Good morning everyone. It is my great honor to welcome you to the center for American Progress. We are really excited to have special guest today. This is 61st mayor of new orleans. Mitch landrieu. During his 30 year career in public service, mayor landrieu made his mission to expand opportunity for people in his hometown of new orleans and across louisiana. As mayor hes worked tirelessly to make his city safer, move to revitalize neighborhoods and attractses new business. His many initiatives is big reason new orleans is one of the Fastest Growing cities. Of course, last month, mayor landrieu garnered National Attention for a power speech that explain why he fought to remove monuments. Many praise mayor landrieu for passion he displayed that day. That 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 surely shameful period in american period. His words reaffirmed undenialable fact that any attempt to lost cause of the confederacy is a decision to embrace a culture that systematically stripped humanity of generations from innocent men, women and children. Has mayor landrieu said in his speech, how can an africanamerican Family Living in new orleans explain to their daughter why a statute of robert e. Lee stood atop their city. When i heard that, i had to say at the time, i thought what incredible leadership but honestly also why did it take 2017 until we heard that . Im thrilled that we have the mayor here it talk about that. We all know that there were no good answers to the questions he posed. That any person who tries to go out there perpetuating the same bigotry that made it possible. Im excited to have this discussion so we can talk in more depth about his speech, where he made it and the response. We really thrilled to have the mayor here and we all have a q a afterwards. Please join me in welcoming mayor listen landrieu to discuss what he did and why he did it and race in america. Thank you. Good morning everybody. How are you . Thank you so much for having me ne eera. To dedicate my speech today to my dear friend steve scalise. Who is suffering in the hospital from gunshot wound to his wife and his family. He is my congressman. He also is a dear fend friend. We spent ten years together in the legislature. It should go without saying. As hard as we fight about the ideas, some 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 therefloor of the legislature across city hall, we really are friends. We grew up together. Our children know each other. Steve and jennifer celebrateed mardi gras celebrations with us in new orleans. Sometimes it takes unfortunately awful event like this just to remember that there are boundaries that we work. If you just keep him in your prayers and your thoughts i would appreciate it. I want to welcome my little sister senator Mary Landrieu and her husband frank. [applause] the great donna brazil. My daughter gracie joining us today. Mayor thank you so much for having me center for American Progress. Thank you. There are a lot of folks in this building that do a loot lot of tremendous work outside of washington. We often look to have ideas and research. Were grateful for it. I thank you all for being here. Couple of weeks ago i gave a speech in city of new orleans. Thats new orleans historic city hall over 160 years we gathered as a people. Its where a going back over a hundred years. When the historic streetcar that goes down st. Charles avenue traverses. Its a place where confederate president davis was laid to rest when he died in the city of new orleans. Multiple president s have been there. Dignitaries. Its where every year, where we celebrate mardi gras with millions of our guests. It is a place of unity and union. On that day last month when i gave the speech, from that specific location, i just couple of blocks away that were workers who were masked to protect their identities from domestic terrorist. They were on a crane removing 17foot three ton statute 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 night before, the crowds had grown to hundreds. As brass band plays, lee was finally brought to the ground. This was decades in making. It was almost exactly one year before our 300th anniversary as a city and nearly 12 years after the levies broke in hurricane katrina. It was an important moment for the city of new orleans. On that day, i sought to share my thoughts. It was a very emotional day. The speech was entitled truth. 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 lay out the reasons why these statues were erected in the first place. Why we would taking them down and what we can do to recover from the ageold battles that are divided us for so long. Because of new orleans role in that dark period of our history we were after all, one of the countries largest slave markets. I felt that i and other people in this city had a personal responsibility to help our nation continue to move through racial discord. Indeed the reactions from some was most telling. There were threats. There were angry, heavily arm demonstrators wavering the confederate flag. Some waving nazi symbols. Intimidation harkened back to the jim crow era. One of the contractors had their car fire bombed after death threats. I the mayor of a major American City in midst of the greatest rebuilding, could not lease a crane. All the crane operators have been blacklisted. Through all the sound and fury, reactions revealed basic truth about new orleans. If you scratched just below the surface, like we did, theres view. 