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Local musician Victor Johnson heard about the May 26, 2017, Portland MAX train attack and felt moved by the last words of one of the men. Two men, Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Rick Best lost their lives and a third, Michah Fletcher, was injured but survived. Namkai-Meche’s last words, which he spoke to Rachel Macy were, “Tell everyone on this train, I love them.”

For Johnson, he couldn’t get these words out of his head. The following week, he wrote the song, “On This Train,” which was inspired by and dedicated to the memory of Namkai-Meche and Best. Johnson raised money through a Kickstarter to record the song at Soundsmith Studios in Bend. Johnson wanted to record the song in an effort to cultivate healing and love.

Johnson released the track last Friday. He sees it as an independent effort to cultivate love and healing through music and empathy and to honor the victims of the Portland train attack. Listen to the full song and remember, a little bit of love can go a long way. Thanks to Johnson for the reminder that it’s important to respond to hate with love and creativity rather than more hate and violence.

This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2017.

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“On This Train” by Victor Johnson Honors Victims of Portland Train Attacks

by Anne Pick, The Source - Bend, Oregon
June 26, 2017

<h1>“On This Train” by Victor Johnson Honors Victims of Portland Train Attacks</h1> <p class="byline">by Anne Pick, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />June 26, 2017</p> <p> Local musician Victor Johnson heard about the May 26, 2017, <a href="/bend/victim-of-portland-stabbing-speaks-out-with-new-details-bend-vigil-planned-for-tonight/Content?oid=3318524" target="_blank">Portland MAX train attack</a> and felt moved by the last words of one of the men. Two men, Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Rick Best lost their lives and a third, Michah Fletcher, was injured but survived. Namkai-Meche’s last words, which he spoke to Rachel Macy were, “Tell everyone on this train, I love them.” </p> <p> For Johnson, he couldn’t get these words out of his head. The following week, he wrote the song, “On This Train,” which was inspired by and dedicated to the memory of Namkai-Meche and Best. Johnson raised money through a Kickstarter to record the song at Soundsmith Studios in Bend. Johnson wanted to record the song in an effort to cultivate healing and love.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/embed/YNAkeOMAiN8 </div> </figure> <p> Johnson released the track last Friday. He sees it as an independent effort to cultivate love and healing through music and empathy&nbsp;and to honor the victims of the Portland train attack. Listen to the full song and remember, a little bit of love can go a long way. Thanks to Johnson for the reminder that it’s important to respond to hate with love and creativity rather than more hate and violence. </p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/on-this-train-by-victor-johnson-honors-victims-of-portland-train-attacks-3448226/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=25674&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/on-this-train-by-victor-johnson-honors-victims-of-portland-train-attacks-3448226/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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