Young Perspective
Former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young was the featured speaker for the University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January at the Performing Arts Center.
Young has led a lifetime of public service and worked tirelessly to improve human and civil rights around the world. He sat down with Georgia Southern magazine to discuss his recent visit, his life in public service and to share his memories working alongside King.
GSM: What inspired you to devote your life to public service?
Young: My mother, father and grandfather had a chance to get an education through Christian missionaries, and they used to tell me, “To whom much has been given, of them much will be required.” I realized that I had been given everything, but it wasn’t for me, it was for me to pass on those blessings. I think that may be the theme of my life because I’ve been so blessed in so many ways that I am constantly trying to pass on those blessings to others.
GSM: How do you think your life would have been different had you not led a life of public service?
Young: Well, I don’t think it would have been different. The older you get the more you realize that one of these days you’re going to be asked, “Did you feed the hungry, did you clothe the naked, did you heal the sick, did you set at liberty those who are oppressed?” And I just think whether I was in business, politics or health I would still be trying to find ways to help people.
I like a parable that Dr. King used: “I admire the Good Samaritan, but I don’t want to be one.” He said, “I don’t want to spend my time picking up people by the side of the road after they’ve been beaten and robbed, I want to change the Jericho Road so that people don’t get beaten up and robbed.” And that’s why I think of myself as having a “ministry,” and not necessarily a life of public service.
GSM: Why is it important to you to speak to young people?
Young: What I find is that it is hard for college-aged students to get an overall perspective because they’re focusing on one subject at a time. But life doesn’t really work that way; it tends to work more in trends. So I try to give not only a perspective of the last 50 years, but also the next 50 years, because I think what’s most important is a sense of where we’ll all have to go together over the next 50 and beyond.
GSM: What is the best piece of advice you have to offer today’s students?
Young: Well, what woke me up was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech when I was maybe nine or 10 during the second World War. President Roosevelt said one of the most profound statements in history, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I think quite often young people get overwhelmed by details, by facts, overwhelmed by all these worldly incidents and they forget they really are in charge, if not of the world but of themselves. And if we’re endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights, there is a purpose for everybody. Maybe instead of looking for a job, you ought to look for a purpose and let your purpose lead you to a job or several jobs.
GSM: What is your favorite quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
Young: ‘Either we will learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish together as fools.’
GSM: What would you most like to be remembered for?
Young: That I lived and tried to help others. – Crissie Elrick