Monumental Heist: A Story of Race; A Race to the White House

By Charles E Marsala

Monumental Heist reviews the story of the lifting of one monument in St. Louis, which spread to four monuments in New Orleans, which spread to thirty cities in America. The action increased the race as a topic in America during the 2016 & 2020 campaigns.

At a time when New Orleans was suffering from boil water advisories, flooding streets, increased murder and unemployment rates, and $231,000.00 in unfunded pension liabilities, Mayor Mitch Landrieu decided to remove $30 million in art. The project would be funded by an anonymous donor, who may have had his sites set on the art.

Monumental Heist reviews the lives of the men in the monuments, the reason they were erected, and the impact on America. .

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Mar 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781456630843

Book preview

Videos

Acknowledgements

My dad set the example as an Assistant Scoutmaster in Troop 70. He was the merit badge counselor for Citizenship in the Community, Citizen in the Nation, and Conservation of Natural Resources. Mom always had a natural insight for human caring and relationships.

At Jesuit High in New Orleans: Mr. James Steckel was a history teacher without equal. His process reinforced the material he taught. Mr. Steckel served in the Third Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge.

Fr. Wayne Roca S.J. was Student Council Moderator and taught the works of Plato and Socrates in Government Class. Fr. Harry Tompson arrived in 1974 as Principal. A legendary man inspiring all to find their inter-strength and be their best. President Fr. Paul Schott S.J. a calm and methodical leader during the post-Vietnam era to rebuild Jesuit New Orleans.

There are numerous organizations that were in place and some that developed over time to honor the 200,000 men that died defending their homes and families: The United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Monumental Task Committee, Camp Beauregard, The Sons of the Confederacy, the Louisiana Historical Society, and the Louisiana Landmarks Society to name a few.

Acknowledgements even go to individuals that believe America’s monuments should come down. Several helped with the writing of this book as all opinions matter and both sides need to be heard from positions of respect.

Many individuals contributed material for content: Cheri, Frank, Geary, George, Wendy, Jeff, Susan, Robert, Karen, William, Dana, Richard, Cleme, Kevin, Sean, Anne, John, George, Mimi, Bill, Dara, Ronnie, Joseph, Paul, Pete, Charles, Stephanie, Butch, and more. At times in our lives, a modest person is sent to us, who brings with them the special power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Charlie for being that person.

Thank you for your purchase. Prior to publication, we made a video for an author on Human Trafficking and one for a rescue home for Modern Day Sex Slavery. Ten percent of sales will go towards additional production.

Prologue: Noble Citizens Lost to Political Ambition

"Dear Mitch,

March 8, 2018

The announcement of your plans for the removed Confederate-era monuments was a great disappointment to me because it confirms our worst fears you used the removal of the monuments, and it the process the citizens of New Orleans, to advance your national political profile. The final chapter you have written for your legacy has inspired me to lament about our past.

Many times, over the years, I defended your actions in the face of harsh condemnation from the audience. Regardless of how overwhelming the criticism of you had become, I remained steadfast and defended your based on my perception of your intent…… (Scoot’s full letter on the WWL web site and in the book Appendix #11.)

I remain,

Scoot

WWL-AM-FM-WWL.com

New Orleans, LA"

Since April 2015, America has dealt with the issue of removing monuments to people accused of being racist, owning slaves, or having their monument erected by Democratic Party Jim Crow era white supremacists.

In June 2015, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu became a spokesperson of this movement. His vision was to redesign New Orleans for its 300th Anniversary in 2018. Landrieu’s phrase was to design the city as if we had gotten it right the first time.

On March 7, 2018 Landrieu announced he would be leaving the disbursement of the monuments, removal of the pedestals, and redesigning of the sites to incoming Mayor Latoya Cantrell to resolve. Landrieu’s national book tour, on how he removed four of nine Confederate era monuments in New Orleans, started two weeks later March 20th.

Prior to the tour his supporters, such as talk show host Scoot, began expressing disappointment at his handling of the three-year old situation in New Orleans. The issue became if the Lifting of Monuments was for political aspirations.



New Orleans 300th Anniversary: May 7, 2018

As America prepares for its 250th Anniversary in 2026, Mitch Landrieu has been mentioned as a Presidential candidate for 2020 and could be President for the America’s Semiquincentennial. Hence the question, what would designing America’s national monuments as if we got it right the first time mean with the current slippery slope we are on nationwide?



Whoever is elected President in 2024, will be President during the Semiquincentennial.

