To Praise a Dead Man - By S.J. Bass  “Alphonse, he was the most colorful man I’ve ever known,” said Miss May, “and I don’t think I’ll ever forget his magnificent balloon animals. One time, he’d made me a giraffe...”The procession eventually carried on. People I knew quite well from my small shanty town walked past the dead man and paid their respects. He was a man of little prestige, and even smaller holdings, but he was so full of love. He’d never worked a typical job. Rather, he’d worked many odd ones, including painting his face for kids to perform at their adolescent birthdays.I stepped up to say my piece. It had been years since I’d last seen him. I’d moved from Spain and studied in England, but during the week that I’d returned, he’d died in a car accident while drunk.I cleared my throat, and my voice meekly saturated the mic.Alphonse is–was the type of man that made you smile even if your ice-cream cone fell in the dirt, I said, and if you were broke and starving, like me, he would tell you to wait where you are, and then 10 minutes later he’d have something for you to eat.I gathered my composure and continued.I don’t think that I’ll ever again meet a man quite like Alphonse, for he did the things that simply make life beautiful and fantastic. And although some of my more distant well off neighbors, at times, found themselves lacking radios and TV sets, Alphonse never hurt the ones he loved.A person who doesn’t hurt the ones they love is honorable in my eyes, for honor is defending that, which one holds dear, and Alphonse held our community most dearly.What is one passing life while the living continues to flourish? Long term it may mean nothing, we may all forget about Alphonse, but we will never forget that being a just person, a person who gives back to their beloved community, a person who makes children laugh, a person who lives to make others happy, is a person that is worthy of praise, regardless of where you stand at the fence. I love Alphonse for the things he dared to do, and I believe that you should look at this man as more of a jester, instead of what the newspapers say, and know that he gave you the ideas to think beyond your own personal safety zone.Thank you, Alphonse, I said, I’ll miss your compassion.-Written By S.J. Bass