In our own meager lives we can revive and understand great people in our search to discover them in context with ourselves. Their succumbing to natural causes or foul deeds never extinguishes the significance of their lives that continues on in the fabric of eternity. Let us peruse a few:

An unknown man stood in front of and blocked an entire line of tanks from moving forward in protest of the China's Communist government. (Time)

During World War II, Sophie Scholl stood up and denounced Hitler and Nazism, quietly saying in court:

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did." (The White Rose)

In 1836 a man in Virginia sat down at the table for dinner after a hard day's work of plowing and seeding in the field. His wife lay before him a dish of beans that was undercooked and slightly burned. The man took no notice, continued eating, and thanked his wife while asking her how her day had been.

Sister Leonella Sgorbati made a vow of poverty and non-violence and for 38 years helped the people of Kenya and Somalia. She was shot in the back after Pope Benedict quoted a Medieval Emperor on Islam: (Michellemalkin.com)

"Muhammad brought…that [which] was evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached…." 

At 22, having lost his wife and two children, Andranik Toros Ozanian joined the resistance against the suppression of the Armenian people. At the mountain of Musa Dagh, he led a small group of Armenians, children, men, women, and elderly to defend themselves against a Turkish Army intent on destroying them for the sole reason of existing. (genocide1915.info)

Chief Joseph (Hin-ma-toe-yah-laht-khit) of the Indian tribe Nez Perce, repeatedly tried and failed to peacefully coexist with the disingenuous "white man" and his government. Attacked for not moving to a more desolate reservation, the Nez Perce tribe retreated in brilliant fighting fashion but in the end was separated and scattered over a clear cut landscape. (Juntosociety.com)

"We were like deer. [The white men] were like grizzly bears. We had a small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not; and would change the mountains and rivers if they did not suit them." —Chief Joseph

The greatest among us are not within text pages or future remembrance, but within ordinary people who choose to be fully human which history books pick up on from time to time.

"Look, the sun still shines!" Sophie Scholl said as she was led away to her execution (Sophie Scholl - The Final Days)