On Saturday night Morgan Freeman was the winner of the first ever Saturday Night Card Game Readers’ Choice Award, for his rant on the Piers Morgan show about Tea Party racism.
Now a Tea Party activist has written Freeman an open letter inviting Freeman to a Tea Party rally (emphasis in original):
My name is Ali Akbar. I’m a 26 year-old African-American small business owner and a tea party activist….
I’ve attended dozens of tea party events. I’ve helped organize them, and I’ve even spoken at a few. The tea party is not what is often depicted in the news. It is people of all colors who are terribly concerned about the direction that America is heading. We don’t trust big government to make decisions for us. And we fear that the present administration’s spending is going to lead our country down a path to insolvency, much like what Greece is currently facing.
Your comments about the tea party have caused me physical pain. You’ve rekindled the old painful paradigm of Uncle Tom – that any black man who votes Republican is some kind of sellout. It’s not true. I work hard, pay my taxes, love Jesus, and I’m good to my family and community. In effect, your comments have stereotyped an entire group of people. And I know in my soul that you must regret that on some level….
I’m hoping that you’ll come to a tea party in Tennessee — the place of your birth. Really anywhere in the country that works for you; I’ll set it up with the one of the thousands of activists I know around our great country. I’d be delighted to introduce you to good people who will welcome you with open arms, disagree with you, and then feed you some of the best barbeque you’ve ever tasted.
Racism is an ugly thing, but I assure you that it is part of our past, not our present.
It takes bravery to admit that you may have made a mistake. But, for Geel Piet, bravery is like breathing. It’s just something you do.
I hope you’ll take me up on my offer.
Let’s see if he takes up the offer.
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Comments
I hope he does. He will be pleasantly surprised. But, apparently, he is in poor health, so it is doubtful he would accept.
Also, I would hope he would do more than Susan Sarandon – taking a limo drive-by a the masses on Wall Street before hopping a jet to Europe. Talk about carbon emissions violations!
If Morgan Freeman does this – talks to people, seeing for himself that it is just Americans – not some eeeevil raaaacist crowd……
…maybe he will be open minded and awaken from his liberal slumber! We’ll all have to just wait and see.
He won’t come. Not only because he’s a died in the wool liberal and would lose ALL his Hollywood friends and get no more movie roles, but because he is a black man before he is an American. Like a lot of blacks, he feels it is us against them…not just all Americans of different colors.
Freeman won’t touch this. But not because he’s exceptionally political, frankly I doubt his sincerity. He’s doing this for the publicity and because he needs Hollywood to give him some work.
The guy is simply sucking up to those who are most important to him. And that’s not Barack Obama.
I fing it very hard not to disagree with you Thomas and in my gut I also think Morgan won’t take this Mr. Akbar up on his offer. However, optimism and good thoughts spring eternal and maybe, just maybe, he will remember what his buddy Andy Dufrense said to Brooks Hatlen when Brooks was holding that sharp object to Heywood’s neck in the movie Shawshank Redemption, “Everyone knows that Brooks Hatlen is a reasonable man.” Maybe Red will give his knuckleheaded comment another thought, admit he was mistaken and take Mr. Akbar up on his offer? But, then again, pride is a dangerous and powerful emotion.
Could he be trying to distract attention from his alleged relationship with his step-granddaughter?
It’s a weird thought, but it’s odd to see a random actor in the headlines twice in one week…
Mr Freeman will not attend. He already knows the “truth” about Tea Party activism, knuckle-dragging conservatives and the unruly floyovers between Manhattan and Hollywood: he needs only to ask Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn or, perhaps for perspective, Jerry Brown (after all, there’s nothing like polling a wide range of opinions to solidify your knowledge base).
The Pope and his cardinals refused to look through Galileo’s telescope because they already KNEW the correct version of Truth. Why confuse it with needless conflicting data? ANd so it is with Mr Freeman.
A great actor. Probably a nice man. And, sadly, an irrevocable bigot.
What could the Pope or his cardinals have seen through a telescope that could possibly have changed anything? Jupiter’s moons? They never had any problem with those. They never really had much problem with any of Galileo’s theories, as such. Their problem with him was entirely political; he deliberately and publicly defied their authority and they couldn’t allow that to go unpunished or everyone would be doing it. Think Orval Faubus.
That was like reading a beautiful poem first thing in the morning.
If he comes, will he bring his Step-grandaughter… err … fiance as his date
Now, now Roux, don’t be so judgemental. After all, I am sure there are a few redeeming personality traits that Mr. Freeman po$$e$$e$. 😉
[…] to protect two white teens. Something that is a bit more upbeat comes via Legal Insurrection: African-American Tea Party activist invites Morgan Freeman(who stated Tea Party participants were racist). The money quote is as follows: My name is Ali […]
“Let’s see if he takes up the offer.”
Hope you’re not holding your breath….
Hang on. “My name is Ali Akbar…and I…love Jesus”?!?! Really? That’s some tea party.
He’ll never come. As much as I like him as an actor, his politics annoy me.