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 between remembrance of history and the reverence of it. Monuments that celebrate a confederacy, but ignore the death and enslavement and terror that actually stood for are an affront to our true history. They are wrong. Morally and factually. They serve only to confuse us. Theyve been all too successful in doing that. Here in lies the broader point. Heres why its so important to confront this issue. All we do is change symbols, and change the structures, dont change the attitude, it will all been in vain. If we take down the symbols that celebrate White Supremacy and hate, you can finally start to deal with the issue of race with the real issue of deeper attitude of concerns. It allow us to address poverty. It allow us to address jobs. It allow us to address violence and outcomes and many more. Because of race, we are too often a block away from each other but a world apart. If you live in the south no ewhat exactly what it is that i mean. Im sure 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. We have not always lived up to these aspirations and ideals. That doesnt make us bad. It means we need to match our exceptional aspirations with exceptional words. Live with integrity. Give every american the tools and the opportunity they need to fully participate in americas great bounty. That requires us to have tough conversations about race and disparities that hold us all back. When people who are against these monuments said to me, mayor, i dont know anybody thats bothered by these monuments. I said you know what, thats one of the problems. Mayor why cant you just mayor you ought to be concentrating on murder. Not on monuments. I respectfully ask if you 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 it my speech. Think. Confederate monuments prepare the perspective of an africanamerican mother and father. Holding their hand up 12yearold daughter, looking at robert e. Lee atop her beautiful city that she owns. Theres no way you can look at that girl and convince robert e. Lee is there to encourage there. Theres no way think shell feel inspired and hopeful about his story and how he got up there and why hes still there after all of this time. These monuments reveal to her a future of what her future is limited. The great travesty of all of this one that we cant seem to recognize. Even at this moment her potential is limited, yours and mine are too. Looking at the issue from that childs eyes is where the truth comes into truth. This is the moment what we know what is right and what we know what we have to do. I driven by those monuments thousands of times. It wasnt until i got this perspective. From her eyes that i knew and i could not personally walk away from this truth as i now saw it to be. You see these monuments lost cause represented an institutional effort to perpetuate White Supremacy. It has chested for a long it has existed for long time. By design, not just metal and stone, they were crafted to send a message. That only certain people are welcome here and certain people are not. Only certain people are entitled to certain things. Some people have value and others do not. That some of us are disposable these ideas manifest a devastating culture ethos that over many years deny people quality of life and future they deny our humanity. Let me think about what Robert Kennedy said to us. For theres a type of violence that is slower but just as deadly and destructive as gun or bomb and a knife. This is violence of institutions. Indifference in action. This is the violence that affects the poor. It poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the truth as well. Race lies at the root so many problems. We never really fully reckon with it until theres a flare up. In the form of ferguson, in the form of charleston, snipers in dallas our attention is fleeting and conversation is shallow. Theres rarely any action or follow up to move us forward. 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 slavery which continue to today. Reconciliation begins with an acknowledgement that there was wrong doing. That commitment to do better. In order to have reconciliation, you have to say im sorry. Someone else has to say, well i forgive you. Reconciliation is not someone saying man, forget about it. It really wasnt that important. I never really wronged you. Pick yourself up by your own boot straps. Not in my neighborhood. Thats not the way it works. It isnt in this context we should think about and try to fully understand the old addening where there is no justice, there is no peace. I used to hear that, if you dont give me what i want i will 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 they dont have access to things they need like land and water and food and property and healthcare, then you cant possibly have peace. All you can expect to have is allenuation and violence. Physical violence starts with this psychological violence which comes from the messages we receive in and where we grow up. The damage can be subtle. Often unseen and unheard. Can be devastating nonetheless. It explains a lot about things happening in our country right now. Especially thinking about things like Police Community relations which is all important 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. Who gets arrested and who doesnt, whos targeted and whos not is often because of age old mindset. Its called implicit bias its locked in by experience. The impact is real. Its immediate. Researchers shown that drug use is the same in africanamerican communities and white communities. But africanamericans are many times more likely to be arrested for drugs. It affects families of communities and housing and education and healthcare and more. Its a vicious cycle. On a related topic be, i spent most of my time 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. When the victim is a young child, or its a White College student or its a professional athlete, everything stops. At least for a minute. But it stops nonetheless. When will we see that humanity in all people . When well understand each life killed whoever they are whatever the color of their skin, our city potential is diminished. That was written a long time ago. The same question can play out in city and towns of all sizes and corners across the country. I ask you why do you think that is . We need a conversation not about these issues in silos how theyre poisonous fruit from the same tree. Easy thing to do is to point fingers and to blame each other. While the question of fault could go on forever 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. We can actually make great progress quickly on things like criminal Justice Reform, on poverty and education and so only other topics. Only when we realize that the ties that bond us are stronger than the things that divide divide us. We are stronger together. President actually said that the other night. Let me let that hang will for a second. Our racial divisions keep us from seeing that. Which gives 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. The fact is, that is really true. We need to see that to know that. 