#Acadian Day of Remembrance
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Acadian Day of Remembrance
Members of the Acadian community, dozens of school children and local officials are gathering to mark Acadian Remembrance Day at Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic site.
December 13 has a special meaning for P.E.I.'s Acadian Community. On that day in 1758 a ship carrying Acadians being deported to France sank and 350 people died.
It was the greatest loss of Acadian life in a single day, says Georges Arsenault, an Acadian historian.
"It is to recognize the difficult years that the Acadians had and of course resilience because we are still here, we've been on the Island for over 300 years and French is still a language which is alive, that has been spoken on the Island for 300 years," he said.
One third of P.E.I.'s French population died as a result of deportations in 1758, which included two more ships sinking just days apart with Acadians from the Island aboard, Arsenault said.
"Just in those three days there's about 900 Acadians from the Island that died," he said.
Over 1,000 Acadians managed to avoid deportation, with some families remaining on P.E.I., Arsenault said.
"Those who were deported to France, those who survived finally settled there, some of them, but many left in 1785 to Louisiana. So that is why there is such a close tie between Louisiana and Prince Edward Island," Arsenault said, adding he spoke with an Acadian from Louisiana a few years ago and helped them track their roots to the Island.
P.E.I. Minister Responsible for Acadian and Francophone Affairs Gilles Arsenault issued a release on Acadian Remembrance Day.
"Acadian Remembrance Day is an opportunity for us to remember and commemorate the lost lives of Acadians. Through their perseverance, some returned home and survived other hardships.This dark history shows the strength and resilience of Acadians. We are proud of the Acadian heritage and culture," the release read.
"The Acadian and Francophone community brings diversity to the Island through their traditions, music and language. We will continue to support and work with them."
Members of the Acadian community are gathering Wednesday at Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic site to remember lives lost during the Acadian deportation. The event will include music, a silent walk, readings and highlight the resilience of the Acadian community, Arsenault said.
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#Acadian Day of Remembrance#AcadianDayofRemembrance#13 December 1758#Acadia National Park#Maine#USA#2018#original photography#Canada#Croix de la departion#Halifax#Nova Scotia#summer 2015#cityscape#vacation#Grand Falls#New Brunswick#Acadia Memorial#Shediac#acadian flag#Great Upheaval#PEI#Prince Edward Island#landscape#Point Prim#265th anniversary#Canadian history#travel#tourist attraction#landmark
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The 13th of December is Acadian Remembrance Day. Like every year, let's take a moment to reflect on one of the darkest periods of Canadian history and celebrate the resilience of the Acadians and those in the diaspora.
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Holidays 12.13
Holidays
Acadian Remembrance Day (Canada)
Anesthesia Technicians Day (Turkey)
Bicycle Built For Two Day
Blame Someone Else Day
Clip-On Tie Day
Count the "La's" in "Deck the Halls" Day
Ella Josephine Baker Day
International ACAB Day
Jane Addams Day
Jum ir-Repubblika (Malta)
Loki Day
Martial Law Victims Remembrance Day (Poland)
Nanking Massacre Memorial Day (China)
National Bring Your Brother-in-Law to Work Day
National Day (Saint Lucia)
National Day of the Horse [also 2nd Saturday]
National Guard Day (US)
National Violin Day
New Calendar Day
Nusantara Day (Indonesia)
Peace Day (Korea)
Pick a Pathologist Pal Day
Reed Plant Dat (French Republic)
Republic Day (Malta)
Sailor’s Day (Brazil)
Santa Lucia Day (Sweden, Scandinavia)
Skip Day
Swiftie Day
Unreturned Library Book Day
World Violins Day
Yuletide Lad #2 arrives (Giljagaur or Gully Oaf; Iceland)
Food & Drink Celebrations
Ice Cream and Violins Day
National Cocoa Day
National Cream Cheese Frosting Day
National Ice Cream Day
National Popcorn String Day
World Raclette Day
2nd Wednesday in December
Book Club Day [2nd Wednesday]
Independence Days
Vendsyssel (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Antiochus of Sulcis (Christian; Saint)
Aubert (Christian; Saint)
Comp-U-Coffee 2000 (Muppetism)
Emily Carr (Artology)
Euler (Positivist; Saint)
Feast of the Light-Bringer (Old Swedish Goddess of Light)
Hanukkah Day #6 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 15th]
Herman of Alaska (American Orthodox Church)
Ides of December (Ancient Rome)
John Marinoni (Christian; Blessed)
John Wayne Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Judoc (a.k.a. Joyce; Christian; Saint)
Kenelm, King (Christian; Saint)
Larry Storch Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Losar (Ladakh, India)
Losoong (a.k.a. Namsoong; Sikkim, India)
Luciadagen (a.k.a. Little Yule; Scandinavia)
Lucia’s Day (Pagan)
Lucy (Christian; Saint) [Writers]
Monkey Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)
Odile of Alsace (Christian; Saint)
Othilia (Christian; Saint)
The Sementivaem (Ancient Rome)
Tellus (Ancient Rome, with table spread for Ceres)
Thorn Cutting Ceremony Day (Glastonbury, England; Celtic)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Martes (Unlucky Tuesday; Spanish culture) [Tuesday the 13th] (2 of 2 for 2022)
Prime Number Day: 347 [69 of 72]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Triti (Unlucky Day; Greece) [Tuesday the 13th] (2 of 2 for 2022)
Premieres
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot (Web Series; 2016)
American Hustle (Film; 2013)
An American in Paris, by George Gershwin (Broadway Musical; 1928)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Disney Film; 1971)
Beyoncé, by Beyoncé (Album; 2013)
Bugsy (Film; 1991)
A Chorus Line (Film; 1985)
