We owe our freedoms as Americans to those  among us who are the fighters for  civil rights, for civil liberty, for justice and for human rights. We owe our freedoms to those who choose to protest,  to work for improvements, better conditions, in our country, rather than to accept things as they are. More important than the founders, for the continuation of our freedoms, are our contemporaries. One of our great contemporaries was laid to rest today. She was a fighter for all that which makes America good. Her name was Dorothy Height. She was 98 years old.

The President spoke at her funeral, which was most appropriate for the nation's leader to honor one among us, who lived a most honorable life, and  who did the work that Franklin encouraged  each generation of Americans  to do, to keep our democracy, by working to preserve it. Dorothy Height devoted her life, worked long, to help us to keep our democracy, by working hard to make American democracy work for all of us.