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I would not have removed the Lee statue, but the rest yes. Robert E Lee was an honorable man, who didn't own any slaves and was against the south seceding originally. He also prevailed on Virginia to remain loyal to the Union, but he felt obligated to support and fight for his state after it seceded. Back then people tended to have more pride for their state than the country.
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Lee was apparently an excellent soldier & general - he'd distinguished himself in the Mexican American War. & he did well for the CSA, initially.
But he was also a product of Planter Society, & he certainly held slaves:
"Robert E. Lee liked to think of himself as a humane owner. But he could react as fiercely as any other when his power and authority were challenged. In 1859 three of Lee's slaves - Wesley Norris, his sister, and a cousin named Mary - attempted to escape from the Arlington plantation. Recaptured in Maryland, the unfortunate people were jailed there for two weeks and then delivered back into Lee's hands. Promising to teach them a lesson they would not soon forget, Lee had them taken to the barn, stripped to the waist, and whipped between twenty and fifty times each on their bare flesh by a local constable named Dick Williams. As the punishment proceeded, Wesley Norris later related, Lee "stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to 'lay it on well,'" which he did."
&
"In later years, ex-masters, anxious to deny that the white South had gone to war for the sake of slavery, commonly claimed to have favored emancipation before the war and to have happily embraced it when it came. Robert E. Lee - whose army had made a point of hunting down black people in southern Pennsylvania in 1863 and sending them into slavery back in Virginia - professed after the war to have "always been in favor of emancipation of the negroes" and claimed that now he "rejoiced that slavery is abolished."
(My emphasis - quotes from The fall of the house of Dixie: The Civil War and the social revolution that transformed the South, Bruce Levine, c2013, Random House - an excellent book - pp. 11 & 290)
Lee may have been an honorable man. But as a West Point military officer, he should have known that the balance of forces lay with the Union. Planter Society made for people who could not cooperate, even when the Civil War was precipitated by them as a class & was fought on their behalf (mostly by poor whites who didn't own any slaves), & they refused to donate slave labor or even hire out slaves to build the fortifications & etc. to defend the CSA. Being Planters apparently made them believe in their own propaganda - a dangerous fallacy.
Of all the statues, only the one that actually referenced "white supremacy" should be removed. The others, especially General Lee's should stay. The Confederacy is as much a part of Louisiana history as the French and Spanish periods and should be honored as such. All historic periods have had positive and negative aspects to it and we must acknowledge history rather than rewrite it just to be politically correct or to cater to liberal transplants from elsewhere who don't understand the South and our history. The fact that Donald Trump is our President shows that most people are sick and tired of this kind of political correctness and revisionism.
I was born in Louisiana and will be returning soon after 20 years away. Of these 20 years, 16 of them were spent in the liberal hellhole of Maryland where 3 Democrat jurisdictions control the state and nobody else has a voice and where the state's southern past is also ignored. The majority of southerners did NOT own slaves before the war. General Lee and the Confederacy are an integral part of Louisiana and American history. I have MANY friends who live in Louisiana and elsewhere who fly the rebel flag and have it tatooed on themselves. I am a person of color myself and they are some of my closest friends, yet the liberals will have you believe all of them are racist KKK members or something along those lines. Nobody wants slavery or Jim Crow back despite what the national media wants people to believe. It's the so called racist rural rednecks who put Bobby Jindal, a person of color, in the governor's mansion for 8 years. And by the way, Governor Jindal respected Southern culture and the flag, unlike Nikki Haley in South Carolina who gave in to pressure from Obama and the national media.
Also the majority of black people in the South don't care about the Confederate flag and are not offended by things named after Confederate heroes. All the noise comes from a vocal group of radical racial and left wing activists (the same people who are involved in the Black Lies Matter movement) and stirring up trouble that the media just jumps on.