As President of the U.S. Council of Mayors in 2017, Landrieu’s redesign philosophy has already impacted America’s cities with various methods of solutions being implemented. Numerous False Narratives have been written about events, the men, and the women of the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. Noble citizens with noble intentions have been disparaged inaccurately. Violence and injury have resulted in several cities, with death in Charlottesville. It is time to evaluate the various responses and determine best practices.

Initially, two of the four monuments Landrieu removed interested me:

The Monument to PGT Beauregard, who died in 1893 and whose mother was Italian. Beauregard was the only publicly displayed monument honoring a specific Italian in New Orleans. It was in the neighborhood he lived and where his engineering for New Orleans’ water drainage system, City Park Master Plan, and famous street car system all intersect.

The Monument to the Battle of Liberty Place of March 14, 1874. The monument recognizes a citizen’s uprising against voter suppression, gun confiscation, high municipal debt, and cronyism. It was erected 1891, after Mayor Shakspeare allowed the lynching of eleven acquitted Sicilians. Some of us wanted to leave this monument in place and add the names of the Sicilians. The monument already had the names of eleven police and twenty citizens who died in the Battle.

At the time the monument issue erupted, I was making a documentary for AWE News of 17-episodes of thirty minutes each for local broadcasting on the Culture and Coastal Environment of Louisiana. The documentary is in honor of my dad, who loved building St. Joseph’s Altars and fishing the Lakes and Bayous.



The Feast of St. Joseph is celebrated in New Orleans with altars, parades, and pasta.

Over 250,000 Sicilians migrated to New Orleans after the War for Southern Independence (WSI) to work on plantations, at the produce market, and on the shipping docks. Most were recruited by patrons who recruited for the plantations in Sicily. For a time, part of the French Quarter was called Little Palermo. Progresso Soups and Luxury Pasta originated in Piccolo Palermo.

Having been an eight-year council member and former Mayor of Atherton, California; it was painful watching this destruction of heritage and division of citizens happen. Instead of dealing with New Orleans current issues, a Wag the Dog event was happening.

Leaving the December 2015 Council Meeting and the 6-1 vote, I messaged the former City Attorney of Atherton and expressed my displeasure at the way the process was being handled by the City Council regarding parliamentary procedure and not reviewing the Heritage Section of City Charter of New Orleans. He agreed.

Council Members commented that the Mayor’s initiative should have come from a process driven by citizens, boards, and commissions rather than be driven by the Mayor’s in the press.

Following the meeting, I headed to lunch in Mid-City. A conversation started with Jimmy, the owner of Liuzza’s by the Track. Jimmy had grown up in the same neighborhood as PGT Beauregard and Jimmy’s restaurant was close to the monument. Jimmy advised me his ancestors had helped raise the money for Beauregard monument and provided me his only copy of four pages of what Beauregard had done for New Orleans and America. The list was impressive, including a poem delivered during the 1893 memorial service by a noted black poet, Victor Earnest Rillieux. Beauregard was a Civil Rights activist and pushed school desegregation from 1873-1893.

I used Photoshop and wrote the biography of Beauregard into the pedestal on the monument along with Rillieux’s poem, The Last Tribute. It was shared on Facebook and reached over 112,000 people. Many supported the idea of descriptive plaques on the monuments with the addition of new monuments honoring black Americans. In time, I became connected to several noble people in New Orleans who lost ancestors in the War for Southern Independence and saw the monuments as memorials to ancestors with no local grave.

In November 2017, during a presentation at Newman School on his new book DaVinci, Walter Isaacson responded that he had fought to keep the Beauregard Monument up. Isaacson noted Beauregard was a noble man, the monument had been erected by noble people, and added it was a great piece of art. Isaacson quickly mentioned the Lee Monument was put up by some noble people as well.

With those reference points in mind, an analysis of how to best address the monument situation is the focus of this book.



The PGT Beauregard Monument in New Orleans and a vision of descriptive biographical text added to the monument. His 1873 words: Equal Rights! One Flag! One Country! One People! are similar to the 1892 Pledge of Allegiance.

When I drive to Monroe LA to visit family, I often stop at the rest stop in Vicksburg, which has a federal park on the Mississippi River known as the Louisiana Circle with monuments to the men from Louisiana who tried to stop General Grant’s siege of the town in 1863.





View from Louisiana Circle National Park with descriptive plaques in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

With Troop 70, dad and I hiked the 14 miles Boy Scout Trail in Vicksburg. The monuments of the trail provide a learning experience, similar to the Freedom Trail in Boston, and the monuments of the historic district of New Orleans. Outside the park near the Vicksburg, Interstate-20 Visitor’s Center is the Louisiana Circle Civil War Park.





