Dallas Police Chief Quotes Stevie Wonder in Tribute to Families of Slain Officers
He spoke at a service days after the shooting that killed five officers.
— -- Dallas Police Chief David Brown called on Stevie Wonder lyrics in his tribute to the families of the five officers killed by a gunman last week in his city.
"When I was a teenager and started liking girls, I could never find the right words to express myself," Brown began his remarks at today's memorial service in Dallas. "And after a couple of words, they would just walk away leaving me figuring out, 'What do I need to do to get a date?' So being a music fan of 1970's rhythm and blues love songs, I put together a strategy to recite the lyrics to get a date."
"For girls I liked, I would pull out some Al Green or some Teddy Pendergrass," he said. "But if he fell in love, "I had to dig down deep and get some Stevie Wonder, to fully express the love I had."
"So today, I'm going to pull out some Stevie Wonder for these families," he said.
"Families, close your eyes and just imagine me back in 1974 with an Afro and some bell bottoms and wide collar," Brown said, before launching into Stevie Wonder lyrics from the song "As":
"We all know sometimes life's hate and troubles can make you wish you were born in another time and place. But you can bet your life times that, and twice its double, that god knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed. So make sure when you say you're not in it, but not of it, you're not helping to make this Earth a place sometimes called hell. Change your words into truth and then change that truth into love. And maybe your children's grandchildren and their great great grandchildren will tell them I'll be loving you. Until the rainbow burns, the stars out of the sky, I'll be loving you.
Until the ocean covers every mountain high, I'll be loving you. Until the dolphin flies and the parrots live at the sea. I'll be loving you. Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream, I'll be loving you. Until the day is night and night becomes the day, I'll be loving you.
... I'll be loving you always. And there's no greater love than this. That these five men gave their lives for all of us."
Brown concluded his remarks by introducing President Barack Obama, and when Obama took the podium, he told Brown: "I'm so glad I met Michelle first, because she loves Stevie Wonder."