Andy Young Finds The Fastest Way Out of Wal-Mart

By making the comment, “You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.” Mr. Young set into action the eventual resignation from his position as company spokesman.

Every time I try to get out of Wal-Mart half the registers are closed and the other half have a string of people that promises a long wait. Andy got to skip the line and go right to the parking lot.

Mr. Young later explained, “It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,” Mr. Young said. “It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.”

As an Atlantan, this statement is arouses the same reflex that caused the ouster. Mr. Young was an decent mayor, especially in comparison to Jackson and Campbell. During his tenure Mr. Young effectively assisted in bringing in the Olympics, requiring his close participation with the business community. It is unfortunate that Mayor Young would discard these good relationships for what amounts to class pandering.

One of the victims of the 1999 Mark Barton shooting was Allen Tenenbaum. Allen was part owner in grocery store in east Atlanta. After his death the store was covered with notes conveying best wishes from people of the neighborhood. This, was touching proof that black communities and Jewish business owners do connect on a personal level. The statements made by Mr. Young are those of a politician, not of a man who deals with men.

Liberal thought is ascendant, fed by the anti-war and anti-Bush sentiment. This ascendancy is evidenced by the campaigning of Reverends Sharpton and Jackson in New England senatorial races. Andy now joins Al and Jessie, as public practitioners of preaching anti-Semitism as a means of exciting their disciples.

The disciples deserve better men as preachers.