oregonlive.com/portland/index…. 3/
This week, @Oregonian published a remarkable collection of stories on survivors of that attack, compiled by @andrewtheen & @shanedkavanaugh. They are tales of trauma -- of men and women shaken by what happened, and what has happened since. 4/
@Oregonian @andrewtheen @shanedkavanaugh The stories are jarring and raw. They are not just of heroes who leapt in to help. One is of a man wrestling with his own inaction. 
The quotes hit you like a blind-side linebacker. One survivor who avoids the train now asks, “Has everyone else on there been getting help?” 6/
The O was the paper I learned to read with; it was my first job out of college; its newsroom is a slice of what it was at its height. Like so many papers in America today, resources are tight. Projects like this take deep, grueling, time-soaking work. 7/
So please reward these excellent reporters -- and, more importantly, the people who poured their souls out to them in these interviews -- with your attention tonight. Read the stories. Hug your loved ones. Subscribe to your local paper. 8/
This quote haunts me the most: “I think a lot of my innocence is gone,” said Pacheco, a grant writer for a nonprofit salmon conservation group. “I’ve confronted some truths about myself that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”
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The full @Oregonian report, on the life-altering aftermath of a stabbing on a MAX train, is here: oregonlive.com/expo/erry-2018… /fin
