'Dark Nights' Led Young To Fulfill Purpose

By TOM JACKSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Apr 17, 2008

ST. LEO - Like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young endured the fire hoses, the snapping dogs and the jail cells of Dixie during the civil rights upheaval of the 1960s. He knew about indignity. He was with King in Memphis when the assassin's bullet elevated the great man from icon to martyrdom 40 years ago. He endured great sorrow.

And in 1979, as ambassador to the United Nations, Young's meetings with members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization caused an uproar that forced President Carter to seek his resignation. He has suffered humiliation.

These episodes were, indeed, "dark night(s) of the soul," Young told a rapt audience of more than 200 at Saint Leo University on Tuesday evening. But here's the thing about nighttime, he said: There's almost always stars.

On campus to illuminate the topic of God-centric social justice, Young evoked the cosmos as the punch line to his own mountain-top experience, a literal climbing-to-epiphany that echoes the peak imagery in King's prophetic Mason Temple speech hours before he was murdered.

A freshly minted college graduate, Howard University Class of 1953, worried that he'd wasted his parents' money; Young's mind was a jumble of despair as his legs carried him up, up, up a Maryland rise, until he could go no higher. With the lights of a town winking below and the stars spread overhead, the future lion called to roar for the rights of the disenfranchised was, himself, silenced.

Below and overhead, Young detected the evidence of intelligent design. The constellations. The hazy white streak of the Milky Way. "This didn't just happen," he murmured. The divine hand unfolded. Young's thoughts cleared. "If everything else in this world has a purpose," he reasoned, "there must be one for me, too."

This tale of personal revelation arrived no more than five minutes into his talk. And though he would go on for the better part of an hour, the moment would go unsurpassed.

Seeking your purpose provides design to life. Knowing that you have a purpose, whatever comes, gives courage. Consider, he says, Carter's current and widely criticized freelancing in the Middle East, his memorializing of Yasser Arafat and his literal embrace of Hamas stalwart Nasser al-Shaer. "Carter hugged [former Soviet Premier Leonid] Brezhnev," Young says, "and we got a ballistic missile treaty."

King's iconic "Letter from Birmingham Jail" sprung from just such a purpose-driven opportunity. Out of "despair and complete hopelessness," Young said, "the answers began to come."

Reared To Do Battle

That the civil rights struggle benefited from Young's energy is due in no small part to an upbringing that simultaneously prepared and allowed him to ponder questions larger than himself.

To the extent that any Southern black man whose growing up spanned the heart of the last century could be said to have been a son of privilege, Andrew Jackson Young Jr. qualified. The offspring of united-till-death professionals - dad was a dentist, mom was a schoolteacher - Young's rearing predicted Theo Huxtable in "The Cosby Show," the mischief-seeking first-born son routinely abraded by his parents' stern, loving lessons of responsibility, industry, loyalty, honesty and faithfulness.

An Early Lesson

When he was still in grade school, Young returned from the corner butcher boasting that he'd gotten change for $10 when he'd handed over only $5. The dentist was not amused. You have five minutes, he said, thumbing the tongue of his belt, to make it right; every minute you're late getting back here is a lick.

From such episodes did Young develop the qualities of the future intercollegiate sprinter - "I never got whipped," he says - as well as a lasting sense that making money must be accomplished "openly, honestly and aboveboard."

Well, it is at this juncture that those who revere a certain type of civil rights leader launch their daggers. Young "cash[ed] out his Freedom Movement chips" for life as a business consultant, "Black Commentator" editor Bruce Dixon wrote in March 2006; he "spat upon the movement for human rights and economic justice" on behalf of "ruthless" multinational firms such as Wal-Mart and Nike.

Young also has been bashed for his friendliness toward former Bush administration official, Iraq war architect and World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz, scourge of the left. At the bank, Wolfie was a great friend to Africa, Young says.

And any friend of Africa - the focus of Young's personal and corporate affections for nearly a dozen years - is a friend of his. This loyalty to the continent stretches him, a lifelong Democrat, to regard George W. Bush generously. "This president has done everything we've asked him to do for Africa," Young says.

Indeed, in a private conversation before his speech, Young sounded more like a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board than a former congressman who spent three terms "voting the liberal Democratic line." Having flinched - more or less, but not always, says The New York Times - from the strong-arm tactics of African dictators, Young favors free trade, open competition, minimal regulation, rewards for innovation, low, predictable tax rates and a wide distribution of economic influence.

Not that he'll be filling in the Republican bubble on his presidential ballot. Young, a Clinton associate for 30 years, roots for Hillary's nomination. On economics, "She gets it," he says. Barack Obama, not so much. At this point, Young adds, "The only reason I could give for voting for Barack is the color of his skin. If I did that, Dr. King would turn over in his grave."

Thus does the Freedom Movement lurch forward on the shoulders of an old lion, still seeking that world where people are judged on the content of their character, and fidelity to honorable purposes.

Columnist Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.