“I’d rather die like a man than live like a coward.”
It’s a lyric from “Only God Can Judge Me” (one of my favorite 2Pac songs) that has haunted me since the first time I heard it. This concept of martyrdom is deeply rooted in my Roman Catholic faith (as it is in many religions) and has stuck with me for a long time. From Maximilian Kolbe to Malcolm X, so many important figures and historical role models I look up to were martyrs.
As 2Pac recalls his own mother saying: “If you can’t find something to live for, find something worth dying for.” The countless Catholic martyrs such as John the Baptist and Joan of Arc along with other social justice martyrs like Harvey Milk and Gandhi, died for their faith or rather, their faith-in-action. They found their purpose, something -be that an idea, movement, heroic action, or leap of faith worth dying for.
Ricky John Best joined them as a martyr on May 26 after being stabbed to death when he and two other heroes (Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, and Micah Fletcher) stopped a man from harassing two teenage girls (one of them a Muslim) on Portland Oregon’s MAX Train. Along with Best, Namkai-Meche also died from his wounds but Fletcher is recovering from the attack.
Seen above are Rick Best, Taliesin Myrddin
How fleeting is life? How crazy is this world? These were thoughts that popped into my head soon after I realized that one of the victims was Ricky Best, a member of my local parish, Christ the King. His three sons and daughter are part of our youth group.
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The Best family clock-wise from top left: Erik, Rick, Isaac, Tramanh, Myhanh, and David
I got the news backstage before the final performance of EXPIRATION DATE, the play I wrote for my high school’s playwriting festival. Oddly enough, EXPIRATION DATE was a dramatic play all about death. In EXPIRATION DATE everyone is born with their death dates ingrained upon their foreheads. Although EXPIRATION DATE is a fictional play, it is very real: all of us will expire one day and become just another rotting carcass in the ground-- it’s inevitable. All the glory, awards, money, success, happiness, and knowledge we garner in this lifetime will be gone.
It isn’t about what we gained in our lifetimes, it’s about what we give to others. That’s something Ricky Best believed in, and I too share his thoughts. Reflecting upon all that I think about regarding Ricky’s death, I can’t help but smile. There is no better way to go. As the Bible says, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for the sake of his friends” (John 15:13). I would argue this is a greater love because Ricky gave his life for complete strangers.
He practiced agape love. Agape love is the highest form of love in the Christian tradition. It is the love of God for man and man for God. In the Jesuit tradition, St. Ignatius saw God in everything. I believe Ricky saw God in everything too. That is why he stood up on May 26 when he saw two girls on the MAX train being harassed because one of them was wearing Islamic garb. He stood up because he saw God in those girls. He stood up because he stood for justice. He stood up because humanity is God’s work and each and every human deserves respect and dignity. As Erik Best (Ricky’s oldest son) would later say at the funeral: “I look into my father’s eyes and I see the love of God made manifest.”
In the aftermath of the attack, Portland became a city on the edge. Some Oregonians quipped they weren’t surprised about the attack during the Trump presidency. People were filled with pessimism about our city and our people. They speculated on the racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and Islamophobia within my hometown. They overlooked the situation entirely. Men stepped up against injustice. Portlanders did not tolerate what they witnessed on the train that day. Three men acted with courage. This shouldn’t even be a political talking point, but a story of heroes and their selfless sacrifices.
On June 5th I was blessed to be a Eucharistic Minister at Ricky Best’s funeral. The Church was packed with city officials, Catholic parishioners, and those moved to pay respect to a true hero. The Best family all wore white headbands, symbolic of mourning and honor in the Vietnamese tradition, as Ricky’s widow Myhanh is Vietnamese. Archbishop Sample of the Portland metro area called Best a martyr. Near the end of the mass Harris Zafar of Portland’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Community cited a Quranic verse that says if you kill one person it’s as if you have killed all and if you save a life it is as if you have saved all. Zafar also said he would tell Best “thank you for helping me be able to go home to my kids and say, 'Daddy was wrong, superheroes do exist.'”
Harris Zafar speaking at Christ the King's funeral for Rick Best
As Bobby Kennedy once said: “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Rick Best sent out more than just a ripple. He sent out a wave. After his funeral, the 23-year Army veteran was buried with full military honors. He died like a man; he died like a saint.
Donate to the Best family here.
For more information on the Portland MAX stabbings read here:
