We start late for every political leader. Neera good morning, everyone. My name is neera tanden and it is my great honor to welcome you to the center for american progress. We are really excited to have a special guest today. The 61st mayor of new orleans, mitch landrieu. During his 30year career in Public Service, mayor landrieu has made it his mission to expand opportunity for people a people in his hometown of new orleans and across louisiana. As mayor hes worked tirelessly to make his city safer, to revitalize distressed neighborhoods and to attract new business and investment. His many initiatives are a big reason why new orleans is one of americas Fastest Growing cities. Of course, last month mayor landrieu garnered National Attention for a powerful speech he delivered that explained why he fought to remove four confederate monuments from public spaces in his city. Of course, last month mayor landrieu garnered National Attention for a powerful speech he delivered that explained why he fought to remove four confederate monuments from public spaces in his city. Many have praised mayor landrieu for the incredible eloquence and passion he displayed that day. And for good reason. But i have to say, i was particularly impressed by mayor landrieus speech for another reason. I was deeply moved by the unflinching honesty he used to confront a truly shameful period in american history. His words reaffirmed a simple, undeniable fact. That any attempt to romanticize the lost cause of the confederacy is a decision to embrace a culture that systemically stripped the humanity from generations of innocent men, women and children. As mayor landrieu asked so heartbreakingly in his speech, how could an africanamerican Family Living in new orleans explain to their daughter why a statue of robert e. Lee stood atop their city. And when i heard that, i had to say, at the time i thought, what incredible leadership, but honestly, also, why did it take to 2017 until we heard that . Im thrilled that we have the mayor here to talk about that. We all know that there were no good answers to the question he posed and that any person who tries to gloss over that monstrous, evil of slavery is simply perpetuating the same things that made it possible in the first place. Im really excited to have this discussion so we can talk in more depth about his speech, why he made it and also the response. So were really thrilled to have the mayor here. And well have a q a afterwards, where i hope we can have a good back and forth. So please join me in welcoming mayor landrieu to discuss what he did, why did he it and race in america. Thank you. [applause] mr. Landrieu good morning, everybody. How are you . Thank you so much for having me, neera. I want to dedicate my speech today to my dear friend, steve scalise. Who, as you know, is suffering in the hospital from a gunshot wound. To his wife and to his family, he is my congressman. And he also is a dear friend. We spent 10 years together in the legislature. And i know it should go without saying, but as hard as we fight about the ideas, some of which well talk about today, sometimes the public tends to forget and sometimes we forget ourselves that those of us that are battling on the floor of the house and the senate, on the floor of the legislature, across city halls we really are friends. We know each other well. We grow up together. Our children know each other. Steve and jennifer celebrated mardi gras celebrations with us in new orleans. Sometimes it takes, unfortunately, an awful event like this just to remember that there are boundaries that we work in and those boundaries were crossed. If you keep him in your prayers and thoughts i would appreciate it. I also want to welcome my little sister, senator mary landrieu, and her husband, frank. [applause] the great donna brazil. [applause] stupendous and spectacular. My daughter, gracie, who is joining us today. Deputy mayor ryan bernie whos helping me run the city. And neera, thank you so much for having me. The center for american progress, thank you. There are a lot of folks in this building that do a lot of tremendous work. Outside of washington, we get things done. [laughter] we often look to you for research. A couple weeks ago i gave a speech at a hall in the city of new orleans. Thats new orleans historic city hall where for over 160 years we gathered as a people. Its where portraits hang of former mayors going back 100 years. Where drawings, when the historic street car that goes down st. Charles avenue traverses. Its a place where confederate president Jefferson Davis was laid to rest, when he died. In the city of new orleans. Multiple president s have been there. Foreign dignitaries. Its where every year, if youre from new orleans, its where we celebrate mardi gras. With the millions of our guests and all of the revelers. It is a place of unity and union. But on that day last month, when i gave the speech from that specific location, just a couple of blocks away there were workers who were masked to protect their identities from domestic terrorists. They were on a crane, removing a massive 17foot, threeton statue of confederate general robert e. Lee. It stood there for 133 years. 60 feet above our city, on a pedestal. In one of the most prominent places in our city. Since late the night before, the crowds had grown to hundreds. And as a brass band played on that friday afternoon, lee was finally brought to the ground. This was decades in the making. It was almost exactly one year before our 300th anniversary as a city, and nearly 12 years after the federal levees broke in hurricane katrina. And it was an important moment for the city of new orleans. And on that day, i sought to share my thoughts. And it was a very emotional day. The speech was actually entitled truth. And it came from the heart and the soul and the history of the people of the city of new orleans. For me it was important to speak directly to the people of new orleans and for the historic record. To actually lay out the reasons why these statues were erected in the first place. Why we were taking them down. And what we could do to recover from the ageold battles that had divided us for so long. And because of new orleans role in that dark period of our history, we were, after all, one of the countries countrys largest slave markets. I felt that i, and other people in the city, had a special responsibility to help our nation continue to move through racial discord. Indeed, the reaction from some was most telling. There were threats. There were angry, heavily armed demonstrators waving the confederate flag. Some waving nazi symbols. Intimidation that harkened back to the jim crow era. One of our contractors we had hired to remove the monuments had their car fire bombed. After death threats. I, the mayor of a major american city, in the midst of one of the greatest rebuildings that the country has ever seen, could not lease a crane because all of the crane operators had been blacklisted. But through all the sound and the fury, the reaction revealed a very basic truth about new orleans. The south, and i believe our country as a whole. If you scratch just below the surface, like we did, there is hidden from view a very deep cut that goes to the very heart of our nation. Centuries old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place. There is a difference, there is a difference between remembrance of history and the reverence of it. Monuments that celebrate a fictional, sanitized confederacy, but ignore the death, the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for, are an affront to our true history. They are wrong. Morally and factually. They serve only to divide and confuse us and they unfortunately have been all too successful in doing that. And herein lies the broader point. Heres why its so important to confront this issue. Because if all we do is change the symbols and change the structures and dont change the attitude, it will have all been in vain. If we take down the symbols that celebrate White Supremacy and hate and then begin to change the attitudes, we can finally start to really deal with the issue of race, with the real issue of deeper attitude and concerns. It will allow us to address poverty and jobs, it will allow us to address violence, health outcomes, and many, many more. Because of race, we are too often a block away from each other, but a world apart. And if you live in the south, you know exactly what it is that i mean. Im sure that thats true across the United States of america. In our blessed land, we all come to the table of democracy as equals. My sister taught me that. That is of course one of the basic tenants of americas greatness. We are an exceptional country because indivisibility, freedom and justice for all lies at the very heart of who we are. And what we believe. But you and i know that we have not always lived up to these aspirations and to these ideals. That doesnt make us bad. It means we need to match our exceptional aspirations with exceptional words and deeds. Live with integrity. Give every american the tools and the opportunity they need to fully participate in americas great bounty. And that requires us to have tough conversations about race and the disparities that hold all of us back. So when people who are against these monuments said to me, mayor, i dont know anybody thats bothered by these monuments. I said, thats one of the problems. [laughter] mayor, why cant you just let sleeping dogs lie . Mayor, you ought to be concentrating on murder, not on monuments. So ill respectfully ask if youve ever thought about the possibility that these monuments in a way are murder. Perhaps think about the monuments from a different perspective. As i spoke of in my speech and you alluded to. Think about the confederate monuments from the perspective of an africanamerican mother and father. Holding the hand of their 12yearold daughter, looking at robert e. Lee, atop of the beautiful city that she owns. Theres no way you can look at that little girl in the eye and convince her that robert e. Lee is there to encourage her. Theres no way for anyone to think that shes going to feel inspired or hopeful by his story. Or how he got up there. And why hes still there. After all of this time. These monuments reveal to her a future where her potential is limited and capped. And the great travesty of all of this, one that we cant seem to recognize even at moment, is that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too. So looking at that issue from the childs eyes is is where the truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment where we know what is right and where we know what we have to do. We cannot walk away from this truth. Ive driven by those monuments thousands of times. Thousands of times. It wasnt until i got this perspective from her eyes that i knew and that i could not personally walk away from this truth as i now saw it to be. You see, these monuments to the lost cause represent an institutional effort to perpetuate White Supremacy. It has existed for a lightning for a long time and slowly strangles certain peoples lives. Lives like those little girls. And then ours as well. By design, they are not just metal instead. They were crafted to send a message. Theyre not just metal and stone. They were crafted to send a message. That only certain people are welcome here. And certain people are not. And only certain people are entitled to certain things. And others are not. That some people have value and others do not. That some of us are disposable. Like a virus pushing into our collective subconscious. These ideas manifest a pervasive and devastating cultural ethos that over many, many, many years deny people quality of life and a future. They deny our humanity. So let me think about what Robert Kennedy said to us. For there is a type of violence that is slower. But just as deadly and as destructive as the gun or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions. Indifference and inaction. And slow decay. This is the violence that affects the poor. That poisons the relations between men because their skin has different colors. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the truth as well. Race lies at the root of so many problems. But we never really fully reckon with it. Until there is a flareup in the form of ferguson, in the form of charleston, the snipers in dallas, the horrors in baton rouge, our attention is fleeting and the conversation is shallow and there is really and rarely any action or followup to move us forward. So, america, it is true that our country is exceptional. But it is just as important to acknowledge that we will struggle with americas original sin and the vestiges of slavery, which continue to today. Reconciliation begins with an acknowledgment that there was wrongdoing. Then a commitment to do better. But in order to have reconciliation, you have to say, im sorry. And then someone else has to say, well, i for give you. You. Well, i forgive reconciliation is not someone saying, hey, man, forget about it. It really wasnt that important. I never really wronged you. Pick yourself up by your own boot straps. Even if you got no boots because i took them away from you. Not in my neighborhood. Thats not the way it works. And it is in that this context that we should think about and try to fully understand the old adage that where there is no justice, there is no peace. I used to hear that as if you dont give me what i want, im going to take it from you and were going to have a fight. By any means necessary. I dont see it that way anymore. This is what i think it means. When people are not given what is justly theirs, what is promised to them by the laws and the constitution of the country, where we live, when they dont have access to things that they need, like land and water and food and property and health care, then you cant possibly have peace. All you can expect to have is alienation and anxiety which leads to hate and loathing, which leads to unrest. And leads to