Clue (Film; 1985)
Dark Star, performed by the Grateful Dead (Song; 1967)
Driving Miss Daisy (Film; 1989)
Emily of New Moon, by L.M. Montgomery (Novel; 1923)
Fool Coverage (WB LT Cartoon; 1952)
Foxy Lady, recorded by Jimi Hendrix (Song; 1966)
The Getaway (Film; 1972)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Film; 2013) [3 of 3]
Jerry Maguire (Film; 1996)
The Jewel of the Nile (Film; 1985)
Jumanji: The Next Level (Film; 2019)
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Animated Film; 2024)
Maid in Manhattan (Film; 2002)
Mars Attacks! (Film; 1996)
A Miser Brothers’ Christmas (Animated TV Special; 2008)
Monitored Noose or The Carbon Copy-Cats (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 6; 1959)
My Name is Nobody (Film; 1973)
The Poseidon Adventure (Film; 1972)
Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise (Anime Film; 2014)
Richard III (Film; 1955)
Saving Mr. Banks (Film; 2013)
Scooby-Doo! Pirates ahoy! (WB Animated Film; 2005)
The Scorched Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 5; 1959)
Sense and Sensibility (Film; 1996)
6 Underground (Film; 2019)
Star Trek: Nemesis (Film; 2002)
Tristessa, by Jack Kerouac (Novel; 1960)
Uncut Gems (Film; 2019)
Wind (Pixar Cartoon; 2019)
Today’s Name Days
Jodok, Lucia, Odilia (Austria)
Jasna, Lucija, Otilija, Svjetlana (Croatia)
Lucie (Czech Republic)
Lucia (Denmark)
Ele, Ere, Hele, Loviise, Lucia, Luise, Viise (Estonia)
Seija (Finland)
Jocelyn, Lucie (France)
Jodok, Johanna, Lucia, Ottilia (Germany)
Aris, Efstratios, Ioubenalios, Evstratios, Loukia, Lucy, Stratos (Greece)
Luca, Otilia (Hungary)
Antioco, Lucia (Italy)
Lūcija, Veldze (Latvia)
Eiviltė, Kastautas, Kastytis, Liucija, Otilija (Lithuania)
Lucia, Lydia (Norway)
Łucja, Lucja, Otylia, Włodzisława (Poland)
Dosoftei (Romania)
Lucia (Slovakia)
Lucía, Otilia (Spain)
Lucia (Sweden)
Louise, Lucia, Lukia (Ukraine)
Cinderella, Cindy, Cynth, Cynthia (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 347 of 2024; 18 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 3 of week 50 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 16 of 28]
Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 1 (Yi-Si)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 1 Teveth 5784
Islamic: 30 Jumada I 1445
J Cal: 17 Zima; Threesday [17 of 30]
Julian: 30 November 2023
Moon: 1%: Waxing Crescent
Positivist: 11 Bichat (13th Month) [Euler]
Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 3 of 15]
Season: Autumn (Day 81 of 89)
Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 22 of 30)
Calendar Changes
冰月 [Bīngyuè] (Chinese Lunisolar Calendar) [Month 12 of 12] (Ice Month) [Earthly Branch: Ox Month] (End-of-Year Month)
Ṭēḇēṯ (a.k.a. Tevet, Tebeth & Tebetu) [טֵבֵת] (Hebrew Calendar) [Month 10 of 12]
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Holidays 12.13
Holidays
Acadian Remembrance Day (Canada)
Anesthesia Technicians Day (Turkey)
Bicycle Built For Two Day
Blame Someone Else Day
Clip-On Tie Day
Count the "La's" in "Deck the Halls" Day
Ella Josephine Baker Day
International ACAB Day
Jane Addams Day
Jum ir-Repubblika (Malta)
Loki Day
Martial Law Victims Remembrance Day (Poland)
Nanking Massacre Memorial Day (China)
National Bring Your Brother-in-Law to Work Day
National Day (Saint Lucia)
National Day of the Horse [also 2nd Saturday]
National Guard Day (US)
National Violin Day
New Calendar Day
Nusantara Day (Indonesia)
Peace Day (Korea)
Pick a Pathologist Pal Day
Reed Plant Dat (French Republic)
Republic Day (Malta)
Sailor’s Day (Brazil)
Santa Lucia Day (Sweden, Scandinavia)
Skip Day
Swiftie Day
Unreturned Library Book Day
World Violins Day
Yuletide Lad #2 arrives (Giljagaur or Gully Oaf; Iceland)
Food & Drink Celebrations
Ice Cream and Violins Day
National Cocoa Day
National Cream Cheese Frosting Day
National Ice Cream Day
National Popcorn String Day
World Raclette Day
2nd Wednesday in December
Book Club Day [2nd Wednesday]
Independence Days
Vendsyssel (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Antiochus of Sulcis (Christian; Saint)
Aubert (Christian; Saint)
Comp-U-Coffee 2000 (Muppetism)
Emily Carr (Artology)
Euler (Positivist; Saint)
Feast of the Light-Bringer (Old Swedish Goddess of Light)
Hanukkah Day #6 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 15th]
Herman of Alaska (American Orthodox Church)
Ides of December (Ancient Rome)
John Marinoni (Christian; Blessed)
John Wayne Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Judoc (a.k.a. Joyce; Christian; Saint)
Kenelm, King (Christian; Saint)
Larry Storch Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Losar (Ladakh, India)
Losoong (a.k.a. Namsoong; Sikkim, India)
Luciadagen (a.k.a. Little Yule; Scandinavia)
Lucia’s Day (Pagan)
Lucy (Christian; Saint) [Writers]
Monkey Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)
Odile of Alsace (Christian; Saint)
Othilia (Christian; Saint)
The Sementivaem (Ancient Rome)
Tellus (Ancient Rome, with table spread for Ceres)
Thorn Cutting Ceremony Day (Glastonbury, England; Celtic)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Martes (Unlucky Tuesday; Spanish culture) [Tuesday the 13th] (2 of 2 for 2022)
Prime Number Day: 347 [69 of 72]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Triti (Unlucky Day; Greece) [Tuesday the 13th] (2 of 2 for 2022)
Premieres
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot (Web Series; 2016)
American Hustle (Film; 2013)
An American in Paris, by George Gershwin (Broadway Musical; 1928)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Disney Film; 1971)
Beyoncé, by Beyoncé (Album; 2013)
Bugsy (Film; 1991)
A Chorus Line (Film; 1985)
Clue (Film; 1985)
Dark Star, performed by the Grateful Dead (Song; 1967)
Driving Miss Daisy (Film; 1989)
Emily of New Moon, by L.M. Montgomery (Novel; 1923)
Fool Coverage (WB LT Cartoon; 1952)
Foxy Lady, recorded by Jimi Hendrix (Song; 1966)
The Getaway (Film; 1972)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Film; 2013) [3 of 3]
Jerry Maguire (Film; 1996)
The Jewel of the Nile (Film; 1985)