Monuments to U.S. Military (including Confederate Army) on Federal Land are protected by Federal Law 18 §1369. New Orleans’ Captain Toby Hart’s monument is therefore safe in Vicksburg.

The park uses descriptive plaques to explain the battle and the men who fought.

One monument is to Captain Toby Hart. The Captain Toby Hart memorial is representative of the intent of most of the 700 monuments and memorials of WSI veterans around America erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Hart was born in Newberry South Carolina, and his family moved to New Orleans in 1847, when he was twelve years old. Hart painted houses and signs. In 1859 he began playing baseball. During the war, he organized a heavy artillery volunteer unit to try and stop General Grant at Vicksburg. After the war he returned to New Orleans, organized a baseball exhibition for the 1884 World’s Fair, formed an amateur team, and in 1887 Hart became the city’s first professional sports franchise, the Pelicans. New Orleans first baseball stadium was down the street from his monument.

Hart’s monument was erected in 1929 during the Jim Crow era across the street from Jefferson Davis’s monument by his son. There was no explanation given as to why Hart’s monument could remain and Davis or Beauregard or Lee must go. We have lost a learning tool for not being able to occasionally be inspired to research a full life by a reading an inscription on a monument that we walk by.

In New Orleans, Hart’s monument has been vandalized as it is located at the same intersection as the Jefferson Davis Monument. Many argue that monuments to WSI veterans were put up for racist reasons. However, the specifics of at least those in Louisiana do not support that concept. Simply a son honoring his dad.





Toby Hart memorials in Vicksburg (left) and in vandalized New Orleans (right).

Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War in 1854 and convinced the President and Congress to build a railroad from Los Angeles to New Orleans, a mayor economic benefit to New Orleans. The reason given to remove his monument was its location and his role as President of the Confederacy. His monument happened to be among five confederate monuments. It is clear to me that a comprehensive policy is needed, as the other monuments could face the same fate.



New Orleans Police meet at the Toby Hart Monument as the monument to Jefferson Davis is removed. Approximately 100 police were deployed for the event. Hart is one of five Confederate Monuments remaining in New Orleans.

In November 2015, it was announced that Louisiana would have an open seat in the 2016 U.S. Senate Race. A close political contact suggested I consider the seat. I had already had several main campaign issues including: the 8,000 square mile Dead Zone off the Coast of Louisiana, the large number of opioids being prescribed to seniors, healthcare reform, protecting national defense facilities, addressing city infrastructure, and increasing Wildlife Trafficking Laws to protect endangered species such as Elephants, Rhinos, Giraffes, Lions, and Tigers.

In July 2016, I entered the U.S. Senate Race for the open seat in Louisiana and made creating a national policy for monument retention or removal as part of my campaign platform. Such a policy would prohibit a shortsighted or myopic mayor from removing tens of millions of dollars in art to divert attention from other problems their city faces for political ambition.

Today if you are a Preservationist for whatever reason, you are given any one of numerous insulting names such as bigot or racist or terrorist. A nine-year-old saying good-bye to her ancestor PGT Beauregard’s memorial was one-of-four shot with a paintball gun on Mother’s Day by those who vilify Preservationists. What encourages such behavior? How to we deescalate the hate caused by political short-sightedness?

My family arrived in America around 1910 from Sicily, at a time of racism towards Sicilians, Germans, Jews, and African-Americans. Geno, my grandfather, joined the Knights of Columbus and was part of their platform to unify the country.





The Knights in 1924, commissioned and published a book by W.E.B. DuBois, "The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America." Dubois was a co-founder of the NAACP in 1909 and a famous civil rights proponent.

FDR rewarded the Knight’s American unification efforts, World War I efforts, and philanthropy during the Great Depression by creating the first national observance of Columbus Day in 1934. Today some Civil Rights groups, unaware of the Knight’s efforts want the day removed.

The Knight’s 1920s book publishing was part of a post WWI healing program for

America to stop the KKK’s and alt-left’s racist activities including protests against Jews, Germans, Catholics, and Blacks. I hope this book weakens all current Neo-Nazis, KKK, and White Nationalist racist efforts and I have always denounced those groups. Their efforts and opinions are wrong and detrimental to America. These groups should not be allowed to usurper memorials of men who fought to protect their families, into something more.

However, on May 1, 2017 after watching the Army Truck arrive with Antifa youth and how the press and documentary journalists have failed to cover that part of the story, I felt some needed to record for history the significance of the event from a moderate perspective.