violence. So physical violence always starts with this kind of psychological violence. Which comes from the conditions of our surroundings and the messages we receive in and where we grow up. And the damage can be subtle. Often unseen. Unheard. But it can be devastating nonetheless. And it explains a lot about things happening in our country right now. Especially when thinking about things like policecommunity relations, which is an allimportant issue that impacts every american. Racial profiling judges a person by their race and not their behavior. On the flip side, police are judged by their uniform and not their behavior. Both are bad. But who gets arrested and who doesnt, whos targeted and who is not is often because of ageold mindsets. Its called implicit bias. Its locked in by experience. Passed on over generations. And the impact is real. And its immediate. For example, research has shown that prevalence of drug use is the same in africanamerican communities and white communities. But africanamericans are much more likely to be arrested for drugs. This impacts families, housing, education and more. Its a vicious cycle. Why do you think that is . On a related topic, i spent most of my time as mayor singularly focused on reducing murder in new orleans. Two of which we had last night. Over 80 of our victims are africanamerican young men too. Often forsaken, left behind. No hope. In the life. Ive had hard time getting anyones attention. Anywhere in america. On how to save these young men. But when the victim is a young child or its a White College student or a professional athlete, everything stops. At least for a minute. But it stops nonetheless. When will we see that humanity in all people . Whatever the color of their skin, our citys potential is diminished. When will the understand, whoever is killed, our citys potential is diminished. Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. That was written a long time ago. The same question can play out in cities and towns of all sizes, in all corners across the country. So i ask you, why do you think that is . We need a conversation, not about these issues in silos, but how they are all poisonous fruit of the same tree, fed by centuries of oppression and racial division. The easy thing to do is just to point fingers and to blame each other. But while the question of fault could go on forever, and seemingly has, the question of responsibility can be resolved by all of us right now. Today. Were all responsible. For ourselves and for each other. And to solve this problem. And we can actually make great progress quickly on things like criminal Justice Reform. On poverty. On education and so many other topics of concern. But only when we realize that the ties that bind us are stronger than the things that divide us, that we are stronger together. The president actually said that the other night. Let me let that hang there for a second. [laughter] our racial divisions keep us from seeing that. Which gets us to our current political moment. There are working class white people who are being left behind in this country. Its been talked about and written about, particularly in the context of the last election. And the fact is that that is really true. We need to see that to know that, to understand that. But its also true that africanamerican working class is getting left behind too. And has for a long time. When you go to some of the more difficult areas in appalachia, the rustbelt, or you go to our state, anywhere in the deep south, and youre seeing people, some white, some africanamerican, some now latino, vietnamese, theyre struggling. With a lot of the same stuff. But throughout history, demagogues with their own political agendas make white people think that brown people and black people are just trying to take their stuff. And vice versa. We put people in a pit together and have them convinced that if one of them has something the other one cant have it. We have them fighting over a little bit of meat on an otherwise empty bone. Instead of having them stand side by side, working together to grow the pie. So that they all can benefit. As opposed to benefiting from the presence and communion on that they would enjoy together. And the sad thing is that they, working class africanamericans and whites, havent found each other. And yet dont understand that their futures are united as one. They share common interests. As dr. King said, they are bound in a single garment of destiny. If that actually happened, if they found each other, if they got together, if there was a coalition of working people and disenfranchised across the races, it would be a political earthquake. There would be an unstoppable force. Both groups would get when they wanted, needed and deserved. President kennedy said, if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. In his inaugural address. So therein lies the next step. We in cities and towns across america must not only reclaim our most public spaces for the United States of america, but that must be part of a Broader Movement toward reconciliation, common understanding and empowerment. That means breaking down ageold racial barriers and having tough conversations that are not happening right now. It means both governing with a lens of equity and seeking to find common ground, which is what wear trying to do in new which is what were trying to do in new orleans. So now is the time to take stock of and to reckon with our history. So that we can go forward. I say it all the time. You cannot go around race. You cant go under it. You cant go over it. You have got to go through it. And walking through it is hard. Its painful. Its uncomfortable. But when we come out of the other side, were all going to be better for it. And once we start to listen rather than speak, see rather than look, look away, we will realize a simple truth. That we all want the same thing. Peace, prosperity, economic opportunity. We all believe in faith. We all believe in country. We all believe in family. And we all want our kids to have a better life than we did. But still there are some who are cynical and believe we cannot change. They think somehow that these divisions are part of the natural order of things. Some would say that reconciliation is not possible. Some would say that this quest is naive. Mary can tell you this as well as i can, we can attest to this truth because we saw it after katrina. That when everybody is wet, when Everybody Needs to be saved, and Everybody Needs to be pulled out, nobody worried about what boat they were getting in. They just got in the damn boat. Amen. I saw that moment of catastrophe when the entire civil government of the United States of america disappeared and black people and white people did not see color in that moment. When they had a common enemy when they had a common threat, when they had a common opportunity, there was unity. Unity of purpose. Unity of mission. It was immediate. And it was beautiful. In our darkest hour. And if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. But you got to go through a lot to get there. And only then is it possible to understand that we are better together. Only then can you start to understand the root of so many of our ills that still plague us. Only then can you see the humanity in other people of other races. So we should prove the naysayers wrong. As americans there is nothing we cant do. But only if we make a commitment to stay united as one. Because we are one nation, not two. