THE SOUTH'S DEFENDERS MEMORIAL MONUMENT: LAKE CHARLES CITY COUNCIL'S WEAK RESOLUTION

I attended the Lake Charles City Council meeting July 28, 2020 and it was about as I expected. The monument-haters just spewed their usual venomous, racially inflammatory rhetoric that had no connection whatever to either Calcasieu Parish or The South's Defenders Memorial Monument. It was also obvious that if successful, the monument-haters will just move on to other grievances to advance their radical political agenda. The monument supporters gave very good presentations on the true meaning of the monument, which is an honorable war memorial to fallen soldiers and veterans. I also spoke and gave them actual historical facts about the monument and the history of the war in Calcasieu Parish. I also told them about my great-great-grandfather who died in the war, served in a unit that fought in the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, and the hardships the war imposed on my family. My impression of the mayor and city councilmen, except the two Council ladies who were pushing the issue, is that they just wanted to get rid of an embarrassing issue and political hot potato and foist it on the police jury. It was a weak, irresolute resolution that satisfied no one. It showed the meeting was an exercise in futility that just stirred up more hard feelings in everybody and was an uncalled-for intrusion into the authority of the police jury. My hope is the police jury, which has already had productive meetings with various interested groups, will ignore the irresponsible city council resolution and now move on to the real issues and get the parish back on a positive track for the good of everybody. Thank you.