![\"YoungPerspective\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/YoungPerspective.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young was the featured speaker for the University\u2019s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January at the Performing Arts Center.<\/p>\n
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<\/em> magazine to discuss his recent visit, his life in public service and to share his memories working alongside King.<\/p>\n GSM: What inspired you to devote your life to public service?<\/strong> GSM: How do you think your life would have been different had you not led a life of public service?<\/strong> I like a parable that Dr. King used: \u201cI admire the Good Samaritan, but I don\u2019t want to be one.\u201d He said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to spend my time picking up people by the side of the road after they\u2019ve been beaten and robbed, I want to change the Jericho Road so that people don\u2019t get beaten up and robbed.\u201d And that\u2019s why I think of myself as having a \u201cministry,\u201d and not necessarily a life of public service.<\/p>\n GSM: Why is it important to you to speak to young people?<\/strong> GSM: What is the best piece of advice you have to offer today\u2019s students?<\/strong> GSM: What is your favorite quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?<\/strong> GSM: What would you most like to be remembered for?<\/strong> Civil Rights Leader Andrew Young Visits Campus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-5126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nYoung: My mother, father and grandfather had a chance to get an education through Christian missionaries, and they used to tell me, \u201cTo whom much has been given, of them much will be required.\u201d I realized that I had been given everything, but it wasn\u2019t for me, it was for me to pass on those blessings. I think that may be the theme of my life because I\u2019ve been so blessed in so many ways that I am constantly trying to pass on those blessings to others.<\/p>\n
\nYoung: Well, I don\u2019t think it would have been different. The older you get the more you realize that one of these days you\u2019re going to be asked, \u201cDid you feed the hungry, did you clothe the naked, did you heal the sick, did you set at liberty those who are oppressed?\u201d And I just think whether I was in business, politics or health I would still be trying to find ways to help people.<\/p>\n
\nYoung: What I find is that it is hard for college-aged students to get an overall perspective because they\u2019re focusing on one subject at a time. But life doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s most important is a sense of where we\u2019ll all have to go together over the next 50 and beyond.<\/p>\n![\"Andrew-Young\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Andrew-Young-315x212.jpg\")
\nYoung: 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, \u201cThe only thing we have to fear is fear itself.\u201d 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\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
\nYoung: \u2018Either we will learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish together as fools.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nYoung: That I lived and tried to help others. – Crissie Elrick<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"