New Orleans        Andy Young used to stand very tall in the pantheon of people who did right and represented. 

Andrew Young was from New Orleans.  Gives him points with me!  Rev. Young was Dr. King’s right hand at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the days of the movement.  He was the representative to the Untied Nations in the Carter Administration.  He was the Mayor of Atlanta.  He has usually told it like it was and come out swinging.

But, maybe all of that was then, and now, is — how should I say it — now? 

A couple of weeks ago a bunch of businesspeople announced that they were setting up a front group to defend Wal-Mart all around the country.  It hit the papers suddenly over recent days that the spokesperson for this curious, hucksterism of an enterprise was going to be Andy Young.  

I had to read a bunch of emails and then see it in the paper a couple of times to let it sink in that this is really the Andrew Young that I described before who is now going to be a pitchman spinning the Wal-Mart story in our communities. 

He says we don’t know the whole story about Wal-Mart. 

We actually know way, way too much. 

Enough to know this is no place for Andrew Young.  

They say you need to be careful sleeping with pigs or you’ll smell like one.  Why would Andy Young tarnish his reputation spinning tales for Wal-Mart? 

Is it really worth the money?

March 1, 2006