I will never again visit New Orleans. Everyone who respects southern history and culture should be appalled at this display of foolish political correctness at the expense of our history. I don't understand our society today, if your part of a special interest group or minority some folks now feel entitled to being protected from all things that offend them. Worse yet our society is allowing it. I see things every day that I do not like or that offend me. In a free society I know I have to tolerate these things. If I don't like something I stay away from it rather than demand they change it to suit my values. That is exactly how I will treat New Orleans from now on, never going back, never spending my hard earned money there again. In a place depending on tourism they had better hope there are not too many people like me.
Of all the statues, only the one that actually referenced "white supremacy" should be removed. The others, especially General Lee's should stay. The Confederacy is as much a part of Louisiana history as the French and Spanish periods and should be honored as such. All historic periods have had positive and negative aspects to it and we must acknowledge history rather than rewrite it just to be politically correct or to cater to liberal transplants from elsewhere who don't understand the South and our history. The fact that Donald Trump is our President shows that most people are sick and tired of this kind of political correctness and revisionism.
I was born in Louisiana and will be returning soon after 20 years away. Of these 20 years, 16 of them were spent in the liberal hellhole of Maryland where 3 Democrat jurisdictions control the state and nobody else has a voice and where the state's southern past is also ignored. The majority of southerners did NOT own slaves before the war. General Lee and the Confederacy are an integral part of Louisiana and American history. I have MANY friends who live in Louisiana and elsewhere who fly the rebel flag and have it tatooed on themselves. I am a person of color myself and they are some of my closest friends, yet the liberals will have you believe all of them are racist KKK members or something along those lines. Nobody wants slavery or Jim Crow back despite what the national media wants people to believe. It's the so called racist rural rednecks who put Bobby Jindal, a person of color, in the governor's mansion for 8 years. And by the way, Governor Jindal respected Southern culture and the flag, unlike Nikki Haley in South Carolina who gave in to pressure from Obama and the national media.
Also the majority of black people in the South don't care about the Confederate flag and are not offended by things named after Confederate heroes. All the noise comes from a vocal group of radical racial and left wing activists (the same people who are involved in the Black Lies Matter movement) and stirring up trouble that the media just jumps on.
What a great post, everything you said is spot on. By the way tens of thousands of blacks fought for the confederacy, the confederate flag is as much theirs as it is any other southern person. Revisionist have made the flag racist, not the real history. I know a black man who's ancestors were confederate, obviously he is not offended by the flag. In fact most black people here in the south do not make a big deal about the flag. In the north more black people are offended by it because they have been taught to be offended by liberal attitudes that exist up there. Reps to you for a great post.
What a great post, everything you said is spot on. By the way tens of thousands of blacks fought for the confederacy, the confederate flag is as much theirs as it is any other southern person. Revisionist have made the flag racist, not the real history. I know a black man who's ancestors were confederate, obviously he is not offended by the flag. In fact most black people here in the south do not make a big deal about the flag. In the north more black people are offended by it because they have been taught to be offended by liberal attitudes that exist up there. Reps to you for a great post.
You mean the black people who would have been lynched for not fighting? Oh how nice.
The real history made it racist.
I'm glad you won't be back in New Orleans.
What a great post, everything you said is spot on. By the way tens of thousands of blacks fought for the confederacy, the confederate flag is as much theirs as it is any other southern person. Revisionist have made the flag racist, not the real history. I know a black man who's ancestors were confederate, obviously he is not offended by the flag. In fact most black people here in the south do not make a big deal about the flag. In the north more black people are offended by it because they have been taught to be offended by liberal attitudes that exist up there. Reps to you for a great post.
Everything I've read says Blacks (slave nor free) did not fight for the Confederacy. Do you have a cite or something we can look at?
Honestly, I have no feelings regarding the removal one way or the other, but I get why other people have strong feelings on each side of the argument. My biggest issues with the removal of these statues actually revolve more around the poor use of scarce resources, terrible planning, and a (almost) complete absence of any type of plan to redevelop these civic spaces.
