New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu published a letter to the Washington Post to explain the reasons for the city’s removal of four Confederate monuments. The same paper reported Torch-wielding group protests Confederate statue removal in Charlottesville, VA.
I don’t care about Comey, or emails, or Donald’s general asshattery. Out here in the world, another flashpoint of racial tension is brewing. The alt-right White neo-nazis like Richard Spencer are pushing hatred and violence to dangerous extremes. Spencer is a Bannon level dangerous person. I have no qualms calling him evil.
But Landrieu’s letter gave me hope. It reminded me that there are people who remember the long road to today’s societal unrest. The city of New Orleans is looking to redefine itself in the face of people like Spencer. Hopefully a redefined New Orleans can point the way to a redefinition of our nation.
But first, a word from our sponsors ...
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
“We must remember this history, and learn from it, but we shouldn’t celebrate it.”
The record is clear: New Orleans’s Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were erected with the goal of rewriting history to glorify the Confederacy and perpetuate the idea of white supremacy. These monuments stand not as mournful markers of our legacy of slavery and segregation, but in reverence of it. They are an inaccurate recitation of our past, an affront to our present and a poor prescription for our future.
The right course, then, is to excise these symbols of injustice. The Battle of Liberty Place monument was not built to commemorate the fallen law enforcement officers of the racially integrated New Orleans police and state militia. It was meant to honor members of the Crescent City White League, the people who killed them. That kind of “honor” has no place in an American city. So, last month, we took the monument down.
I don’t have much else for tonight other than the title of the diary. New Orleans is fighting for a better tomorrow. Tonight we are all N’Awlins, chere.
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
TOP COMMENTS
from your humble diarist:
Only 5 percent of Senate staffers are black. Congress needs the ‘Rooney Rule.’
from your humble diarist:
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, May 13, 2017, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures for yesterday, May 13, 2017. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!