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Tribute by Zachary Bregman, MD
This wasn't meant to happen. We all expected him to be there,
needed him to be there, always leading us into the future, at
50 years old, at 60 years old, at 70 years old, at 80 years
old, at 90 years old; always leading us and helping us, whatever
the cause may have become. Now the world knows a new kind of
poverty it never had before…the absence of Keith Cylar. Not
just those of us gathered here today, but I believe the entire
world, in some way, has experienced the pain of Keith's passing.
I am sure that not a single person among us doubts that Keith
was a hero. Heroes lead causes and cause changes in the world
that seem to us almost miraculous; like raising tens of millions
of dollars from often hostile organizations to house the politically-underserved
HIV/AIDS population of New York City. How did this happen? It's
almost a miracle. No other organization's accomplished this
with the success of Housing Works. Keith, along with Charles,
was the heart of Housing Works.
But heroes take bigger risks and make bigger sacrifices than
the rest of us. Sometimes the risk and the sacrifice is life
itself, and that is why heroes sometimes die young. Keith was
always there, he was always on, always available, always helpful,
always uplifting, always intelligent, always healing…in short,
he was always in love with us. This can sometimes be a dangerous
position to take but, like all heroes, Keith ignored the dangers.
Instead he took the position and accomplished the miracles.
Keith knew about his heart condition, but like all lovers, this
hero took his biggest risks with his heart. There was a conflict
there: a conflict between, on one hand, his spiritual heart,
his emotional heart, his political heart, his righteous heart,
his lover's heart, his lion heart…and, on the other hand, his
material heart, the muscle that pumped his blood. His spiritual
heart won and we are left with the legacy of that conflict.
Keith died in his work, not in his sleep, and his work was his
love of all peoples and his inability to accept the hatreds
and injustices that mar our world.
In plainer, perhaps more clinical terms, Keith worked incessantly,
even with a weakened heart, to accomplish the miracles he brought
to bear in this world but at the cost of his life. Only heroes
make this sacrifice; they know no other way.
Keith had an intriguing inner voice that would come out in widely
different situations. I called it his "Granny" voice. It was
the creaky, garrulous voice of an elderly person from the South.
Sometimes he used it just for mischief, sometimes to diffuse
a tense situation, but at other times he seemed to use it as
a voice of self-guidance. I loved that voice. Just as Keith
ennobled us in life, in death he has given us his own voice
to always guide us.
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