Andrew Young on the Final Episode of 'The Colbert Report'

Andrew Young stands barely visible behind General Ray Odierno.

An iconic Atlantan was just behind Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, crooning “We’ll Meet Again” on the series finale of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central Thursday night. Despite a busy schedule, former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador Andrew Young says he didn’t hesitate for a moment about participating in the faux conservative news anchor’s finale. “Being there last night was part of what I call the Colbert phenomenon,” Young told me Friday morning during a phone call as he flew back from New York City. “He helped young people deal with the complexities and anxieties and threats of the world. He was poking fun of the most threatening issues of our time.”

Young said that Colbert’s decision to consign his alter ego persona to eternity, “reminded me of what Martin Luther King used to do with us.” A member of MLK’s inner circle and a key player in pivotal events of the civil rights movement, Young recalls of King: “He would assure us that some of us might not make it out of Birmingham or Selma. He said, ‘But I might be able to preach you into heaven.’ He always knew the real threat was to him but he would always palm it off on me or Ralph [David Abernathy] or Hosea [Williams] and he’d preach a funny mock funeral for us. I realized that’s what Colbert was doing all this time. He was satirizing our fears. The world really is scared to death right now. There’s more anxiety and tension in people’s lives now than I’ve seen in my lifetime. You can’t look at the real news. You get depressed. Stephen’s taught us to laugh at the world, our problems and our weaknesses.”

Full Article: Alanta Magazine.

(Thank you to sharilyn_j for the Tip!)