Khizr Khan, reluctant activist
“You have two minutes. Say whatever you want to say.” That was the simple directive that organizers of the Democratic National Convention gave last July to a quiet, bespectacled lawyer whose middle son, a decorated Army captain, had been killed in combat during the Iraq War. Counseled by friends and colleagues to protect his family’s privacy and his own professional reputation by staying out of the election spotlight’s glare, the lawyer, a Muslim immigrant from Pakistan, said at first he was inclined to turn down the speaking offer. What changed his mind was a handwritten card from a worried little girl named Sofia, who asked whether Donald Trump could force her to leave the country if he got elected. “It is that that makes me stand in front of you,” said an emotional Khizr Khan, LL.M. ’86, who stayed standing Wednesday evening throughout an impassioned talk at the Harvard Kennedy School dedicated to...