Remembering what Heather Heyer stood for

This appeared in The Washington Post:

It took four days for President Donald Trump to utter Heather Heyer’s name, in a tweet, and it appears that no one from his administration bothered to attend her memorial service on Wednesday. But Heyer, who died Saturday protesting the racist goons who descended on Charlottesville hardly needed official Washington’s imprimatur. Her principles and resolve were incontrovertible proof of her integrity — far more proof than a morally compromised president could possibly confer by his words.

“They tried to kill my child to shut her up,” said her mother, Susan Bro, speaking at her daughter’s memorial service and pointing a defiant finger. “Well, guess what? You just magnified her.” She received a standing ovation.

Heyer never sought the celebrity she achieved in death. A 32-year-old paralegal with a high school education, she supplemented her income by working as a bartender and waitress. She was also, by all accounts, passionate about the injustice she saw around her. “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention,” she said in a Facebook post.

In America’s long-running battles over civil rights, there have been many others whose convictions led them to take risks for which they sometimes paid dearly. Heyer is in that tradition of ordinary Americans of all races and creeds who perceived injustice and, in standing up to it, lost their lives.