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Not some. We all are part of one nation. All pledging allegiance to one flag. The flag of the United States of america. It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted. And flourishes. It need not take us generations to put this behind us. Were an exceptional country because of the very idea of who we are and what we believe. We need to match this exceptional aspiration with exceptional words and deeds. In other words, very simply, we have to live with integrity. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul searching a truly lost cause. Thank you very much. [applause] neera thank you so much. I just want to say again, on behalf of the center for american progress, how honored we are to have you. For those incredible remarks. I guess i will start out with one basic question. Which is you talked about how important it is to actually go through instead of go around. Why do you think weve had so few leaders, particularly white political leaders, go through . Instead of go around . I think one of the great responses to your remarks was that you are a white mayor, not an africanamerican mayor, yet you speak with such passion, commitment and clear clarity of what happened. Mr. Landrieu well, i dont know the answer to that question. But i can surmise a couple of things which is were all the product of our experiences. Mary and i are two of nine children. We grew up in the deep south. I was born in 1960. The same year that my father who was in the legislature was one of two white legislators that voted against the segregation package. He told me for the first time the other day, although he tells me a lot of the stories over again, but he told me a new one. Is that when he got in the elevator after he cast that vote, a great segregationist, perez, back in the day, along with someone else put a finger in his chest and said, youre dead. This was a 29yearold young guy that had a wife at home who was pregnant and had four children. My whole life has been part of that ethos and trying to understand that marys and is lives have been informed by the environment that we grew up in and we grew up in i used to think i lived in a mixed neighborhood. But my white friends told me i lived in an africanamerican neighborhood. I never understood why they saw it differently from me. 60 white, 40 black. Somehow it was a black neighborhood. It never got to me. As we have been part of that entire process, as a leader, i have come to find that its really hard to solve problems that you just disagree with. Its much harder to solve problems when people dont see the truth. And see the facts. Living in right now, besides all of the other history of so many other people that went before me, i never started this. I mean, every other mayor before me has really talked about doing this. So the not as though im trying to do something no other mayors done. I was fortunate enough to be able to get it done. But some of it had to do with facing the truth about who we are and what we are. And seeing if we can actually get to the truth so we can have a legitimate disagreement about what the right answer is to fix the truth. But throughout the entire south, and this is one of the issues that came to me, as were trying to curate the city of new orleans by our 300th anniversary, which is next year by the way, as were rebuilding the whole city and we are, weve rebuilt every school. When mary was here she was incredible in getting us the money we need to help rebuild the city. Weve rebuilt all of our health clinics, hospitals, schools. Everything in new orleans that we had to rebuild because we got destroyed from katrina. As we were look at our city and we began to think about our public spaces, and as we began to rebuild the city, not back the way it was, but the way we always should have been, had we got it right the first time, s stuck out like a similar silver thumb and said, why are they up in our most prominent places and how much of our history do they really represent and do they represent us as a people . Thats how this conversation started. When we began to do the research on it, it was pretty clear that those statues were put up by folks who either were not from new orleans or didnt really fully understand us or werent fully trying to make everybody feel welcome. Just as a matter of curating the public spaces, when we got into it, it was clear that they were put up under false pretenses and it was put up by the mayor and city council in 1890. The mayor had been a confederate soldier and they were trying to tell a story that wasnt true. If you walk by that every day and see something thats not true but you think it is, it will force you to act a certain way. The idea then was to turn the city back over to the people who really owned it. And really thought about who we were and to be honest about where we came from and where were going, which is essentially why we did it. Im just as surprised as everybody that this speech was viral because i was talking to the people of new orleans and trying to lay the historical record correctly so that we can actually govern with honesty. Neera and i think one of the points you made in your speech is that you cant really heal until you actually deal with the truth. And how has the aftermath obviously you detailed some of the passions and passions is a nice word for threats and threats of violence. Have you seen people changing their minds . Mr. Landrieu again, painting everybody with a broad brush is always a very dangerous thing to do. There are people on the left and the right, far left, far right, who feel the way they do but decide to act in a way thats outside of the bounds of politics. You saw it the other day. With the gentleman that shot steve scalise. And how he somehow got his head into a place where he thought that whatever he thought it was ok to go kill another human being. That was awful. Not everybody who is on the other side of this issue feels that way. Neera right. Mr. Landrieu and there are different gradations of this. On top of that, if you go talk to other people on both sides of the racial divide, theres a lot of unspoken stuff that just never really gets fronted because its hard to hear. And its hard to understand. Were really not good at it. But i do think that the conversation of race occupies a very different place. I have to say that in all the hard things weve done in this city, in almost everything weve done in the city has been incredibly hard since katrina. Race is the hardest one. So my team borrowed