The narrator organizes a public funeral service for Clifton without the permission of the Brotherhood because no one will return his calls or contact him. Hundreds of people show up for the funeral procession to the cemetery. When the young man stands to speak at the funeral, he knows that the people are waiting for him to get them stirred up, but he can't make the eulogy a political statement. He can't get past what they all know: "His name was Tod Clifton, he believed in Brotherhood, he aroused our hopes and he died.