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, you go to our state anywhere in the deep south you see people, some white and some africanamericans, some now latino vietnamese, they are struggling. Throughout history demagogues made white people that brown people and black people just trying to take their stuff and vice versa. We put people have them convinced is one of them have something, the other cant have it. We have them fighting over little bit of meat empty bowl. 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 they would enjoy together. Sad thing they working class africanamericans and whites havent found each other. Yet, dont understand that their futures are united as one. They share common interest. Dr. King said, they abound in single garment of destiny. If that actually happened, if they found each other, if they got together, there was a coalition of working people peopledisenfranchised across the races, it will be a political earthquake. Both groups would get what they wanted what needed and deserve. America will be better for it. 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. There in lines next step. We and cities across america we must not only reclaim, that has to be part of Broader Movement reconciliation common understanding and empowerment. That means breaking down age. Old racial barriers and have tough conversations that are not happening now. It means seeking to find Common Ground which is we trying to do in new orleans. Now is the time to take stock of and to reckon with our history so 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. Walking through it is hard. Its payment. Its uncomfortable. When we come out the other side, were all going to be better for it. Once we start to listen rather than speak see rather than 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. We all want our kids to have a better life than we did. But still there are some who cynical and believe we cannot change. We think somehow that these divisions are part of the natural order of things. Some would say that reconciliation is not possible. Some would say this quest is naive. Mayor aremarry can mayor when everybody is wet and 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 dam boat. Amen. I saw that moment of catastrophe when the entire civil government of United States america disappeared and black people and white people did not see color. 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 a immediate. It was beautiful. Our darkest hour. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. You got to go through a lot to get there. 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 errors that plague us. You can see the humanity in other people of other races. We should prove the naysayers wrong. As americans theres 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. Were all part of one nation. All pledging allegiance to one flag. Flag of the United States of america. It is in this union and this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes. Need not take us generations. Were an exceptional country because the 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 rend a generation of courageous struggle and soul searching a truly lost cause. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you so much. I want to say again, on behalf of center for American Progress how honored we are to have for that the incredible remarks. Ly start out with one question. 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 . 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. Well, i dont know the answer to that question. I can sum mize a couple of things, were all 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 unit my father who was in the legislature was one of two white legislatures that voted against segregation package. He told the first time the other day, is that, when he got in the elevator, after he cast that vote perez who was a great segregationist back in the day along with willie, put a finger in his chest said youre dead. That my whole life has been part of that ethos and trying to understand it. Mary and i have been informed by the environment that we grew up. We grew up in i used to i think live in mitch neighborhood. My wife told me i lived in africanamerican neighborhood. I never understood why they saw it differently for me. 60 white and 40 black. But it was a black neighborhood. It never got to me. You need to think about that. As we kind of 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. This whole world in alternative facts, beside all the other history, i never started this. Every other mayor before me talked about doing this. I was fortunate enough to be able to get it done. Some of it had to do with facing the truth about who we are and what we are. Seeing if we can get to the truth so we can have a legitimate disagreement about what the right answer is to fix the truth. Throughout the entire south this is one of the issues that came to me, as were trying to cure rate the city of new orleans, its our 300th anniversary. As were rebuilding the whole city, we are, weve rebuilt every school. Mary was here, she was crenel getting the money we need. Weve rebuilt all our Health Clinics and hospitals and schools. Everything in new orleans that can rebuild, we had to rebuild. As we were looking at our city, we begin to think about our public spaces, as we begin to rebuild the city not back the way it was but the way we always should have been, those statutes kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. How much of our history do they really represent. Do they represent who we are as a people. Thats how this conversation started. We began to do the research on it, it was pretty clear. Those statutes were put up by folks who either were not from new orleans or didnt understand us or trying to make everybody feel welcome. Just as a matter of it was put up by false pretenses. They were crust trying to tell a story that wasnt true. If walked by there everyday, it force you to act a certain way. Idea was to turn the city back over to the people who really owned it and really thought about who we are and to be honest about where we came from and where we going. Im just as surprised everybody this speech went viral. I was talking to the people of new orleans and lay the historical