a book from what happened in south africa, with desmond tutu, that had been brought over here by William Winter at the racial Reconciliation Institute of ole miss. And we actually began something called the Welcome Table in the city. Where we had different people with different races sit around the table, really for years. And by the way, i didnt just start taking these monuments down yesterday. This started functionally about 2 1 2 years ago. But we had been talking about it for well before when South Carolina happened. What we found was when people sit across the table from each other in their kitchens and they listen to each other and they talk to each other and they live together and their children get together, it begins to thaw. They begin to understand. They begin to see, which is painfully obvious, that were more alike than we are apart. But race is a real deep divide. And it is just hard for us, and were not good at it. Which is why i say, you cant go over it. You cant gloss over it. You have to sit and you have to go through it. Which means that you have to take time at it. It has to become part of everything that you do. And it has to be an understanding about how you create solutions that are quoteunquote equitable. We have an equity strategy in the city of new orleans built around our budget that doesnt just talk about equality, equitys different from equality. Dr. Norman francis, the longest serving president of an hbcu, like my daddy, has been with us for a long time, gives a speech and he has two glasses that have water in them. One has a little bit more water than the other. If you take a pitcher and you pour the exact same amount of water in both glasses, when you finish pouring, theyre still going to be far apart. Equitys about getting them back together. In terms of hope and opportunity. And we dont really have an equity lens. On a lot of the work that were doing on the Public Policy initiative. I think race informs that. But if you dont have the conversation, if you dont confront the issues, then youre not going to have a chance of working through them to get to the other side. Neera were going to go to questions just after this one. So get them ready. Ill call on folks and just identify your name and who youre with. My last question is going to be about the response in the country. So, i reached out to you to come to c. A. P. Because ive seen your speech online. Tens of thousands of people were distributing it. My take on that is that it did seem that there was such a response in the country to their remarks, in part because it does feel like your message of inclusion seems a little bit in stark contrast to some of the messages we seem to get from some political leaders, that tend to maybe divide more than heal. Pit people against each other more than pull them together. Do you see that . Do you have thoughts on that . And do you think its more important for leaders to respond to these issues as we face those challenges . And how do you think we can address them . Mr. Landrieu ill say a couple of things. In defense of the south. I love the south. I am a son of the south. Born in the south. Spectacular place, spectacular people. And the problems of the south are no different from the problems of the rest of the country. Just trust me on that. Those of you who are not of us. But if you want to have fun and a joyful life, move to the south. [laughter] any particular city . Mr. Landrieu or just come to new orleans. So thats, first of all. Secondly, im going to give you an outside of washington answer. Because i really see this across both political parties. You will know when youre speaking in an inclusive way when people come. Youll know that youre speaking in an exclusive way when you push people away. During the last campaign, there was a debate inside the Clinton Campaign about which strategy should be used. Should you go to your base, should you try to expand out, can you win this because of demographic trends that are going to make the country, you know, quoteunquote, nonwhite by 2050 . You know, or do you have to continue to expand out . On the other side, you hear the president every day and cnn talking about, well, hes tweeting because he wants to go back to his base. I never think that thats a good idea. In terms of finding solutions for the country. Everybodys got something to add. There are lots of things that our side doesnt understand about the other side and they dont understand about us. Thats not because we cant. Thats because we dont. Im looking at my sister senator the other day, were campaigning for her in louisiana. Both of us by the way got elected statewide. I twice, you four times . So its possible. When we were campaigning, you had to go into every neighborhood and ask everybody, if you dont go see them, if you dont go ask them what they think, what else are they going to conclude except that you dont care about me and dont want to hear me and see me . I think in our lifes experience, one of the essential basic thing that we learned, like in kindergarten, is you reach out to people and you ask somebody to be your friend. Theres a much better chance that thats going to happen, than if you act like they cant come into the classroom. Or get picked on the softball team. Or the kind of things that kids do to each other. I think people are feeling alienated. I think its incumbent on all politicians to represent the people that elected us. And in order to do that we have to listen to all of them. Even the ones that disagree with us. Because there always is a kernel of truth. Even if people are half wrong, theyre kind of half right. Theres some value there. And i think that one of the things that we see in state legislatures and city councils, you certainly see it in congress today, is an inability to forge a governing compromise. Its not because the answers not there. I think the country already knows what the answer is on immigration reform. I think the country already knows what the answer is on health care reform. I think the country already knows that theres a solution out there which at least 66 of the people in the country would agree with. 2 3. But for some reason, our political bodies cant get themselves to a communion on any issue. Which makes us feel like we cant get anything done. I just think that when the radical center has disappeared, which i put myself in the middle of, and folks are not given permission to come to an agreement and are chastised for compromise, i dont think that bodes well for us. You cant get to that unless youre listening to everybody and then you have an opportunity to make hard decisions. I do think, however, that race rises above any issue in my life that has caused people to not be able to see each other and hear each other. The reaction to these monuments, i have to say, i knew it was going to be hard. Im not naive. Ive been alive for a long time. But i have to say that it has saddened me about how this issue was handled and how people responded to it and the level of threats and