I hope this book provides healing viewpoints as to why the monuments and memorials are important to the people whose great, great grandmothers raised the funds along with others to provide a dignified memorial to men who did not return, returned wounded, or impoverished from a disastrous war.

On March 24th, 2018 TEDN hosted an international seminar on monument removal at Southern University of New Orleans. America has entered the slippery-slope. Today’s mayors, councils, and citizens need to consider the long-term consequences of their actions versus a short-term vision.

On March 25th, the group Take ‘em Down Nola hosted a rally to request removal of five more monuments including the founder of New Orleans Jean Bienville, President Andrew Jackson, Senator Henry Clay, Supreme Court Chief Justice E. D. White, and Education Philanthropist and City Park benefactor John McDonough.

On March 28th, Geary Mason and I followed Malcolm Suber of Take ‘em Down Nola on WWL Radio on Newell Norman’s show discussing how far the slippery slope would take us and if the first removals were even justified.

On March 30th a student protest at Hofstra University in New York focused on removing Thomas Jefferson’s monument because he owned slaves. Yet Jefferson in 1807 signed The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves into America as the first step to ending slavery.

On April 2, 2018 the media began national coverage of the 4-1 vote by Arcata California to remove the monument to President McKinley. McKinley was a Union Officer in the Civil War, but residents of Arcata began in the 1970s to see his Spanish-American War policies as Imperialist and pushed for his removal.

The lone no vote was by a council member who favored a full town vote on the issue. Residents can mandate City-Wide votes through original signatures on a petition. Included is an example in Appendix 20.

McKinley is the opposite of the Confederacy. The Confederacy favored a smaller federal army with a smaller military capability and agenda.

New Orleans philanthropist Frank Stewart refers to Positive Evolution and presents that we are removing our history that promotes continuing the positive evolution of ending Modern Day Slavery worldwide from its geographical height in the 1500s.

This book provides best practices and historical context to resolve racial issues, honor war memorization, and promote ongoing patriotism. It uses the New Orleans events as a case study.

This book’s appendix provides the original full documents referenced, so you can do your own research- just as Robert E. Lee practiced. It even includes the 37-page dedication speech of the 1884 New Orleans’ Robert E. Lee Monument as it puts perspective on the attitude of the period to honor noble men and patriots. That speech puts in context how incorrect and wrong it is for myopic mayors to constantly refer to The Cult of the Lost Cause for putting up monuments to veterans.

When you are in New Orleans, take time to visit and tour the dozens of memorials scattered though out the metropolitan area starting with Joan of Arc from 1429 on Decatur Street near the French Market. Although the two amazing Alexander Doyle statues from surrounding areas are now gone, numerous other pieces remain in the outdoor museum known as the French Quarter.



We should not allow myopic mayors to remove our art and set us back on race relations to avoid addressing the other issues facing their cities face.

Part I: The Cult of the Myopic Mayors

Chapter One

Wag the Dog, Removing Monuments while Infrastructure Crumbles

Cult: a relatively small group of people having beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister. Myopic, lacking foresight, intellectual insight, or not being able to see actions that have negative consequences,

Starting in 2015, some Mayors began referring to the great, great grandmothers of today’s Preservationists as The Cult of the Lost Cause. It is both a high insult to use the word Cult and multiplied by attacking a deceased grandmother.

Perhaps this group realizes the displeasure, when they are referred to in the same manner. The mayors are a group, which has limited perspective of American History, are avoiding discussing more pressing problems, and have created a slippery slope for those that follow them into office. They are The Cult of the Myopic Mayors.









Residents display yard signs to encourage Mayor Mitch Landrieu to see past the monument issue. Pot holes cause millions a dollar a year in damage to cars. Broken fresh water and drainage pipes have created several sinkholes in New Orleans.

The Mayor of New Orleans is also the President of the New Orleans’ Sewage & Water Board. As Mayor Landrieu entered his eight year, a three-hour summer rainstorm brought flooding and attention to the city’s problems and neglect of the drainage and fresh water system. Cedric Grant, the Deputy Mayor for Capital and Infrastructure work, was given in 2014 the Executive Director of Sewage & Water Board position by the Mayor and in 2015 the monument removal assignment was added to his duties.

On July 19, 2017 when The New Orleans Office of the Inspector General released a 69-page report on Lead Exposure and Infrastructure Reconstruction in New Orleans. Cedric Grant responded, We are acutely aware of the problem. Three weeks later Grant resigned. Areas in New Orleans experiencing upcoming roadwork and water line replacements loosen lead from pipes into homes New Orleans S & WB admitted it does not know where all existing lead service lines are located.

