Hello there

Do you know me?

You probably know me

From the latest news

I am a victim of a tragedy

My death was horrific, yes

However, your treatment of it

Is even more tragic

I was a normal person while alive

Had my own dreams and goals

My own values and ideas

All I know is that I am not

A martyr for YOUR cause

Just because I died tragically

In an event that may have been preventable

Does not mean you can use it

To meet your own ends

Would you do that to me

If I was still alive?

If I could say to you that

I don't agree with you?

I bet you said no

So why do you do it

When I am dead?

Wouldn't that be more disrespectful?

I don't care about your

Political ideas and goals

What I do care about

Is you using my memory

To achieve them.

It is cheap

It is underhanded

It makes your cause

Have less merit.

No matter how just

No matter how good

Using a tragedy to validate

Insults me and the cause

You want to support a cause

After my death in memory of it?

Why not have it be something

I would have backed

While I was alive?

I am still a human

No longer with a body

But I live on as memory

Can you make sure

It is one that I would want to leave?

I am not you

You are not me

I wouldn't use your memory

So why do you use mine?

You would be angry about it

If someone did it to you

Used your memory how you didn't like

What makes you think I wouldn't be?

All I ask of you

Is to treat me in death

As you would in life

No matter how I died.