violence and then the pushback. That is not ok. In the United States of america. In the second decade of the 21st century. That is not ok. As a consequence of what happened to steven the other day, i think what the country needs a lot is elected officials, and by the way, were not the only preaches, coaches, ones. Mothers and fathers, everybody to stand up and say, that is not ok. There is a right and there is a wrong. There is a good and there is a bad. There is evil and there is good. If were going to fight with each other, were going to fight within these boundaries and there are rules. If you dont follow the rules, you get kicked off the island. Then within that, hit as hard as you need to hit, but make sure the hit is fair. You want to criticize somebody else, criticize them, but stay away from their personal all that crazy stuff that people do with personal terrorism. And stay focused on what is good for the United States of america. If we can kind of govern ourselves back into that space, it seems to me well get to a better place. But at the end of the day, and ill end with this, the issues of race and class, all of those things are tough. We have to know that theyre there. We have to focus on them. And heres the thing. If we can get past that it seems to me that that opens up the flood gates of possibility on solving the real things that most of us really are concerned about. Neera all right. Im going to ask questions. Right there. Wait for the mic. Questioner hi. My name is ruth. I think the most important affiliation is i always say, new orleans is the city of my soul. I feel very much loved. I lived there maybe five or six times for periods of time. Big fan. I saw the piece on 60 minutes about new orleans problems with criminal Justice Reform. And the public defender system. Im wondering what your thoughts are about that and the importance of that in context of what youve been talking about. And a quick other thing, ive heard your name mentioned as a potential candidate for a higher office. Any comments . [laughter] mr. Landrieu ill take those backwards. No. I dont have any comment. Im not running for president. But thank you. Thats very nice of people to think about that. But on the criminal Justice Reform stuff new orleans is much , like everywhere else around the country. Were trying to get handle on where we put our focus. And weve had this upside down. We spent a huge amount of time, and theres some racial issues here too, about focusing on nonviolent crime that put people in jail for a long time, that creates high recidivism rates. And not enough time on violent criminals. Listen, theres some bad people in this country that for whatever their circumstances or reasons, theyre going to hurt other people. Those people have to be put in jail. They have to be secured and we have to be safe. But the system is upside down. Point a. Point b, the funding mechanisms dont really work very well. Louisiana probably is the poster child for how weve done it wrong. Were the most incarcerated city and state in the nation and consequently the world. We also have the highest crime rate. This is a really difficult, complicated issue were dealing with it in new orleans every day. It manifests itself in shootings and murders that are mostly by handgun. The victims mostly are young africanamerican men. And then we had a situation in new orleans where we had a parish jail, you all would hear it as a county jail, but we had 7,000 human beings in a city jail. Which was bigger than the most the biggest jail in the United States of america. Weve been working on policies that only arrest people for Violent Crimes and make sure that theres just determination of whether theyre guilty or not. Funding for the d. A. And indigent defenders has always been an issue. I happen to be the mayor so i get to listen to everybody scream about budget priorities. Thats always a challenge. The big deal is that we spend an exponentially large sum of taxpayers money on the back end side of criminal justice. Police, jails. You want to try to get on the front end side of that, so Early Childhood education, Mental Health and substance abuse, domestic violence. All of those issues we have to make this gargantuan aggressive leap. But it takes resources. The one thing that really i have been a Lieutenant Governor for six rs, mayor for seven years is that about the truth. You can do more with less. No, you cant. You do less with less. Now, Everybody Knows that we ought to be efficient and we ought to be honest. We ought to work hard. We ought to have only the regulations that are necessary. But essentially when you get on the ground like i am, and i am on the ground, when i say something, it hits the ground right away. Police pay raise, police cars, its not like something that percolates for two years and you argue about it and you may get to it and not get to it or it gets interrupted by a tweet. No. It goes right down to the ground. When you have less, you do less. When you have less, kids dont get taught swimming lessons. When you have less, the Summer Feeding Program means you feed less people. When you have a less, the Health Care Clinic is open less. Less is less. People get hurt. More is more. This is the only place in the world where you can say less is more and somebody go, oh, yeah. That sounds great. Its just not true. So thats why when you say, if we could get back to operating in truth and based on facts, theres plenty enough to argue about once you get that foundation under you. Neera in the back there. Actually, right there. Then well go to the back. Questioner hello. Thank you for being here. My name is chelsea jones. Im a graduate student, getting my masters in Public Policy from carnegie mellon, but im also from the south, from texas. My question has to do with economic oppression. I feel like with systemic racism, the way its able to perpetuate for so long, is the inequity when it comes to economics between races. Between classes. So what do you feel that are the most important steps for cities to take to ensure Economic Equity . Mr. Landrieu first of all, youre from texas . And you claim youre from the south . [laughter] mr. Landrieu people in texas are theyre going to get mad at you. No. So, you know, in the talk i just gave, you heard me use a phrase that i asked you to think about. That we live a block apart, a block away, but a world apart. Thats not just a fancy phrase. If you go run a spatial analysis on neighborhoods, its absolutely true in new orleans. Im sure it is true in other areas. A general would call it the Railroad Track test. Same neighborhood, same topography, same land, same access to everything. But you live on this side, you got more. You live on that side, you got less. Closeness to chemical companies, all that kind of stuff. In new orleans, ive given a long speech a long time ago, i dont have all the numbers in front of me, but i used st. Charles avenue. Thats a street that runs right down the middle of our city. Its a street that separates a neighborhood