The last reported S&WB testing report was in 2016 of 80 addresses. The test results were an average on the East Bank of 7ppb, which is 40% higher the World Health Organization’s 5ppb report linked children developmental problems. Two samples or 2% were about 15ppb, at 10% about 15ppb the EPA would become involved. The EPA is evaluating if it needs to lower its action levels. New Orleans has not release numbers for 2017. See Appendix 23





In August 2017, after the city flooded, Grant first blamed in it on Climate Change, but data later showed two pumping stations were working at less than 65%. Grant immediately retired on a $175,000.00 a year pension after the flood. Through the remaining nine months of his Mayoral term, Mitch Landrieu did not appoint a permanent replacement. The position was open through May 2018.





The August 5, 2017 rainstorm flood in New Orleans was due to myopic attention focused on removal of monuments, and not the city’s capacity to remove rain water.

Lifecycles releases a video on America Recycles Day of November 15, 2016.



Mayor Landrieu ended New Orleans glass recycling program in the French Quarter and Central Business District in December 2015. With 40,000 customers only 400 were participating. If a city will not recycle, it is myopic to think the citizens are going to reduce CO2 emissions per capita.





The City of New Orleans does not report progress on its CO2 or Greenhouse Gas emissions. Between 2007 and 2014, the Municipality emissions increased by 8% while overall City emissions are down 17%.



New Orleans Murder rate per capita is in the top four in the nation. Other cites removing monuments such as St. Louis, Memphis, and Baltimore have murder per capita rates in the top seven nationally.

In December 2017 The Aspen Institute Awarded Mitch Landrieu its Preston Robert Tisch Award in Civic Leadership for reducing the murder rate in New Orleans, yet newspapers report a 18% increase. Landrieu has claimed New Orleans has less than a 5% unemployment rate, but the Urban League reports over 40% of black men as unemployed. It is myopic not to see these numbers do not correlate.



The rate of unemployment for black men is over 40% posted in The Advocate. This means New Orleans must have at least 15% unemployment. The removal of monuments created a talking point for The Cult of the Myopic Mayors outside of murder, unemployment, infrastructure, and unfunded pensions.



Lowering the Assumed Annual Investment Return Rate to 6.5% would require the City of New Orleans to relocate an additional $7 million into its pension plan. It would also drop the funding percentage to 62.6%.



The 2018 state rankings by U.S. News and World Report listed Louisiana as #50. Louisiana is weighted heavily from its major cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport. Myopic Mayors are not focused on the right criteria to measure improving their cities, such as: education, health care, infrastructure, economy, opportunity, fiscal stability, recycling, CO2 reduction, and crime.





American Cities and States are failing to see, report, and address their large unfunded retirement pension liabilities, inability to recycling unsafe drinking water, crime, modern day slavery, unemployment, and other matrixes.

As a result, Myopic Mayors are using tax funds meant for infrastructure to make retiree payments. Mayors and Councils have a large time bomb they should be seeing.

To date the most famous disaster is in Flint Michigan. When revenues went down and retirement expenditures became due, the city was not able to repair its drinking water.

In March 2018, it was reported New Orleans had moved $823,000.00 from the Downtown Development District revenues to pay for City Employee unfunded pensions as opposed to infrastructure as mandated by the tax measure.

Chapter 2

Global Monument removal as New Groups come to Power

For more than a decade monument destruction was something Americans visualized as being overseas and happening when one group sought to remove another group from power and show their control. In 2015 those concepts arrived in America.

In 2001, the Taliban destroyed the 1,700-year-old Great Buddhas of Bamiyan monuments in lands it took control in Afghanistan. Then the ISIL caliphate took over, destroying more monuments in more countries.



In 2015, ISIL destroyed the 2,000-year-old Al-Lat Lion.

In Poland destruction began in 2017 of monuments erected to honor the soldiers of the Soviet Union for their World War II efforts to free Poland from German occupation. Soldiers are buried under many of the monuments.



Monuments to Soviet Soldiers who liberated Poland are now seen as sending a message of Russian Communist propaganda and are being vandalized and removed.

As America now seeks to reconcile with its historic monuments and memorials, often foreign news crews visit the cities to report and understand both sides of the protests. They are hoping to learn from America’s experience on monuments.



New Orleans renamed its International Airport in 2001 after Louis Armstrong. Originally it was named in 1911 after aviation pioneer John Moisant, who was the first to make an all metal airplane and first to fly commercial passengers internationally. Moisant died in New Orleans, when a New Years’ Eve wind shear flipped his plane while he was attempting to break a record at the site which became the airport. The airport was originally called Moisant Stock Yards and