This week our nation lay to rest a true frontline patriot in the battle for equal rights-Rosa Parks. I was just a boy when, in December of 1955, Rosa Parks used a calm defiance, the only tool at her disposal, to ignite the Civil Rights Movement that ended decades of legal segregation.

Her refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man resulted in her arrest, which in turn triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks that was organized by a 26-year-old Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

That boycott led to a court ruling desegregating public transportation in Montgomery, and ten years later The Civil Rights Act ruled that all public accommodations nationwide were desegregated.

To my young eyes, what Rosa Parks did that day in December was as courageous as anything I had ever seen and as I grew older I watched, with equal wonder, the parade of progress that marched across America-a parade that began with one small woman and her willingness to walk to beat of her own drum.

And I am still amazed, to this day, how effective Rosa Parks was back then- in a time when the main news source was the morning paper, in a time when word traveled by mouth, not by Internet or by email or by cell phone-at changing a nation forever for the better.

Those participating in Rosa Parks' funeral services this week, a weeklong national tribute that stretched from her native Alabama to the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the sanctuary of Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, acknowledged that the elaborate ceremonies were probably more extravagant than anything Rosa Parks herself would have chosen, but together these ceremonies were a fitting tribute to this shy seamstress who changed the world.

Just as importantly, the events of Rosa Parks' passing has served as a reminder to each and every one of us that every ordinary person has the potential to do extraordinary things. Ms. Parks wasn't a head of state, she didn't command an army, she didn't have riches or fame. She was an ordinary citizen who acted with extraordinary courage. She taught us that it is our responsibility, as citizens of this great nation, to stand up for what is right and that if we are willing to do that, the difference we make might surprise us.

It is most likely that Rosa Parks would likely have just one request of the thousands who came out in tribute to her this week. She said it so many times: Don't let it end with me.

Let's let the legacy of Rosa Parks inspire us. Let's use it to teach our children and grandchildren that diversity is more than just a catchphrase; let's use it to teach them to embrace our differences as strength, not a weakness.

And above all, let's remember that, as Rosa Parks once said, "Each person must live their life as a model for others.

Thank you, Rosa Parks, for giving us ALL an extraordinary model by which to live.