Jumanji: The Next Level (Film; 2019)
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Animated Film; 2024)
Maid in Manhattan (Film; 2002)
Mars Attacks! (Film; 1996)
A Miser Brothers’ Christmas (Animated TV Special; 2008)
Monitored Noose or The Carbon Copy-Cats (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 6; 1959)
My Name is Nobody (Film; 1973)
The Poseidon Adventure (Film; 1972)
Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise (Anime Film; 2014)
Richard III (Film; 1955)
Saving Mr. Banks (Film; 2013)
Scooby-Doo! Pirates ahoy! (WB Animated Film; 2005)
The Scorched Moose (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 5; 1959)
Sense and Sensibility (Film; 1996)
6 Underground (Film; 2019)
Star Trek: Nemesis (Film; 2002)
Tristessa, by Jack Kerouac (Novel; 1960)
Uncut Gems (Film; 2019)
Wind (Pixar Cartoon; 2019)
Today’s Name Days
Jodok, Lucia, Odilia (Austria)
Jasna, Lucija, Otilija, Svjetlana (Croatia)
Lucie (Czech Republic)
Lucia (Denmark)
Ele, Ere, Hele, Loviise, Lucia, Luise, Viise (Estonia)
Seija (Finland)
Jocelyn, Lucie (France)
Jodok, Johanna, Lucia, Ottilia (Germany)
Aris, Efstratios, Ioubenalios, Evstratios, Loukia, Lucy, Stratos (Greece)
Luca, Otilia (Hungary)
Antioco, Lucia (Italy)
Lūcija, Veldze (Latvia)
Eiviltė, Kastautas, Kastytis, Liucija, Otilija (Lithuania)
Lucia, Lydia (Norway)
Łucja, Lucja, Otylia, Włodzisława (Poland)
Dosoftei (Romania)
Lucia (Slovakia)
Lucía, Otilia (Spain)
Lucia (Sweden)
Louise, Lucia, Lukia (Ukraine)
Cinderella, Cindy, Cynth, Cynthia (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 347 of 2024; 18 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 3 of week 50 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 16 of 28]
Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 1 (Yi-Si)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 1 Teveth 5784
Islamic: 30 Jumada I 1445
J Cal: 17 Zima; Threesday [17 of 30]
Julian: 30 November 2023
Moon: 1%: Waxing Crescent
Positivist: 11 Bichat (13th Month) [Euler]
Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 3 of 15]
Season: Autumn (Day 81 of 89)
Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 22 of 30)
Calendar Changes
冰月 [Bīngyuè] (Chinese Lunisolar Calendar) [Month 12 of 12] (Ice Month) [Earthly Branch: Ox Month] (End-of-Year Month)
Ṭēḇēṯ (a.k.a. Tevet, Tebeth & Tebetu) [טֵבֵת] (Hebrew Calendar) [Month 10 of 12]
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the space between the letters: Jerry Baynard moves into Green Gables ft. unexpected mail (awae fic)
“This is... mine?”
The unbelief in Jerry Baynard’s trembling voice echoed through the room in which the Cuthberts were saying belonged to him now.
It wasn’t Anne’s room, of course. No one, however close to the Cuthberts, would be able to fill the physical and emotional void that Anne Shirley-Cuthbert opened when she left for Queen’s College.
Marilla would visit Anne’s gable on the particularly hard days. She’d make sure that no dust was collecting on the dresser, on the sentimental objects Anne had adopted throughout the years. On the days when her longing for Anne and the laughter and stories she’d bring to the kitchen table made it difficult to complete basic tasks, Marilla would tiptoe into Anne’s room and lie on the bed for a few minutes, inhaling the fading scent of her daughter in the sheets.
“Yes,” Matthew smiled shyly, glancing quickly at Marilla. “It’s all yours.”
Marilla said nothing, but she felt joy that they could provide something good for the boy who had eased so much burden from her family, most especially her younger but aging brother.
“I– this bed– it’s mine?” Jerry ran his hand over the soft cotton sheet that lay perfectly uniform on top of the mattress with a feather touch, afraid someone would wake him up from this wonderful dream.
“Yes. This room and everything in it, is yours. It’s the least we can give you, after asking you to live away from your family to help take good care of the farm,” said Matthew.
To help take care of us, Marilla thought.
“I don’t know what to say,” Jerry spoke with tears in his eyes, finally allowing himself to believe it. “I’ve never had a room to myself before. Thank you, Miss Cuthbert, Mister Cuthbert. Merci beaucoup.”
The Cuthberts were a blessing to him and his family. He was but a child when they had hired him to work on the farm, yet Matthew had trusted him like any other capable hard worker and trained him in the ways of farming. His first wage was spent covering overdue expenses his parents had accumulated since moving to the Acadian camp. Since then, his parents found good work and with their salaries combined, they made enough to support their large family, and then some. Jerry Baynard sought to repay the Cuthberts for how they’ve bettered his family in ways they’d never fully know.
“Well,” Marilla managed to choke out. “Don’t go thinking now that this room is yours that it is yours to neglect. I expect you to keep order in here, understand?” She meant to sound strict, to hide the tide of emotion threatening to bubble out of her chest, but the smile on Jerry’s face caused her voice to catch. “And I expect you to make your bed soon as you wake in the mornings.”
“Yes, of course, Miss Cuthbert. But I’ve never had a bed before, so I don’t know the proper way to make it after I sleep. Will you teach me?”
“I will. But pay no mind to it now, seeing as it is your first night at Green Gables, after all. Once you get situated and finish unpacking, you can join Matthew in the barn. Supper is in two hours, so ten minutes to I expect the both of you to be washing up and getting ready to join me at the table.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the two in unison as Marilla fled the room before she could do something foolish like cry.
“Now, you let us know if you’re in need of anything,” said Matthew, putting his arm over the boy’s shoulders. “Welcome to Green Gables, Jerry.”
“Thank you, Mister Cuthbert,” Jerry turned quickly to his mentor and friend to embrace him.
