A Beeville grandmother who sent tea bag tabs to Washington and Austin earlier this month found herself at police headquarters Monday answering questions about her intentions.
“I’m just a normal person. I’m a single grandmother raising two granddaughters,” said Faye Freeman Tuesday morning.
So imagine her reaction when Texas Ranger Andy Lopez and Beeville Police Department Staff Sgt. Richard Cantu came to her door Monday and told her they wanted her to go to the police department for questioning.
The reason? Freeman had mailed the tags from 64 tea bags to different elected representatives in Austin and Washington on April 4 to protest government spending. And one of the recipients had called the authorities to report her, saying he or she had received something suspicious in the mail from a woman in Beeville.
“If you were on the receiving end of something like that, what would you think?” Freeman said Lopez asked her.
“If I’d got something like that, I would have called the person back and said, ‘Can I help you?’” was her response.
When investigators asked if she thought she would open a suspicious envelope that had no return address, Freeman said, “The envelope had my return address on it.”
Later she asked this reporter, “How did they find me if there was no return address?”
Freeman was doing what thousands of working taxpayers are doing this month as part of a protest against increased government spending and coming tax increases.
Instead of sending tea bags, the grandmother decided to send the tabs from the bags and use the tea herself.
When she was asked why it was that she did not include a note in the letter explaining why she was sending the tabs, she had a simple answer. “That would have been an awful lot of writing.”
Freeman sent the envelopes to everyone in Washington and Austin she thought might listen. That included President Barack Obama, her U.S. senators and a number of representatives, state senators and representatives.
“When you do something like this you want to cover the chain of command,” she said.
But she never expected lawmen to show up at her door asking her to go downtown.
“I’m really surprised it happened,” Freeman said. “You should have seen my neighbors. I’m just a normal person and when the Texas Rangers came looking for me, they said, ‘Oh my goodness, what’s going on?’”
“I was stunned to start with,” Freeman said. “I didn’t have any idea. They kept assuring me that I wouldn’t be arrested.”
“They were polite. I didn’t have any problems answering their questions,” Freeman commented.
She said she planned to attend the tea party scheduled for the Bee County Courthouse lawn this morning. The entire tea bag tab incident was related to that event, a protest against the government for spending big and taxing big at a time when regular people are trying to make ends meet.
Other Bee County residents also mailed off tea bags to state and national representatives, but unlike Freeman most included a note of explanation with theirs.
“It seems to me that they keep wanting to tax people but they aren’t listening to what we want,” Freeman said. To her, that is taxation without representation, the reason the first tea party was held in Boston at the beginning of the American Revolution.
Lopez said he cannot comment much on the investigation. He said he received a call from someone who was concerned about the letter received from Freeman.
Lopez said he believes if she had included a letter explaining her feelings in the envelope there might not have been a complaint.
“I was asked to look into it, to see if there was anything fishy about it,” Lopez said of the envelope. “I was enlightened by Mrs. Freeman.”
Lopez did suggest that she might have been more clear with her intentions by including a note or letter of some kind. He said that when she said it would have taken a lot of writing to include a letter in each of the 64 envelopes, he simply suggested that she could have written one letter and made copies.
Lopez admitted that he had not kept up with the news regarding the tea party movement but he understands the intent now.
“She’s articulate and she seems sincere and genuine about that,” Lopez said.
As far as the tea bag letters and tea party protests planned for Wednesday across the nation, Lopez said he could understand the intent.
“This is America,” Lopez said. “Whatever makes your boat float.”
Tax protester in hot water over tea bags
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And that was not an "apology" it was a plain "Sorry I brought it" which cames off as nothing but sarcasm.
And made for a great story...
A Big Thank you for this story!
I got a kick out of Mrs. Freeman, she is a true inspiration.
And have to admit seeing David_Blackmon say he was "Sorry" was the cherry on top!
I fully understand that, and have no doubt at all that Ranger Lopez was simply doing his job. One does not become a Texas Ranger without exhibiting extraordinary professionalism. As I think I've clearly stated previously on this thread, though a couple of folks here want to ignore it, I just think it's a shame he had to waste his valuable time engaged in such an absurd task. I also think the public official who asked him to do so should have the intestinal fortitude to identify him- or herself and explain why a tab from a tea bag in a mailing envelope was such a frightful thing.
Sorry I brought it up.
David
I especially liked Lopez's comment....“She’s articulate and she seems sincere and genuine about that,” Lopez said.
“This is America,” Lopez said. “Whatever makes your boat float.”
Ranger Lopez, being a professional investigator, wouldn't tell me who filed the report.
And I understood. Andy's really a good guy, a straight shooter. Gotta be. His claim to fame is winning a shootout years ago when he was a DPS trooper on the side of U.S. Highway 77 and a drug smuggler pulled a gun on him and started firing.
You should meet him.
Gary
I too, have noticed the comments left by some and I agree it does seem they are always looking to pounce on someones comments and want to agitate and create chaos.
You smile and keep your kind descent comments up don't let the (bully on the block) bother you. They just want someone new to fight with.
AS for Mrs. Freeman you pegged her right she is an honorable woman which makes some out there feel indignant toward others that they aren't as brave and righteous.
I'm in my 70's and this is all new to me, I'm enjoying it for the most part but do find some comments disturbing and I guess I'm too old to understand hateful comments towards others.
Apparently, you also need to figure out which story you're responding to before hitting that "post comment" button.
Hilarious. :)
D_B... you did try and deflect the issue and it took three comments before you decided to give Mrs. Freeman the credit she deserves. The oxymoron of it all was the fact that they did send a Texas Ranger out on a witch hunt. It's a shame you didn't get that detail. But it seems you are more concerned with attacking people and trying to start a fight.
Mrs. Freeman went in of her own freewill and she doesn't seem to terribly upset by it she knew she did nothing wrong, As was mentioned before no one would have ever heard of Mrs. Freeman and her good deeds, if the wheels of injustice and government waste had not persuade her.
The fact that they sent TX Rangers out, hits her tea tag protest home!
Mrs. Freeman should be commended for her actions and the dignity she showed throughout the ordeal. I'm afraid others wouldn't have come out as admirably as Mrs. Freeman.
More Power to Her!
"I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained," et cetera, et cetera..."Fax mentis incendium gloria cultum," et cetera, et cetera..."Memo bis punitor It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole fizzy lifting drinks. You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get *NOTHING*! You lose! Good day sir! I said good day sir.
We live in America, not Cuba or Russia. No one in our country should be hauled out of their home down to police headquarters to be subjected to questioning for the simple act of mailing a tab from a teabag to public officials.
I'm proud of Mrs. Freeman as well. The issue here, in my view, is why any public official should be so paranoid and frankly silly as to request a Texas Ranger to waste his valuable time engaging in such an absurd pursuit.
Thanks.
ps Shame on the offical that made the complaint but thanks for giving her the publicity!