well good afternoon I want to start by
thanking the Franklin family it's an
honor that you would invite me to come
speak and to bring my wife Sue and on
behalf of every citizen of the state of
Michigan our thoughts and prayers are
with all of you
Aretha was a special person to the state
of Michigan to all of us in the state
many of you know how many Awards she won
and she deserved every single one of
those but I'm gonna mention an honor you
may not have ever heard of but it
reflects our feelings for her and it's
gets shown in the outpouring and love
and support you've seen this week for
all these wonderful events back in the
80s
under governor Blanchard the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources actually
declared are--those voice was a natural
resource of the state of Michigan
that's something special folks that
strikes your right in the heart the
other part of it though as a Michigan
der I thought I'd share something about
what the Queen of Soul really meant to
all of us and the thing is the Queen of
Soul is not a title
it's a feeling it's an emotion and it
means different things and I just saw
here three of those very quickly with
you because we have so many wonderful
people to talk and sing first if you
looked at it she had a god-given voice a
talent a musical skill that people only
dream of but she did more than that
she took not just the triumphs of her
life she took the challenges and the
tragedies and brought a special humanity
to her words to her voice to her music
that most musicians would only dream to
have and it's something that Starks is
all in our heart and soul and I'll give
you a simple case and our family will
have family outings we'll have friends
over and all of a sudden I never know
why they're spontaneous singing they
start singing and you want number one on
the hit list is respect and you know who
the leader of the chorus is my wife Sue
and it's wonderful
it comes out everyone gets fired up and
I can tell you when it's done though if
I'm feeling brave I will suggest to her
that she leave the recordings to a
rethought and the performances to Aretha
but it has transformed lives the second
thing is it's not just about
entertaining it's not just about making
us feel better she used her presence her
voice her music to make the world a
better place the work she did for civil
rights the work she did for women's
rights that was making a profound
difference in our society and we should
be proud and that's why she's the king
of soul also finally one thing to share
with you
is if you think about our lives we're on
this world for a very short time if we
live a good life and most of us will
well have the opportunity to say we made
a positive impact on our children our
family our friends our neighbors our
community potentially even the world and
we should be proud of that but aretha
brought something different
Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul
brought something bigger now stop and
think it's not just gonna be us that are
gonna benefit from what she's given us
already or all the people of Michigan
all the people the world that are living
today Aretha Franklin is timeless her
gift will continue giving for not just
five tens fifty years it will be a
hundred two hundred five hundred years
that the message he's sending inner
music inner spirit and bringing humanity
these things will make a difference
those are incredible gifts and we should
be so proud and I will tell you that the
people of Detroit the people of Michigan
have a very special place in your heart
and we will remember these gifts in so
many different ways so god bless you
Aretha and to the Franklin family thank
you so much
[Applause]