“Oh, no need to thank me, son. You’ve done us all mighty proud.” Matthew patted the boy’s back. He smiled at the observation that Jerry had much grown since he first came to work at Green Gables. “Well, now. I’ll let you unpack. Meet me in the barn when you’re ready.”
Alone in his room, Jerry looked around at the simple furniture that was most extravagant in his sight. A bed, bedside table, dresser, and a slightly cracked mirror that hung on the wall, which was more than he could ever ask for. He glanced at his reflection and briefly pondered what changes this next year would bring.
Jerry opened the dresser to begin organizing his clothes and things, and upon finding a shriveled flower in the top compartment, he immediately smiled at the thought of Anne. He hoped his dear friend was doing well at Queen’s and not feeling homesick, as he was beginning to feel now. He knew it would take a while to get adjusted to the quiet of Green Gables. At home, there were so many Baynards that silence was an odd luxury. He missed his brothers and sisters and parents, and Jerry wondered how Anne, such a boisterous soul, endured the quiet all her years here.
After supper, and after all was said and done, Jerry Baynard slipped into bed and had his first uninterrupted sleep in weeks. His youngest sister made it a habit to wake him up in the night to accompany her to the outdoor washroom, since she was deathly afraid of being in the dark alone. Jerry had faith that the sibling closest to him in age would take his place as little Adelyn’s protector from the darkness. That night, Jerry Baynard dreamed of Green Gables, Victoria (the new cow whom Jerry named after Victor Frankenstein), and a redhead in the forest who welcomed him with a bright smile.
-
It was seven in the morning, but Green Gables and its residents were wide awake. Marilla was baking up a storm in the kitchen, in preparation for the board meeting which she, Rachel Lynde, and Muriel Stacey would attend in four hours. She intended to use her plum puffs to mould the stubborn men into flexible clay. Rachel would be the potter, not her, mind you, for Rachel Lynde had a way of persuading people who had made up their minds they would not be persuaded.
Jerry Baynard and Matthew Cuthbert were working hard plowing a plot of soil for Marilla’s vegetable garden when Marilla rang the breakfast bell, summoning them to the kitchen.
After washing up, they took their place at the table and noticed Marilla’s gleeful expression for the first time.
“We’ve received a letter, Matthew. From Gilbert Blythe.”
“Gilbert?” Matthew shared a curious look with Jerry. “How is he?”
“Very well,” she grinned. “He’s asked us for permission to court our Anne.”
“Court?” Matthew’s eyes bulged. “Well, now. I thought he was going to–“
“He didn’t. He is now studying at the University of Toronto.”
“I thought he didn’t–”
“He does. Said so in black in white, in the letter. Here, see for yourself.”
“He didn’t think to ask in person?”
“All explained, in the letter,” said Marilla, extending the paper to her brother. “Read it yourself.”
Matthew waved it off. “I trust your decision.”
“Matthew Cuthbert, this is a serious matter that involves the both of us as much as it does Anne. We need to decide, together.”
“Well, now. I don’t know much about courting,” supplied Matthew weakly.
“But you do know our Anne,” said Marilla, aggravated. “It’s got to be our decision and you will help me write the reply letter to Gilbert Blythe, and that is final.”
“If you don’t mind my asking,” Jerry interjected, “what decision are you leaning toward, Miss Cuthbert?”
“Well, yes, of course,” smiled Marilla. “Gilbert Blythe is a commendable person.”
“If he’s so commendable, I wonder why you need my opinion,” Matthew mumbled.
Marilla ignored her brother. “Jerry, would you like to write anything to Gilbert?”
It was now Jerry’s turn to look surprised. “Me?”
“You do live under our roof now, so you’ll be seeing Gilbert around when he comes calling for Anne during their summer break. And, aren’t you good friends with Anne? Think on it, and let me know. All right, let’s not let the food get cold.”
-
After milking the cow Matthew had bought after finding later they needed more milk than they thought, and after feeding the goats, he finally read the letter in the kitchen. He read Gilbert’s request to court a flame-headed girl who rooted herself deep in both of their hearts and pondered hard on all the factors. The main one being Anne’s happiness.
Marilla returned from the board meeting and had just entered the house when she heard Matthew’s voice.
“My answer is yes.”
“Pardon me? Hold on a minute.” Marilla hung her shawl at the front and slipped her feet out of her boots and into her indoor slippers. Placing a basket that was emptied of all traces of plum puffs on the kitchen table, she looked at Matthew expectantly.
He cleared his throat. “I, uh, I suppose it’s alright for Gilbert to court Anne. My answer is yes.”
“It is?” Marilla fought back a giddy smile because Matthew looked so serious. “Really now?”
“Yes. They care deeply for each other and Gilbert’s letter– I read it. He loves her, loves our Anne. And... she loves him, too, told me so herself that day.” Matthew cleared his throat again, looking at Marilla hesitatingly. “So are we agreed?”
“We’re agreed. Thank you, Matthew. I’ll write our letter to Gilbert now.”
“Don’t write if your eyes are too tired,” said Matthew gruffly. “You’ve had a long morning.”
Marilla allowed herself a smile now. “So have you. I’ll be calling you and Jerry in for tea in an hour. Would you mind giving this to him?” Marilla handed a cream-coloured envelope to Matthew. “After reading Gilbert’s letter, I forgot about the second one the postman delivered. It’s addressed to Jerry. No sender’s address.”
Jerry Baynard had just finished collecting eggs from the chicken pen. He smiled at the remembrance of Anne and the fox she sought to protect and was startled when Matthew tapped him on the shoulder, almost dropping his basket of eggs.
“The postman delivered a letter. For you,” Matthew extended the mysterious envelope to Jerry, who now looked perplexed. He wasn’t in the business of receiving any letters.
“For me? From who?” Jerry stared at the letter in Matthew’s hand.
“No sender’s address,” shrugged Matthew. “Here, take a break. You’re due for one anyway,” Matthew said, taking the basket of eggs.
Jerry tentatively shoved the letter down his pants pocket before pumping a drink from the well outside. After drinking three pints of water and being unable to find more reason to delay opening the envelope, he fished it out and examined the elegant writing.
