Aretha Franklin: R-E-S-P-E-C-T the arts in school budgets

"If you have to cut, cut something else. Not the music. We need the music. It soothes the savage beast."

– Aretha Franklin, America's Queen of Soul, commenting on school budget cuts in advance of a charity concert she played with former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, an accomplished pianist. The concert was to benefit inner city children and the arts.