Jeff Foxworthy is a comedienne who pokes fun at his southern roots and has just written a children's book, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Access Atlanta. The book is titled, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
T.I. Harris is a musical rapper that glorifies his African American roots, instead, and currently is awaiting his return to prison. He is probably asking himself that Foxworthy book question about now given his recent remand back to prison.
Both men have family roots that originated from our fair state of Georgia, with homes in Atlanta that they grace for most of the year. But the two men have a very different way of living their lives, it appears. And T.I. could benefit from being a little more like Jeff Foxworthy in the future, if truth be told.
Jeff Foxworthy sets good example for T.I. Harris
Jeff Foxworthy spends his time, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, making a difference in society by trucking down to the Atlanta Union Mission with a boat load of biscuits. And he does it every Tuesday morning at the atrocious hour of 5:30 a.m.
T.I. Harris did community service too, but it was at the insistence of the federal justice system and in response to his arrest for illegal weapons possession. T.I.'s community junkets were press and legal system motivated, and you can bet your sweet bippy they were not at that early hour of the day.
The AJC reported that Foxworthy isn't motivated by the press at all, with Jeff saying, "I don't do it for the press." And likely he doesn't, since this is the first most of us have even heard about it. He doesn't go around trying to garner attention for his actions.
And Foxworthy didn't just make the trip once and stop going, as he says some of the men thought he would do. He keeps going back over and over again, because Jeff said in his recent Access Atlanta interview, "Now they know someone cares."
T.I. Harris "gets" Jeff Foxworthy philanthropy?
T.I. Harris tried to show someone he cared, too, recently, according to his and police statements made. He overhead a radio broadcast about a potential suicide going down in Atlanta and he took it upon himself to drive to the scene. He asked officers to use him any way they needed to get the jumper to reconsider, according to the singer. And they did, allowing the "Takers" to be a "giver" on that day.
But unlike Jeff Foxworthy's benevolence, many voiced a disbelief that Harris' efforts on that day were motivated by anything other than publicity to stem the forgone conclusion that he was going back to prison.
Harris denied it vehmently, but nothing about his behavior since his arrest in LA supports his philanthropic concern for his fellow man, unless you count one lavish fundraiser he attended. So many continue to doubt T.I.'s sincerity, including the judge, as reported by Access Atlanta.
Judge Charles Pannell, who sentenced T.I. last Friday to another 11 months in a penitentiary didn't have kind parting words, as he acknowledged Harris' abuse of the mercy given him before. The judge lamented how T.I.'s actions could have negative consequences on the program that could mean a serious new start in life for some men in his position. Men who wanted that change, sincerely.
"You certainly dumped a lot of smut on the whole experiment," Judge Pannell told the reckless rapper on that fateful day, per the AJC.
Jeff Foxworthy, on the other hand, appears to have made the most of the efforts afforded him, concluding his interview with Access Atlanta on a note that sounds like the best advice for T.I. Harris:
"There's a time for everything, a time to laugh a time to cry. I try to balance everything, which I think is the secret to life." Foxworthy is merely repeating what is in the Good Book, the best-selling book of all time: The Bible's book of Ecclesiastes.
And like this writer wrote in another interview this week, T. I. Harris will only truly find the "T.I. Road to Redemption" when he, as reported by Access Atlanta, follows Jeff Foxworthy's other poignant advice:
"You don't appreciate the fullness of life until you give some of yours away." Give it away T.I., go give it away. Atlantans, like that potential jumper and Jeff Foxworthy's buddies down at the Atlanta Mission, could use it.
And so could you, T.I. Harris, truth be told.
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