Ignoring the uncomfortable feeling stirring in his stomach, Jerry gently ripped open the flap and pulled out a single sheet of paper that had been folded delicately. His eyes widened as he read
To: Jerry Baynard
From: Diana Barry
-
At tea, Jerry was preoccupied with the contents of his old beau’s letter, so when Marilla asked again if he wanted to write something to Gilbert, he said yes without thinking.
Marilla handed him the letter she and Matthew had finished writing, along with a pen. Jerry snapped out of his thoughts then to address the Cuthberts.
“Did you give Gilbert Blythe permission to court Anne?”
“We did,” smiled Marilla as Matthew nodded slowly. “He plans to visit Anne at Queen’s and accompany her to Avonlea during one of the harvest weekends. We shall see him then.”
Jerry smiled at the thought of Anne being swept off her feet and experiencing romantic love, and of teasing her about her new beau. He only hoped that she wouldn’t be kin to heartbreak anytime soon. Knowing now what he wanted to say to Gilbert Blythe, Jerry’s brows furrowed in concentration as he picked up the pen and wrote as neatly as he could:
P.S. Félicitations, Blythe! Please say hello to AnnE for me. Take care of her good or I’ll feed you to my dogs. À bientôt. See you soon.
—Jerry Baynard
———————————————————————
wowowow I really am a clown
please read: I’m in the middle of exam season so I will be taking a brief hiatus from posting but let’s see how long I can resist going on tumblr lol so I hope this tides you over while you wait for the next set of letters. do you kindred spirits want (1) Diana’s letter to Jerry or (2) Anne’s reply to Gilbert’s first letter? comment your preference if you have one so ik which I should post next!
index of this awae au/fic so far in chronological order (click to read):
Anne’s letter to Gilbert - #1
Jerry Baynard moves in to Green Gables ft. unexpected mail
The Avonlea girls take on Queen’s aka Cuffing Season
Gilbert’s letter to Anne - #2
click here to access the index to all my works!
#the space between the letters#awae letters#anneshirleycuffbert#anne with an e#awae#awae fic#awae au#jerry baynard#diana barry#marilla cuthbert#matthew cuthbert#anne of green gables#anne shirley cuthbert#gilbert blythe#shirbert letters#awae spoilers#awae season 4#renew anne with an e#renewannewithane#awae:dlu
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News and Reflections: Le 13 décembre, Jour du souvenir acadien : un peu de contexte / December 13, Acadian Remembrance Day: Some Essential Background -- December 13, 2020 https://lescarnetsnordsud.blog/2020/12/13/le-13-decembre-jour-du-souvenir-acadien/ Association des Acadiens-Metis Souriquois blog site: https://acadiens-metis-souriquois.ca/aams-blog/news-and-reflections-le-13-decembre-jour-du-souvenir-acadien-un-peu-de-contexte-december-13-acadian-remembrance-day-some-essential-background-december-13-2020
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(via New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Speech on Terrorist, Genocidal Confederate Symbolism Is One for the History Books )
With the weight of history bearing down on his shoulders, a resolute calm in his gaze and a slight tremble in his voice that spoke not of nervousness but of a deep awareness that the words he was about to speak would be recited by generations to come, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu stepped to the microphone last Friday and gave the speech of a lifetime.
I thank you all for coming today.
The soul of our beloved city is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way—through good and through bad. It is a history, our history, that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans —the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha, Hernando De Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Colorix [sic], the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the South and Central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more.
You see, New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling caldron of many cultures. There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum—out of many we are one. But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront.
New Orleans was one of America’s largest slave market[s], a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were bought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor, of misery, of rape, and of torture. America was a place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow American citizens were lynched, 540 in Louisiana alone; where our courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders were beaten to a bloody pulp. So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well, what I just described to you is our history as well, and it is the searing truth.
And it immediately begs the questions, why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives of pain, of sacrifice, of shame, all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans. So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission. There is a difference, you see, between remembrance of history and reverence of it.
For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of the truth. As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and it corrects them.” So today, I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding each other.
So, let’s start with the facts.
The historic record is clear, Robert E. Lee, [Jefferson] Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as “The Cult of the Lost Cause.” This cult had one goal—through monuments and through other means—to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.
First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy. It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America; they fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots. These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, ignoring the terror that it actually stood for.
And after the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone’s lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city.
A piece of stone—one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored. As clear as it is for me today ... for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family’s long proud history of fighting for civil rights ... I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought. So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race.
I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes. Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African-American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth-grade daughter why Robert E. Lee sat atop of our city.
Can you do it? Can you do it? Can you look into the eyes of this young girl and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too? We all know the answer to these very simple questions. When you look into this child’s eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus. This is the moment when we know what we must do—when we know what is right. We can’t walk away from this truth.
Now I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing, and this is what that looks like. So relocating these [Confederate] monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame; it’s not about retaliation. This is not a naive quest to solve all our problems at once.
This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city, that we as a people, are able to acknowledge, to understand, to reconcile and most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong. Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division and, yeah, violence.
To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places in honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past. It is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future. History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost—and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.
And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans—or anyone else for that matter—to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse; it seems absurd. Centuries-old wounds are still raw because, you see, they never healed right in the first place. Here is the essential truth: We are better together than we are apart.
Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that, we, the people of New Orleans have given to the world? We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz; it is the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages—and from different cultures. Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffuletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, think about red beans and rice. By God, just think. All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity. We are proof that out of many we are one—and better for it. Out of many we are one—and we really do love it! And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”
We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we really need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say, “Wait, wait, wait, not so fast.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Wait has almost always meant never.” We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now. No more waiting.
This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society, then all of this would have all been in vain. While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts; not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.
Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife, Robin, and their two beautiful daughters at their side. Terence went to school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there, he had to pass by the monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity.
He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride ... it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don’t respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.”
Yes, Terence, it is and it is long overdue.
Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians, a message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond; let us not miss this opportunity New Orleans, and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this city we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.
We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves—at this point in our history—after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe, after the tornado—if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces ... would these [...] monuments be what we want the world to see?
Is this really our story?
We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations. And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people. In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals. We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That is what really makes America great, and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America. 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. And New Orleanians are in ... all of the way. It is in this union, it is in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes. Instead of revering a four-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy, we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans and set the tone for the next 300 years.
