New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu will be satisfied once the monuments are sold for scrap.
Via Cullman Times:
Mayor Kenneth Nail says he’s heard nothing but approval from Hanceville residents since reaching out to leaders in New Orleans with an offer to take that city’s now-banned Confederate monuments off their hands.
“Everybody who’s approached me has said they think it’s a great idea, and it seems like I haven’t offended anybody — which is never the goal,” said Nail Saturday.
“One of my good friends, who is black, even messaged me on Facebook and told me, ‘Look, some of my ancestors were forced to fight in that war [the Civil War], and I think it’s a good idea to remember these things.’ He told me, ‘I drive a truck, and I’ll even go down there and pick them up if the city needs me to.’”
Nail recently sent a letter to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, inquiring about the fate of four pieces of statuary removed from display in the wake of a 2015 New Orleans city council vote to censor from public view images of Confederate figures in the historic port city.
The monuments depict Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the Battle of Liberty Place — a postwar insurrection, ultimately quelled by the 22nd U.S. Infantry, that was fought on and around New Orleans’ Canal Street.
In Louisiana, controversy over the statues’ removal is ongoing, with litigation pending from the move’s opponents to have the statues restored at their former sites.
Nail said he doesn’t know what New Orleans intends to do with the statues, and that he’s only interested in obtaining them if they can be had at little to no cost for his city.
“I sent the letter to see what they might do,” said Nail. “I don’t know if they’re going to sell them, give them away, or something else. Honestly, we’re a small town, and if they end up selling them off for a lot of money, of course we couldn’t do that. If they do give them away, then I would approach the [Hanceville] city council to see how they want to proceed.
“My view is that it’s an opportunity; a great teaching tool that we could have in our city,” he added. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to reflect on all our struggles, and to celebrate how far we’ve come — while clearly acknowledging that we had those struggles. Different symbols mean different things to different people. We definitely don’t need to forget or be blind to history, which I think some well-meaning folks in our society are kind of pushing for, intentionally or unintentionally.