April 1, 2017

Victory Circle for New Orleans

A Blue Star Memorial Opportunity

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Victory Circle petition 

Victory Circle is the Front Yard of the National World War II Museum

 

Victory Circle as seen from the National World War II Museum Bridge crossing Andrew Higgins Street

 

Victory Circle as seen from Rosie's, the rooftop bar at the Higgins' Hotel. A simple first step, could be to add a large bronze American flag at the top with eight flagpoles on the steps: One for each of the five branches, one for POWs, one for Gold Stars, and one for Purple Hearts. This would be New Orleans' participation in the Blue Star Highway Program to honor our nations military.

 

Link to Victory Circle Petition

Lee Greenwood's Song:  "God Bless the USA" explains the reason "I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me. "

Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA"

 

 

Victory Circle T-shirts are available

Link to order T-Shirts

 

Link to Interview on Victory Circle 

 

Moving Forward we have created a concept in New Orleans to follow the path of Vicksburg and Arlington National Cemetery.

That idea is to expand what was Lee Circle from honoring those that died in the War of 1861 to honoring "All who served in all Wars." 

 

VICTORY CIRCLE PROPOSAL: 

Victory Circle could be New Orleans participation in the National Blue Star Highway Program to honor the U S Military and those that served.   Shown below is the Baton Rouge Veterans Memorial, located along the Mississippi River.

It is part of the Blue Star Highway Program.

 

 

 

 

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The "Victory Circle" option for the circle north of the World War II Museum resulted from a decision in 2015 by former Mayor Mitch Landrieu to remove four statues in New Orleans, he determined to be offensive.

Those statues are worth multiple millions of dollars. Even though the City of New Orleans did not pay for the statues, and the orginal donors asked for them to be returned. Landrieu's plan was to auction them off in a restrictive bid to buyers that would present that Landrieu was correct to remove them.  The most obvious buyers, in the public's eye, were campaign donors to Landrieu's political campaigns.

Thus the term "Monumental Heist."

This is a combined site for the book "Monumental Heist: A Story of Race; A Race to the White House;"  The Victory Circle Proposal,  and the effort to prevent other New Orleans statues from being removed without a public vote on the City Charter.

Link to Purchase on Amazon as E-Book

Monumental Heist: A Story of Race; A Race to the White House is an e-book of 40 chapters, covering the following topics:   Link to Book Review

  1. The removal of memorials across the nation and the diversion from other issues:
  2. The specifics of removals in New Orleans.
  3. The history of the full lives of the men in the monuments.
  4. The history of Memorial Day.
  5. The connection of the national monument removal to growing the socialist party movement.

Discussing "Monumental Heist"

 

 

 

What has been discovered is that the title to the Beauregard statue in New Orleans was not transferred to City Park or the City of New Orleans. 

 

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Walter Isaacson explains that the Monuments were put up for Noble Reasons after speaking at Newman School in New Orleans

Link to Walter Isaacson explaining that both Beauregard and Lee Monuments were put up for Noble Reasons

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Another solution is to create a walking history trail and treat New Orleans as an outdoor museum.

  1. New Orleans Insider Tours is a app covering over 100 sites in different self guided tours.

Link to New Orleans Insider Tour You Tube Channel


2. The book Monumental Heist is 500 pages with pictures and covers numerous other issues not be addressed by "Myopic Mayors" that focus on removing priceless art.  The appendix is another 200 pages to validate the statements in the book.

Click here to the ebook link and buy the book. 

https://www.ebookit.com/tools/pd/Bo/eBookIt/booktitle-Monumental-Heist

 

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3. We have interviewed dozens of people on the history and culture of New Orleans. 

Our organization is producing videos for both independent and TV airing.

For more information on the Donor Advised Fund supervised and hosted by the Community Foundation:http://northshorefoundation.org/marsala-cultural-fund

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4. We support efforts to save the monuments and memorials, keep them free to tourists,  and use them to educate regarding the large number of soldiers (KIA and MIA) who never returned home during the history of our country.

The removed monuments in New Orleans were to men who personally believed against ending slavery via manumission and education.

These are the most valuable pieces of public art in the city, valued at up to $30 Million.

Article IV Chapter 20 Section 4-2002 of the New Orleans City Charter charged the Executive Branch of Government with "Preserving and Protecting" landmarks and monuments.

 

 

5. Stored Since May 2017: The monuments, worth millions,  are stored in a police and emergency vehicle repair yard. Perhaps they would have been destroyed in a hurricane.

6. Take 'em Down Nola seeks to remove five more monuments including ones to U S Senator Henry Clay and City Founder Jean Bienville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the same leaders of Take 'em Down, organized "Occupy Wall Street," The People's Assembly, and The Worker's Political Party.  Monument gatherings serve to recruit members to attend Karl Marx education events on Socialism.

 

 

 

 

 

The Russian Internet Agency purchased Facebook Ads leveraging the monument removal to divide America in 2016 and 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The People's Assembly or World Worker's Party does have several points of validity. 

One is the need in New Orleans for a Hurricane Evacuation Shelter, for those without vehicles, and Emergency Command Center or EOC for city staff to effectively manage a disaster.

In 2013 the U S Navy turned over for free a 600,000 square foot facility with $35,000,000.00 from FEMA to update the facility. Former Mayor Mitch Landrieu's staff moved the money elsewhere and the facility was taken over and later caught fire.