After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community-led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6-1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments in accordance with the law have been removed. So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become.
Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned and universally loved, now, Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid: “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.”
So before we part, let us again state the truth clearly. The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never, ever again put on a pedestal to be revered. As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause.
Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today across the ages to unite as one people when he said: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds ... to do all which may achieve and cherish—a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
God bless you all. God bless New Orleans. And God bless the United States of America.
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Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Gallier Hall address, 19 May 2017
Immediately before New Orleans removed a statue of Robert E Lee -- the fourth Confederate monument to be removed in recent weeks -- Mayor Mitch Landrieu gave a remarkable speech, one that will have, I hope, a major impact on the US going forward. And, presages what I expect will be a national presence for Mayor Landrieu in the future.
Thank you for coming.
The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way – for both good and for ill.
It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans: the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of Francexii and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more.
You see: New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures.
There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum — out of many we are one.
But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market: a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were brought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of misery of rape, of torture.
America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp.
So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.
And it immediately begs the questions: why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans.
So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.
There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth.
As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”
So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other.
So, let’s start with the facts.
The historic record is clear: the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This ‘cult’ had one goal — through monuments and through other means — to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.
First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy.
It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America, They fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots.
These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.
After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone’s lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city.
Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, made it clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining slavery and white supremacy.
He said in his now famous ‘Cornerstone speech’ that the Confederacy’s “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”
Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a false narrative of our history that I think weakens us and make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago so we can more closely connect with integrity to the founding principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter path toward a better city and more perfect union.
Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments about the need to contextualize and remember all of our history. He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it.
President Obama said, “Consider what this artifact tells us about history … on a stone where day after day for years, men and women … bound and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as history with a plaque were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men.”
A piece of stone – one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored.
As clear as it is for me today … for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family’s long proud history of fighting for civil rights … I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought.
So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race. I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes.
Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter who Robert E. Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city. Can you do it?
Can you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too?
We all know the answer to these very simple questions.
When you look into this child’s eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right and what we must do. We can’t walk away from this truth.
And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once.
This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and, most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong.
Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division, and yes, with violence.
To literally put the confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, it is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future.
History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.
And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans — or anyone else — to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd.
Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place.
Here is the essential truth: we are better together than we are apart. Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that the people of New Orleans have given to the world?
We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz; the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages from different cultures.
Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God, just think. All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity.
We are proof that out of many we are one — and better for it! Out of many we are one — and we really do love it!
And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”
We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say “wait, not so fast.”
But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “wait has almost always meant never.”
We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now. No more waiting. This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain.
While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts, not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.
Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful daughters at their side.
Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity.
He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride … it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don’t respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.”
Yes, Terence, it is, and it is long overdue.
Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and Robin’s remarkable footsteps.
A message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond; let us not miss this opportunity New Orleans and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this the City we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.
We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves — at this point in our history, after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe and after the tornado — if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces … would these monuments be what we want the world to see? Is this really our story?
We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations.
And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people.
In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals.
We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That is what really makes America great and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America.
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. And New Orleanians are in, all of the way.
It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes.
Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans and set the tone for the next 300 years.
After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6-1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments in accordance with the law have been removed.
So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become.
Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned and now universally loved Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid. “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.”
So before we part let us again state the truth clearly.
The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered.
As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause.
Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest President Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one people when he said:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish: a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Thank you.
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Acadian Day of Remembrance
The Acadian Day of Remembrance pays homage to the more than 3,000 Acadians who were deported from Îsle Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) in 1758.
Known as The Great Upheaval among Acadians, the 1758 deportation of Acadians from Prince Edward Island resulted in the deaths of more than half of those deported.
Port-la-Joye—Fort Amherst National Historic Site was the site of the first permanent European settlement on Prince Edward Island. Three hundred French settlers arrived here and established a settlement in 1720.
Parks Canada is responsible for protecting and presenting nationally significant examples of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage.
“Acadian Remembrance Day is a time to pause and commemorate a tragic period in our history. Parks Canada, as stewards of the site where The Great Upheaval took place on Prince Edward Island, is honoured to work with partners across the Acadian community to host the ceremony and to celebrate the rich culture of the Acadian people.”
Karen Jans,
Prince Edward Island Field Unit Superintendent
“We are happy to collaborate with a growing number of partners in the organization of this moving event for the Acadians of Prince Edward Island, and we hope that Acadian Remembrance Day continues to grow in the coming years.”
Guy Labonté,
President, Société Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin
Source
#Acadia Memorial#Grand Falls#New Brunswick#Halifax#Nova Scotia#travel#summer 2015#cityscape#landscape#seascape#Croix de la departion#Shediac#flag of Acadia#Maple Leaf Flag#flag of New Brunswick#USA#2018#Acadia National Park#Prince Edward Island#PEI#Maine#Atlantic Ocean#East Coast#shore#Acadian Day of Remembrance#13 December#AcadianDayofRemembrance#Great Upheaval#1758 deportation
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Today is Acadian Remembrance Day, which memorializes the thousands of lives lost in the Grand Derangement, the expulsion of Acadians from their homeland in the Canadian maritimes. This is also the anniversary of the sinking of the Duke William in 1758, carrying hundreds of doomed Acadians from Île Saint-Jean across the ocean and claiming the lives of every Acadian onboard.
The Grand Derangement is an example of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Canada's history. During the Seven Years' War, tens of thousands of Acadians lost their lives and their homes in the name of British colonialism. Though some survivors were allowed to return home several years later, the Acadian diaspora can still be seen in areas such as New England, Louisiana, the southwest UK, and northwestern France. The heartland of Acadia is often thought of as western Nova Scotia, where one can still find memorials and monuments to a people that refused to assimilate.