record correctly so we can govern with honesty. I think one of the points you made in your speeches you cant really heal until you deal with the truth. How has the aftermath you detailed some of the passions and passion is a nice word, for threats such as violence. Have you seen people changing their minds . Painting everybody with a broad brush is a dangerous thing to do. There are people on the left and right, far left, far right, who feel the way they do. But act in way thats outside the bounds of politics. You saw if the other you saw it the other day with the gentleman so the steve scalise. Thatthat was awful. Not everybody on the other side of this issue feels a way. Different gradation of this. This on on of that, if you go talk to other people on both sides of the racial divide, list a lot of unspoken stuck. Its hard to hear its hard to understand. I do think that conversation of race occupies a very different place. I have to say all the hard things weve done in the city has been incredibly hard since katrina. Race is the hardest one. My team borrowed a book from what happened in south africa with desmond tutu. Brought over here by William Winter at the Racial Institute of ole miss. We began something called the Welcome Table in the city where he with different people of different races sit around the table for years. By the way, i didnt just start taking these monuments down yesterday. This started functionally about but you 2. 5 years ago. What we found was, people sit across the table from each other and they listen to core 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 what is painfully obvious, were more alike than we are apart. Race is a real deep divide. Its hard for us. Were not good at it. You cant go over it. You cant gloss over it. You have to sit and you have to go through it. Which means you have to take time at it. It has to become part of everything you do it has to be understanding how you create solutions that are equitable. We have equity strategy thats built our budget. It doesnt talk about equality. Dr. Norman francis longest serving president of hbcu. Hes got two glasses that have water in them. One got little bit more water than the oath. If you take a picture and you put the exact same amount of water in both glasses they still will be far apart. Equity is about getting them back together. In terms of hope and unit. We dont have an equity lens on a lot of work were doing on public post. If you dont have the conversation, if you dont confront the issues, youre not going to have a chance to get on the other side. Were going to go to questions just. Call in folks identify your name and who youre with. My last question is going to be about the response in the country. I reached out to you to come to cap. I saw the speech online. Thousands of people were distributing it. My take on that is, did seem there was such a response in the country to your remarks it feels 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 think its more important for a leaders to respond to these issues as we face those challenges and how do you think we can address them . Couple of things. In defense of the south. I love the south. Im a son of the south, born if the south. Spectacular place, spectacular people. The problems in the south theyre different from the problems rest of the country. Trust me on that. If you want to have fun and enjoyable life move to the south. Or just come to new orleans. Thats first of all. Secondly, im going to give you an outside of washington answer. I really see this across both political parties. You will know when you speaking in an inclusive way when people come. You know that you speaking in an exclusive way when you push people away. During the last campaign there was a debate inside Clinton Campaign about which strategy to use. Do you go to your base or expand out. Do you have to continue to expand out. On the other side, you hear cnn talking about hes tweeting because he wants to go back to his base. I never think thats a good idea. In terms of finding solutions for the country. Everybody got something to add. There are lots of things that our side dont understand and other side dont understand about us. Thats not because we cant we dont. Both of us got elected state wide. I twice and you four times. Its possible. When we were campaigning, you had to go into every neighborhood. If you dont go ask them what they think what else are they going to conclude . Except you dont want to hear me or see me. I think in our life experience, one of the essential basic things that we learn like in kindergarten you reach out to people and you ask somebody to be your friend. Theres a much better chance 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. Its incumbent upon all politicians to represent the people that elect us. We have to listen to all of them. There are always a colonel of truth. Theres some value there. I think that one of the things that we see in state legislature from city councils, you see it in Congress Today inability to forge a governing compromise. Its not because the answer is not there, its my personal opinion. I think the country already knows what the answer is on immigration reform. I think the country already knows what the answer is on healthcare reform, the country knows that theres a solution out there which at least 66 of the people of the country would agree with. For some reason our political bodies cant get themselves to communion on any issue. Which making still feel like we cant get anything done. I just think that when radical center has disappeared, which i put myself in the mild of, and folks are not given permission to come to an agreement and chastise for a compromise, that dont bode well for us. 