called central city, which sends more kids to angola, which is our really bad prison, and on the other side is the garden district. That sends more kids to harvard. And theyre literally 150 yards away from each other. On mardi gras day it is absolutely true that michael and joseph meet on that spot and have joy all day long. And could be the bestest of friends. And at night when all the parades go away, michael goes to this side and joseph goes to the other side and one of them heads toward angola and one of them heads toward harvard. If you look at the demographic and economic data, youd go, wait, this is crazy. Why is this happening . Why in america do we allow this to occur . Which goes again to the issue that people dont want to talk. Implicit bias in institutions. We have to ask ourselves from an equity lens. This goes to the issue of race where you really need to listen to africanamerican families and they say, theres no pathway to prosperity for me. And so in new orleans, one of the ways were trying to deal with it is to create a pathway to prosperity. This is very kind of simple. It actually came out of an experience i had when one of my children was sick and was being taken care of at childrens hospital. When you walk into that hospital, if you notice this in childrens hospitals, they mostly have a lot of color. Theres a yellow line and theres a blue line and theres a red line and theres a green line. And the elevators are colored too. Yellow takes you to oncology. Orange takes you to the heart guy. The blue takes you or the green takes you another place. Its an actual pathway to something that can help you. I kind of decided early on, when we got a report, that said 52 of africanamerican men are not working in the city of new orleans, just let that sit with you for a minute. Were celebrating less than 4 Unemployment Rate in the country. When its a little bit higher than that we have trouble and we are arguing about whether wages are going up. 52 of africanamerican men are not working in the city. Some of them cant, but most of can and want to, but they dont have a pathway there. All of our kids that go to college, you kind of assume theres going to be a counselor there that can help you sign up. If you get in trouble, you have somebody to go to. That doesnt happen in those communities. Theres nobody to give them a pathway to a thing. We created an Economic Strategy called pathways to prosperity. For every one of those individuals. Well, 52 s a percentage. You want to know how many people it is . I did. I wanted to know their faces. People said, you cant know their faces. I said, what are you talking about . When we run for office, i know every voter in my district. I know where they live. I know what their voting history is. I can tell you what color door they have in front of the house. So why cant we individually know these people . 38,600 men. Is the number. We started creating in new orleans specific pathways for them, this is what you need to know about them. They werent all the same. They were different ages. They had different educational experiences. Some had dropped out, some were opportunity youth. Some graduated college and did not have a pathway. The problem is youve got to find them and then you have to have a job for them. So where are the jobs . Which goes to the issue of something the country really has to be thinking about everybody works. If everybody is going to work there has to be a job. How are we going to create those jobs . We have an interesting conundrum in louisiana right now. I dont know the answer, this is the problem. In southwest louisiana, in a city called lake charles, in the heel of the boot, right next to texas, theyre doing about 80 billion investment in the creation of liquefied natural gas plants. They need thousands of employees to help weld and do all this stuff. My brain goes, that aint that far away, thats a threehour bus ride. Where are they going to get those employees . Theres no connection, no discussion. These guys need work, theres work to be had. How do we train them for those jobs, how do we break down those issues . Im going to bet a little bit of is about race, a little is about training and a little bit is not being creative enough. This is writ large in america, how do take people and train them for jobs . That training mechanism is something we are terrible at. Republicans, democrats, independents, everybody else, we are bad at this and need to figure out how to make that happen. So you can take a young man that doesnt have the kind of guidance that maybe you and i would have because our parents would tell us and give us a specific pathway who is going to , talk to you, who will help you when you fall who will lift you up when you need assistance. Just like we do with kids in college who come home and seem like they are struggling, we have to have that kind of human touch. We are not well equipped to do that anywhere in the country at the moment. Neera do you have time for one more question . Mr. Landrieu i like this, im not leaving. Questioner i want to thank you both, thank you mayor for your comments and courage on this issue. My name is jerry warburg, im a recovering politician from the city, which i escaped. I escaped to the peaceful hamlet of a charlottesville, virginia where none of these problems , never arise. I returned to a trip from the south, a civil rights trail. I returned to my home city of charlottesville to find k. K. K. Rallies scheduled. The guy who has the office next to me, mike signer, the mayor, under deep assault and a very divided community. Ive experienced this already from hosting town halls, one had 103 policemen guarding our local congressman at the town hall that i was moderating. My question for you is, what advice would you give mike and the people of charlottesville a blue island in a sea of red, trying to do this right, trying to have a dialogue but very determined to get to a result not dissimilar from your own . Mr. Landrieu well im not on the ground there, so i dont want to like a doctor that hasnt seen the patient, i dont want to give you bad advice and have him get hurt. I would say a couple of things. This is really, really deep. We struck a deep bone here. I dont want to tell you im completely surprised by it, but i am i am surprised. By how hard it is for people to let go of something that was obviously not true. And it really speaks to not how wrong the other side might be but how much work we have to do to talk to each other so they can now see us. I have to say that my political sense in new orleans is that most of the people i know this to be true. The overwhelming majority of people in my city, the people i actually work for and im really clear about who i work for, one wanted these monuments to come down. Lots of people outside of our city, for some reason, feel an ownership of this. And im being very parochial here. I was trained as a lawyer. But to me in its essence, this was a property dispute. It was really simple. Its like do you have circles