(French Cross by Alex Colville)
#acadian remembrance day#did you know that my own ancestors were deported?#one of my grandfathers was born in an english prison and came back to settle my family's home village
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Holidays 7.28
Holidays
Accountant's Day
Anniversary of the Fall of Fascism (San Marino)
Beatrix Potter Day
Buffalo Soldiers Day
Day of Cantabria Institutions (Spain)
Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval (Canada)
Emancipation Day (Bermuda; 1st Day of Cup Match)
Expulsion of the Acadians (Canada)
Fat Tony Day
Fiesta Patrias (Peru)
Foxtrot Day
Fingerprint Day
Global Plastic Overshoot Day
Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]
Hariyali Amavasya (Chhattisgarh, India)
Indigenous Day (Chile)
International Clothing Day
Karkidaka Vavu Bali (Kerala, India)
Kingsmen Day (Portland, Oregon)
Kermesse (Brussels, Belgium)
Liberation Day (San Marino)
Mad Day Out (The Beatles)
Miami Day
National Fingerprint Day
National Soccer Day
National Waterpark Day
Ólavsøka Eve (a.k.a. Ólavsøkuaftan; Faroe Islands)
Shampoo Outdoors Day
Singing Telegram Day
Watering Can Day (French Republic)
World Hepatitis Day (UN)
World Nature Conservation Day
World War One Anniversary Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Chili Dog Day
Longneck Day
National Hamburger Day
National Milk Chocolate Day
4th & Last Friday in July
I Love My Credit Union Day [Last Friday]
Lumberjack Day [Last Friday of Last Full Weekend; also 9.26]
National Biryani Day (Pakistan) [Last Friday]
National Blowout Day [Last Friday]
National Get Gnarly Day [Last Friday]
National Love This Place Day (Ireland) [Last Friday]
National Talk in an Elevator Day [Last Friday]
Schools Tree Day (Australia) [Friday before Last Sunday]
System Administrator Appreciation Day [Last Friday]
Talk in An Elevator Day [Last Friday]
UFO Days begin (Wisconsin) [4th Friday thru Sunday]
Independence Days
Day of Ukrainian Statehood (Ukraine)
Peru (from Spain, 1821)
Feast Days
Alphonsa Muttathupadathu (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church)
Arduinus of Trepino (Christian; Saint)
Ashura (Islamic) [Began at Sundown Last Night; 10th Day of Muharram] (a.k.a. ...
Achoura (Algeria)
Ashorra (Parts of India)
Ashoura (Lebanon)
Ashura Holiday (Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia)
Muharram (Parts of India)
Remembrance of Muharram
Tamkharit (Senegal)
Tamxarit (Gambia)
Tasoua Hosseini (Iran)
Tasu’a
Yaum-e-Ashur (Pakistan)
Yawmul Ashura (Gambia)
Baptism of Kyivan Rus (Eastern Orthodox Church; Ukraine)
Birthday of Horus (Ancient Egypt)
Botvid (Christian; Saint)
Festival of Fortuna Huiusque Diei (Fortune of the Present Day; Ancient Rome)
Festival of Hedjihotep (goddess of weaving; Ancient Egypt)
Flute-Snatcher (Muppetism)
Innocent I, Pope (Christian; Saint)
Joaquín Torres García (Artology)
Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, Henry Purcell (Episcopal Church commemoration)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinrich Schütz, George Frederick Handel (Lutheran commemoration)
Judith Leyster (Artology)
Kronia (Festival to Kronos, god of the harvest; Ancient Greece)
Marcel Duchamp (Artology)
Marty Feldman Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Nazarius and Celsus (Christian; Martyrs)
Pantaleon (Christian; Martyr)
Pedro Poveda Castroverde (Christian; Saint)
Samson of Dol (Christian; Saint)
Shabbat Nachamu (Shabbat of Consolation; Judaism) [Date Varies]
Solstitium XIV (Pagan)
Teniers (Positivist; Saint)
Try a New Cheese Day (Pastafarian)
Victor I, Pope (Christian; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]
Fortunate Day (Pagan) [28 of 53]
Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 35 of 60)
Premieres
Alice in Wonderland (Animated Disney Film; 1951)
Animal House (Film; 1978)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Film: 2023)
Atomic Blonde (Film; 2017)
The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley (History Book; 1952)
Green Lantern: First Flight (WB Animated Film; 2009)
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell (History Book; 1949)
Hooper (Film; 1978)
Justice League: Gods and Monsters (WB Animated Film; 2015)
Leghorn Swigged (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)
Los Bandoleers (Short Film; 2009) [F&F]
The Miracle Worker (Film; 1962)
North by Northwest (Film; 1959)
On the Waterfront (Film; 1954)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (Film; 1993)
Smoke on the Water, by Deep Purple (Song; 1973)
Waterworld (Film; 1995)
What’s the 411?, by Mary J. Blige (Album; 1992)
White Zombie (Film; 1932)
Today’s Name Days
Ada, Adele, Bantus, Beatus, Innozenz, Samuel, Viktor (Austria)
Celzo, Inocent, Nazarije, Nikanor, Prohor, Viktor (Croatia)
Viktor (Czech Republic)
Aurelius (Denmark)
Maasika, Vaarika (Estonia)
Atso (Finland)
Samson (France)
Ada, Adele, Benno, Innozenz (Germany)
Afxentios, Akakios, Hrysovalantou , Drosos, Drosoula, Irini, Timon (Greece)
Szabolcs (Hungary)
Nazario, Vittore (Italy)
Cecilija, Cilda (Latvia)
Ada, Augmina, Inocentas, Vytaras (Lithuania)
Reidar, Reidun (Norway)
Innocenta, Innocenty, Marcela, Pantaleon, Samson, Świętomir, Wiktor, Wiktoriusz (Poland)
Krištof (Slovakia)
Víctor (Spain)
Botvid, Seved (Sweden)
Lysander, Lysandra, Rhonda, Sampson, Samson (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 209 of 2024; 156 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 5 of week 30 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 19 of 28]
Chinese: Month 6 (Ji-Wei), Day 11 (Ding-Hai)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 10 Av 5783
Islamic: 10 Muharram 1445
J Cal: 29 Lux; Eighthday [29 of 30]
Julian: 15 July 2023
Moon: 80%: Waxing Gibbous
Positivist: 13 Dante (8th Month) [Teniers]
Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 15 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 38 of 94)