A bikepath dedicated to Slave Pirate and Human Trafficker Jean Lafitte was built and expanded from 2010-2018 by Mayor Mitch Landrieu and City Council of New Orleans. From 1809-1814, Lafitte would sail to the Caribbean and capture slaves and sell them in New Orleans.  How is this not more offensive than other statues or were the removals about something else, such as political gain and book sales?

LaFitte Greenway
LaFitte Greenway

7. Our Concerns:  Art being "Heisted" & Communities being divided for political gain

The Mayor of Harrisburg, PA was convicted in January 2017 of stealing $30 Million in art from the City to open a Wild West Museum.  In April, The City Council of Charlottesville, VA voted 3-2 to sell its Robert E. Lee monument.

We are concerned that Mayors & Council Members of New Orleans will use the Restrictive Bid Processes to transfer priceless art / monuments to their friends and donors.

During the current monument process there have been many violations of standard meeting procedures in the council meetings, to approve this flawed process to remove priceless art and transfer to others. Examples are to have put each monuments on a different motion and to have asked the City Attorney to evaluate if the Charter was being violated.

Please help us amend the City Charter to require transparency and prevent special deals on the City of New Orleans' artifacts.

A July 14 2015 memo from the staff of Mayor Mitch Landrieu detailed in Section 4 iii, a plan for a "March through History" Park and a Mayoral Advisory Committee consisting of Wynton Marsalis, John Cummings, and Walter Isaacson.  Cummings owned over 2,000 acres in New Orleans East that he had sought to develop into a race track with the assistance of Federal Funds.

 

Stephen Reed
Stephen Reed


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAVE NOLA HERITAGE is designed to Educate to bring awareness to Saving the Memorials of New Orleans.

8. To Sign Our Ballot Petition promoting Policy

We need 10,000 signatures of Registered Voters in New Orleans to mandate a vote by the citizens to Amending the City Charter to prevent abuse.

There is no set date to obtain the 10,000 signatures. We are nearing 6,000 with momentum.

Click here to Download our Petition to enhance the Protection to Memorials to U S Military Veterans in the City Charter of New Orleans. General Andrew Jackson is on the Take 'em Down Nola list. 

Petition Protect monuments of U.S. Veterans

 

 

8. Our energy should be focused on continueing the fight started in 1776 to end  slavery.  During the week of July 15, 2017 the U.S. Congress approved $500 Million to fight Human Trafficking also known as Modern Day Slavery.

 

Donald Trump Human Trafficking 1
Donald Trump Human Trafficking 1

Ivanka Trump Human Trafficking 1
Ivanka Trump Human Trafficking 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Who owns the Beauregard Statue: City Park Improvement Association (CPIA) in 1905 voted and sent a letter to the Beauregard Monument Association to "TENDER" the land known as Beauregard Circle.

2018 Comments from New Orleans Mayor's Office on Ownership of Statue & Pedestal

 

In 1908 City Park Improvement Association (CPIA) approved a motion to Tender the land for FREE. 

May 17, 1908 Minutes of City Park Board

Resolved:  That the Mound at the Esplanade Avenue entrance to the City Park, is herby selected and fixed as the site for the Monument the Association is about to erect to General PGT Beauregard under the FREE selection of sites tendered by the board of City Park Commissioners.”

 

 

A Public Dedication Ceremony was May 28, 1908

On <May 28, 1908 a ceremony was held for CPIA to Tender to land to the Beauregard Monument Association.

The newspaper reported the ceremony. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation to City Park Board on Tendering Land known as Beauregard Circle

Video of Presentation During Public Comments to CPIA on Tendering Land

 


 

10. There was no "Lost Cause" as former Mayor Landrieu likes to quote. In 1860 Once the South withdrew from the Union,  the North lost the Morrill  Tariff Revenue from the South, and the North was forced to implement Income and Property Taxes starting in 1861 to meet its debts. The Cause of Fair Taxation was achieved.  By 1915 the United States had permanently switched to these fairer methods of taxation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2018, President Trump made Tariffs a part of his policies. Prior to Trump, Presidents Hoover and Obama implemented Tariffs.  Erasing the history of a war fought with the Tariffs of 1816-1860 a main cause, erased a learning tool for all.

 

 

 

12. Ending Legal US Slavery: The last state in the United States of America to abolish slavery was the Northern State of Delaware, only when forced by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

If the war was about slavery, why didn't the North abolish it in its own states first? Why did it remain in Northern States such as Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and West Virginia long past the end of the Civil War.

In February 1865, month prior to the end of the war Virginia and Louisiana voted to abolish slavery and ratify the 13th Amendment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a national movement to establish June 19, 1865 as the slavery ended in America. Which is false and erases the fact that Northern states continued slavery after the war ended.

 

13. Rewriting History:  The memorials being removed provide a second opinion and educational tool to a devastating war in America from 1861-1865.

The South argued it had a right to secede as un-equal Tariffs and Taxes from 1816-1860 violated the equal taxation clause in the Constitution.  To the South, it was "The Southern War for Independence," but the North owned the printing presses and labeled it "The Civil War."

At the same time it was clear that the Republican Party had formed in 1854 to abolish slavery with Lincoln as President policies would reflect that desire.   Lincoln had not been on the ballot in any Southern State in 1860, hence the phrase "not my president" would have applied.

For more information please download the e-book.