here in washington . I was kidding, i know that. Come on. I was born at night, but not last night. Lets just think about dupont circle. Dupont circle is owned by somebody, im assuming its the city of washington, d. C. , it may not be, but whoever owns it has the right to decide what goes on that piece of property. Property rights are pretty important. We had a public space the city owned and we had a right to put on that space whatever we thought. For some reason there are people that dont live in new orleans, some that live around the state, some that live around the country, that think they own that piece of property and can tell somebody else what to do with it. That is where the argument began. All the other stuff is laid on top of that. My question would be this some said, mayor, youre a dictator, no. At a racial reconciliation conference, i said these words, sweetly, i think its time that we have a discussion about taking those monuments down. Those were the words i used. You would have thought i said something else. Thats exactly what i said. After that, theres actually a process in the law in new orleans about how you do this. You may have this. Follow the law. We had to go to three commissions that were occupied by citizens who actually sat on those commissions. They had to have public hearings and they had to vote to allow me to take them down. Then we had to go to the city council. We had two robust City Council Hearings that lasted a long time with a lot of passion and they voted 61 to take it down. Then the courts got involved, we had seven courts with 13 different judges on the federal, state, and local level that had to walk through this issue. Thats how functionally it got done and then we had agreed to raise private funds to do it because of the Security Threat that cost us more money than we thought. We actually brought it down and there was a lot of pain and agony around it. Some people still do not want to yield not withstanding the fact that we went through a democratic process. Some said i should have taken it to the vote of the people. I wondered about that because we live in a republic. Its not designed that way. Its designed for the elected folks and from time to time in certain states they have referendums, but it is mostly not. This occurred to me the other day. Why do they think the confederate generals occupy such a special place that thats supposed to be given special status in a democracy to undo what we know is not historically correct . You have to think about the mindset that would take you to people that feel so strongly about that, they think this should rise above passing a federal budget and requiring a direct vote of the people. Which is to say this. That youre in a very hot, difficult environment. It is an issue that has to get worked through. I happen to think that nikki haley and the folks in South Carolina did a really good job after the shootings in South Carolina and that the people of South Carolina allowed that event to happen in a dignified way. This should happen the same way across the country. I dont think its refutable. That the lost cause is a direct attempt to sanitize our history. And to deny the humanity of our fellow american citizens. I think if we allow our country to stay in that space and not to confront that in a thoughtful way, it doesnt give anybody the opportunity to transform. What were seeing in new orleans, i believe, right now, is people who after having heard this speech are beginning to say, i never really thought about it. And now that theyre thinking about it, you can see them moving into a different space. On our side, remember, i said you cant have reconciliation, unless somebody says i acknowledge or im sorry. You have to be in position to say no problem, i forgive you, lets get past this. We have more in common and recognize unless we get past this, we cant concentrate on the common threats, or common opportunities that we have. Youve got to walk through it. So my advice to him at the risk of putting him in at least political harms way is to stay the course. And if he believes that its the right thing to do and he believes its a just thing to do he ought to go ahead and do it. As my dad said to us, if you dont spend your political capital, what the hell do you have it for . Thats a good lesson. Thats why we serve. Neera i think that is a phenomenal end to this conversation. [applause] neera and i also think that last statement is one of the many reasons why there was such a National Response to what you did. I want to thank you for the example, moral leadership youre showing, not to just the south but the entire country. Mr. Landrieu thank all of you, its great to see you. Neera thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspans washington journal live every day with news and washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, university of virginia historian ken hughes talks about the 45th anniversary on the watergate breakin and its impacts on american politics. Future of u. S. Cuba policy under the trump administration. Then Popular Mechanics exhibiting editor reports on the air forces new weapon, disposable drones. Be sure to watch washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Join the discussion. This weekend, but tv on cspan2 features a Panel Discussion on race in America Today at 5 15 p. M. Eastern marker rated by the Eastern Bureau chief for american urban radio networks. Here,se two ladies right i remember being a young lady talk for us when we didnt have voices. Just basically let us know we count, we matter at a time when many of us are not at the table. If you dont have a seat at the table, bring a folding chair . The author of five dollars and a pork chop sandwich. Uthor how exceptional black women lead. And author they cannot kill us all. And the author of are we better off. On sunday, pulitzer prizewinning historian David Mccullough speaks with former news anchor Charles Gibson about his collection of speeches on american principles. I began to think about the great president s who have been avid readers of history. Many of them wrote history including john kennedy. Even those who didnt have the benefit of a College Education realizedy truman, and that it is essential to the role of a leader. Whether it is the presidency or leadership of any kind. History matters. Go to booktv. Org for the complete weekend schedule. Cspan where history unfolds daily. Sees that was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And his brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Mariska hargitay is a star on the series law and owners special victims unit. The hearing focused on Law Enforcement backlog on untested rape kits and resources for rape victims. This is two hours. Good morning. On behalf of my fellow cochairs on this task force, want to look at you all to our Exceptional Panel of witnesses and members of the task force. Thank you all for being here. This promises to be in its ipo
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.