Via Progressive Alliance/Children's Hope:

Now that he is safely dead,
Let us praise him,
Build monuments to his glory,
Sing hosannas to his name.

Dead men make such convenient heroes.
They cannot rise to challenge the images
We would fashion from their lives.
And besides,
It is easier to build monuments
Than to make a better world.

So now that he is safely dead,
We, with eased consciences, will
Teach our children that he was a great man,
Knowing that the cause for which he lived
Is still a cause
And the dream for which he died
Is still a dream,
A dead man's dream.

--Carl Wendell Hines, Jr.