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 reactions to these monuments i have to say, i knew it was going to be hard. Im not naive. I have to say it has sadden me about how this issue was handled. How people responded to it and the level of threats and violence and then the push back. That is not okay in the United States of america in the second decade of the it 21st century. What the country needs are elected officials. Priests, coaches, mothers and fathers, everybody to stand up and say, that is not okay. There is a right and theres a wrong. Theres a good and bad, there is evil and there is good. If were going to fight with each other, were going to fight within these boundaries and rules. If you dont follow the rules you get kicked off the island. Within that, hit us hard as you need to hit, 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. Stay focused on what is good for the United States of america. If we can kind of govern ourselves back in that space well get to a better space. But at the end of the day, 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. That open. The floodgates of possibility on solves real things that most of us are for a concerned about. Im going to ask questions. Right there. My name is ruth. The most important affiliation is that, new orleans is the city of my soul. I feel very much loved five or six times. I saw a piece on 60 minutes about new orleans public defender system. Im wondering what your thoughts are about that and importance of a in context what youve been talking about . I archdiocese your name mentioned as potential candidate for higher office. Any comments . No. Pi dont have any comment. Im not running for president. Very nice for people to think about that. On criminal Justice Reform stuff, new orleans is much like everyone else around the country. We trying to get a handle where we put our focus. We have this upside. We spent huge amount of time about focusing on nonviolent crime. That puts people in jail for a long time. That creates high recidivism rates and not enough time on violent criminals. Theres some bad people in this country for whatever their circumstances or reasons will hurt other people. Those people have to be put in jail. They have to be secured and we have to be safe. With you the system is upside down. The funding mechanisms dont really work. Louisiana probably the poster child how weve done it. Most incarcerated city and state in the nation and the world. We have the highest crime rate. This is a really difficult complicated issue. Were dealing with it in new new orleans everyday. It manifest in shoot and murder that are mostly by handguns. The victims are mostly africanamerican men. We a situation in new orleans where we had a parrish jail. We had 7000 human beings in a city jail. Which was bigger than the most biggest jail in the United States of america. Weve been working on policies that only people are Violent Crimes make sure theres determination whether they are guilty or not. Funding for the d. A. Is an issue. I happen to be the mayor, gi its to listen to everybody scream about budget priorities. Big deal, we spend exponentially large sum of taxpayers money on the backhand side of criminal justice. Police jails, you want to try to get on the front end side. Early childhood Education Mental Health and substance abuse. Domestic violence all of those issues we have to make this aggressive leap. But it takes resources. The one thing a really bothers me is about the truth. You can do more with less. You cant. You do less with less. Everybody knows we ought to be efficient. 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, 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. Its right down to the ground. When you have less you do less. When you have less kids dont get taught lessons. The supper feeding program feeds less people. Less is less. People get hurt. More is more. This is only place in the world where you can say less more. Somebody goes, that sounds great. Its not true. Thats why when we say if we can get back to operating in truth and paced on facts, theres plenty of enough to argue about once you get that foundation under you. In the back there and well go to the back. Thank you for being here. My name is chelsea jones. Im a graduate student. Im also from the south from texas. My question has to do with economic oppression. I feel like with systemic racism is the inequity when it comes to economics between races and classes. What do you feel that are the most important steps for cities to take to ensure Economic Equity . First of all, you from texas . You claim youre from the south . [laughter] i think texas will get mad at you. In the talk that i just gave you. You heard me use a phrase. We live a bloc away but a world apart. Thats not just a fancy phrase. If you go run a spatial analysis on neighborhoods absolutely true in new orleans. Im sure its true in other areas. We call it the Railroad Track test. Some neighborhoods, same topography. You live on this side urban got more and if you live on that side you got less. Closenessto chemical companies. All that kind of stuff. In new orleans i use st. Charles avenue. Its a street that separates neighborhood called central city. Which sends more kids which is our really bad prison. On the other side is the garden district. It says more kids to harvard. Theyre 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 can be the bestest of friends. At night michael goes to one side and joe goes the oath side. If you looked a the Demographic Data you would go, this is crazy. Why is this happening . Why in america do we allow this to occur . Which goes to the issue that people dont want to talk. Implicit bias, institutions. We have to ask yourselves through an equity lens, where people need to listen to africanamerican families and they say, theres no path way it prosperity for me. In new orleans, one of the ways we tried to deal with it create something called pathway to prosperity. This is simple. It actually came out of an experience i had when w. More i children was sick. When you walk into that hospital, if you notice this in childrens hospital, they have a lot of color. Theres a yellow line and theres a blue line and theres a red line then theres a green line. The elevators are color too. Yaleyellow takes you to oncology orange takes you to the hard guy, green takes you to other places. Theres a pathway to something that can help you. I 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. Were celebrating less than 4 Unemployment Rate in the country. 52 of africanamerican men are not working in the city. Some of them cant work. But most of them can and want to but they dont have access to that. We need a pathway there. They doesnt have a pathway before. For all the kids that go to college, you assume there will bewillbe a counselor there. 