When someone great dies, no matter what else
Might be happening in the world, no matter fires
That burn in the west or storms that rage in the east,
No matter twisters in the south or floods in the north,
No matter wars that kill thousands and deaden our senses,
No matter tinhorn tyrants ascending to tinseled thrones,
We pause to remember that true greatness lies not
In tearing down but in building up, not in fear but in love,
Not in narrow bigotries but in the broadest understandings,
That true greatness lies in art rather than artifice, in the wisdom
of the loving hand and not the ignorance of the cruel fist.
