As a born and bred New Orleanian, a Catholic, and a conservative, I have to say thank you to my co-Yats, Jake Berry and Mitch Landrieu.  Jake especially, living in the Carrollton section, knows what it's like to ride downtown on a streetcar and come to a rail-screeching, 270-degree crawl around Lee Circle before heading down Carondelet towards Canal.  Like me, he got to know and love Lee Circle, a landmark revered for its beauty since long before either of us was born.  Jake probably saw Lee Circle --- not just the statue of Lee that sat atop the tall, elegant pedestal, but the entire circle --- as one, integrated piece.  But Jake also knows that this piece of beauty was not just a sculpture, but to most black New Orleanians, a monument to military genius employed on the side of oppression, a symbol of defiance in the face of good.  To most black New Orleanians, his statue was reasonably seen as the equivalent of a statue of Hitler or Stalin.  
cont'd