52 is a percentage. You want to know how many people it is . I wanted to know their faces. People said you cant know their faces. We run for office. I know every voter in my district and i know where they live. I know the economics is. Why cant we individually know these people. 38,600 men is the number. This is what you needed to know about them. They were differently age. They have different education. Some of them dropped out, some of them have been incarcerated. Some of them were opportunity. Some of them supposed to graduate from college and didnt have a pathway. The problem is, you got to find them and we have to have a job for them. Where are the jobs . Which goes to the issue of something the country got to be thinking about. Everybody works. If everybody will work, theres got to be jobs. We have an interesting conundrum in louisiana now. I dont know the answer to it. In southwest louisiana in little city called lake charles right next to texas, as a matter of fact, 80 billion investment in creation of liquidfied natural gas plants. They need thousands of employees to help weld. Where are they going to get all those employees . Theres no connection. Theres no discussion. These guys need work. Theres work to be had. How do we actually train them for those jobs. How do we break county those issues down those issue. Its about race. Little bit of it is about training. This is kind of large in the United States of america. How do you take people that are not working and put them with jobs we already have . How do you create jobs that we need and train people to do it. That whole training mechanism is something that are terrible at in this country. Republicans and democrats independents, everybody else were bad at this. We need to figure out how to make that happen. You can take in young man that doesnt have the kind of guidance that maybe you and i would have our parents would tell us. Here exactly the way you are. Heres whats going to help you. Heres whats going to lift you up when you need assistance. Just like we do with kids from college that come home and seem like were struggling. We have that kind of human touch that is in the work were doing. One time for one more question. I want to thank you mayor for your comments and your courage on this issue. Im the recovering politician from the city. Which i escaped gosh z how is that going . I came back from a trip in the deep south. I returned to my home city of charlottesville to find kkk rallies scheduled. The guy has the office next to me, wonderful guy from this territory, the mayor. Under deep assault and very divided community. Ive experienced this already from townhalls. Which out 103 policemen guarding our local congressmen at the townhall. My question for you is, what advice would you give people of charlottesville . Blue island and sea of red trying to have a have a dialogue but determined to get to results results. Im not on the ground there. I i would say couple things. Im not completely surprised by it. I am surprised by how hard it is for people to let go something that was obviously not true. And it really speaks to not how long the other side might be, but how much work we have to do. The overwhelming majority in my city want these monuments to come down. Lots of people outside of our city for some reason feel an ownership of this. I am the very parochial here. To me in its essence, this is a property dispute. [laughter] it was really simple. I was born at night, but not less like to let think about dupont circle. It is owned by somebody. I would assume it is the city of washington d. C. They have the right to decide what goes on that piece of property. We had a public space the city owned and we had the right to put in that space whatever we thought. Some of these people who dont live in new orleans they think they actually on that piece of opportunity that can tell somebody else what to do with it. That is where the argument began and ended very my question would be this. People would say you are a dictator. At a racial reconciliation concert, i said these words i think it is time we have a discussion about taking those monuments down. Those are the words i used. You would think i said something else. After that, there is a process about how you actually do this. We had to go to three commissions that were occupied by citizens who actually sat on those commissions. They had to vote to allow me to take it down. Then we had to go to the city council. They lasted a long time with a lot of passion. Then the courts got involved. They actually had to walk through this issue. That is how functionally it got done. Then we had agreed to raise private funds to do it because of a security threats. It cost us more money than we thought. Some people still do not want to yield, notwithstanding the fact we went through a democratic ross s. Some people said i should have taken that to a vote of the people. We live in a republic. It is not designed that way. It is designed for the elected folks and from time to time in certain states they have referendums, but it is mostly not. Why do they think the confederate generals occupy such a special place that they are 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 who feel so strongly about that. They think they should rise above passing a federal budget. Just to say this, the it is an issue that needs to get work through. I think that nikki haley and the folks in South Carolina did a good job after the shootings and that the people in South Carolina allowed that events to happen in a defined way. This should happen in the same way across the country. I dont think it is review the lost cause is a direct attempt to sanitize our history and denied the humanity of our fellow citizens. If we allow our country to stay in that space and not confront that in a thoughtful way, it does not give anybody the opportunity to transform. What were seeing is people after having heard the speech are beginning to say i never really thought about it. Now they are thinking about it to watch the last minutes of this search race in america on the homepage. Now live to a forum on the repeal and replace of the Current Health care law on capitol hill. We will be hearing from senator bill cassidy, a republican, and then cut tom carper. We are happy to be hosting this program together with graham thorton. These are our future ready