If you want to take them down, then fine, but do it all in one shot, at night and be done. Instead the administration has decided to drag this out letting tension build and protests flourish, both of which have become unnecessarily disruptive to the citizens and visitors of the city. It is also causing the city to spend additional $$$ in overtime for NOPD that could be better used paying detectives to follow up on homicide, rape, armed robbery, or burglary investigations.
I also have a real issue with there being no solid plan for the redevelopment of these spaces. The spaces where the Liberty Place monument and Jefferson Davis statue are not a huge deal, but the spaces where Lee and Beauregard sit are very high traffic and prominent civic spaces and there needs to be a plan to redevelop these spaces, not some "spitballed" BS ideas which are not funded.
Honestly, I have no feelings regarding the removal one way or the other, but I get why other people have strong feelings on each side of the argument. My biggest issues with the removal of these statues actually revolve more around the poor use of scarce resources, terrible planning, and a (almost) complete absence of any type of plan to redevelop these civic spaces.
If you want to take them down, then fine, but do it all in one shot, at night and be done. Instead the administration has decided to drag this out letting tension build and protests flourish, both of which have become unnecessarily disruptive to the citizens and visitors of the city. It is also causing the city to spend additional $$$ in overtime for NOPD that could be better used paying detectives to follow up on homicide, rape, armed robbery, or burglary investigations.
I also have a real issue with there being no solid plan for the redevelopment of these spaces. The spaces where the Liberty Place monument and Jefferson Davis statue are not a huge deal, but the spaces where Lee and Beauregard sit are very high traffic and prominent civic spaces and there needs to be a plan to redevelop these spaces, not some "spitballed" BS ideas which are not funded.
Yes now there's the question of what will go in their place, and will not offend any of the snowflakes. If the liberals have their way, it will probably be a statue of Alton Sterling, the way a major site in Baltimore now has a giant mural of Freddie Gray and how things in Florida are being named after Trayvon Martin. These are historic squares in New Orleans and I'm sure whatever historical figure they choose to replace them with will have something in the past that offends someone. These statues have been there for a long time and nobody had an issue with them and few people have an issue with them TODAY. I believe mayor Landrieu and others either wanted this themselves for their own activist purposes or gave in to a very small but extremely vocal fringe which politicians and companies in today's America are all too eager to do.
We've got people like this in Minnesota, too. They want to dismantle all trace of the Indian American War of 1862. Most of them are White Liberals. You'd think relatives of the plainsmen and soldiers who fought would be the ones who would want to hide their deeds. Or the independent-minded relatives of townspeople who abused the prisoners on their forced march to Fort Snelling. Or the Dakotahs who wouldn't want to be reminded of their defeat and dispossession. But those aren't the majority of people who want to obfuscate history.
I was shocked with disbelief when I first heard about them. The monuments, archaeological sites and sacred grounds provide excellent educational opportunities to present both sides of the issue.
We still have people living for whom the massacre and war are living memories having been passed down orally in families. And that results in feelings. It's important to keep those feelings in perspective in the present. Education can do that.
And people need to own all their history, both the positive and the negative or it doesn't take but a few generations to forget. Then the risk of repeating it is increased.
Owning your history takes courage. Let's show some.
Yes now there's the question of what will go in their place, and will not offend any of the snowflakes. If the liberals have their way, it will probably be a statue of Alton Sterling, the way a major site in Baltimore now has a giant mural of Freddie Gray and how things in Florida are being named after Trayvon Martin. These are historic squares in New Orleans and I'm sure whatever historical figure they choose to replace them with will have something in the past that offends someone. These statues have been there for a long time and nobody had an issue with them and few people have an issue with them TODAY. I believe mayor Landrieu and others either wanted this themselves for their own activist purposes or gave in to a very small but extremely vocal fringe which politicians and companies in today's America are all too eager to do.
I can tell you what will go in their place. Nothing. It will be an empty lot with weeds that are unmowed or it will maybe at best be a fountain that will break within 2 years.
Then it will be just like the rest of the city.
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Call the question
