Future doesn't belong to cities that revere the Confederacy, Landrieu tells WaPo
By The Washington Post
on April 18, 2016 at 1:51 PM
updated April 18, 2016 at 2:33 PM
... The job was to haul off three Confederate monuments standing on public land, by order of the City Council. The fate of the massive statues has been a topic of increasing debate - civil and uncivil - in the courts and on streets here for almost a year. The businesses currently considering the job to remove them are understandably wary: In January, the company originally retained to do the work withdrew after the owner, his family and his employees said they had received death threats. Less than a week later, the owner's 2014 Lamborghini Huracán, valued at $200,000, was found aflame in a company parking lot in Baton Rouge. It's still unclear whether the events are related. No arrests have been made.
Then in February, the city removed a list of possible replacement contractors from its website after some reported receiving phone calls or emails that promised financial repercussions if they took the job. The city reported the threats to the FBI.
While those who want to preserve the monuments continue to press their legal options in federal courts and a recently introduced bill in the state legislature seeks to block the removal, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is confident that the prominent statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis will soon be removed from public view.
"If we're going to have monuments on public spaces, they should represent who we are or who we want to be. . . . That's as important as who we've been," said Landrieu, noting the city will celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2018. "As we try to build a 21st century, knowledge-based city that can compete in an international economy, I'm clear that the future does not belong to small, sleepy Southern cities that revere the Confederacy" ...
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/04/future_doesnt_belong_to_cities.html
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