Zodiac: Leo (Day 7 of 31)
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Holidays 7.28
Holidays
Accountant's Day
Anniversary of the Fall of Fascism (San Marino)
Beatrix Potter Day
Buffalo Soldiers Day
Day of Cantabria Institutions (Spain)
Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval (Canada)
Emancipation Day (Bermuda; 1st Day of Cup Match)
Expulsion of the Acadians (Canada)
Fat Tony Day
Fiesta Patrias (Peru)
Foxtrot Day
Fingerprint Day
Global Plastic Overshoot Day
Gone-ta-Pott Day [every 28th]
Hariyali Amavasya (Chhattisgarh, India)
Indigenous Day (Chile)
International Clothing Day
Karkidaka Vavu Bali (Kerala, India)
Kingsmen Day (Portland, Oregon)
Kermesse (Brussels, Belgium)
Liberation Day (San Marino)
Mad Day Out (The Beatles)
Miami Day
National Fingerprint Day
National Soccer Day
National Waterpark Day
Ólavsøka Eve (a.k.a. Ólavsøkuaftan; Faroe Islands)
Shampoo Outdoors Day
Singing Telegram Day
Watering Can Day (French Republic)
World Hepatitis Day (UN)
World Nature Conservation Day
World War One Anniversary Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Chili Dog Day
Longneck Day
National Hamburger Day
National Milk Chocolate Day
4th & Last Friday in July
I Love My Credit Union Day [Last Friday]
Lumberjack Day [Last Friday of Last Full Weekend; also 9.26]
National Biryani Day (Pakistan) [Last Friday]
National Blowout Day [Last Friday]
National Get Gnarly Day [Last Friday]
National Love This Place Day (Ireland) [Last Friday]
National Talk in an Elevator Day [Last Friday]
Schools Tree Day (Australia) [Friday before Last Sunday]
System Administrator Appreciation Day [Last Friday]
Talk in An Elevator Day [Last Friday]
UFO Days begin (Wisconsin) [4th Friday thru Sunday]
Independence Days
Day of Ukrainian Statehood (Ukraine)
Peru (from Spain, 1821)
Feast Days
Alphonsa Muttathupadathu (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church)
Arduinus of Trepino (Christian; Saint)
Ashura (Islamic) [Began at Sundown Last Night; 10th Day of Muharram] (a.k.a. ...
Achoura (Algeria)
Ashorra (Parts of India)
Ashoura (Lebanon)
Ashura Holiday (Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia)
Muharram (Parts of India)
Remembrance of Muharram
Tamkharit (Senegal)
Tamxarit (Gambia)
Tasoua Hosseini (Iran)
Tasu’a
Yaum-e-Ashur (Pakistan)
Yawmul Ashura (Gambia)
Baptism of Kyivan Rus (Eastern Orthodox Church; Ukraine)
Birthday of Horus (Ancient Egypt)
Botvid (Christian; Saint)
Festival of Fortuna Huiusque Diei (Fortune of the Present Day; Ancient Rome)
Festival of Hedjihotep (goddess of weaving; Ancient Egypt)
Flute-Snatcher (Muppetism)
Innocent I, Pope (Christian; Saint)
Joaquín Torres García (Artology)
Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, Henry Purcell (Episcopal Church commemoration)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinrich Schütz, George Frederick Handel (Lutheran commemoration)
Judith Leyster (Artology)
Kronia (Festival to Kronos, god of the harvest; Ancient Greece)
Marcel Duchamp (Artology)
Marty Feldman Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Nazarius and Celsus (Christian; Martyrs)
Pantaleon (Christian; Martyr)
Pedro Poveda Castroverde (Christian; Saint)
Samson of Dol (Christian; Saint)
Shabbat Nachamu (Shabbat of Consolation; Judaism) [Date Varies]
Solstitium XIV (Pagan)
Teniers (Positivist; Saint)
Try a New Cheese Day (Pastafarian)
Victor I, Pope (Christian; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]
Fortunate Day (Pagan) [28 of 53]
Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 35 of 60)
Premieres
Alice in Wonderland (Animated Disney Film; 1951)
Animal House (Film; 1978)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Film: 2023)
Atomic Blonde (Film; 2017)
The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley (History Book; 1952)
Green Lantern: First Flight (WB Animated Film; 2009)
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell (History Book; 1949)
Hooper (Film; 1978)
Justice League: Gods and Monsters (WB Animated Film; 2015)
Leghorn Swigged (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)
Los Bandoleers (Short Film; 2009) [F&F]
The Miracle Worker (Film; 1962)
North by Northwest (Film; 1959)
On the Waterfront (Film; 1954)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (Film; 1993)
Smoke on the Water, by Deep Purple (Song; 1973)
Waterworld (Film; 1995)
What’s the 411?, by Mary J. Blige (Album; 1992)
White Zombie (Film; 1932)
Today’s Name Days
Ada, Adele, Bantus, Beatus, Innozenz, Samuel, Viktor (Austria)
Celzo, Inocent, Nazarije, Nikanor, Prohor, Viktor (Croatia)
Viktor (Czech Republic)
Aurelius (Denmark)
Maasika, Vaarika (Estonia)
Atso (Finland)
Samson (France)
Ada, Adele, Benno, Innozenz (Germany)
Afxentios, Akakios, Hrysovalantou , Drosos, Drosoula, Irini, Timon (Greece)
Szabolcs (Hungary)
Nazario, Vittore (Italy)
Cecilija, Cilda (Latvia)
Ada, Augmina, Inocentas, Vytaras (Lithuania)
Reidar, Reidun (Norway)
Innocenta, Innocenty, Marcela, Pantaleon, Samson, Świętomir, Wiktor, Wiktoriusz (Poland)
Krištof (Slovakia)
Víctor (Spain)
Botvid, Seved (Sweden)
Lysander, Lysandra, Rhonda, Sampson, Samson (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 209 of 2024; 156 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 5 of week 30 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 19 of 28]
Chinese: Month 6 (Ji-Wei), Day 11 (Ding-Hai)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 10 Av 5783
Islamic: 10 Muharram 1445
J Cal: 29 Lux; Eighthday [29 of 30]
Julian: 15 July 2023
Moon: 80%: Waxing Gibbous
Positivist: 13 Dante (8th Month) [Teniers]
Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 15 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 38 of 94)
Zodiac: Leo (Day 7 of 31)
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Acadian Remembrance Day honoured in P.E.I. ceremony
Islanders were able to come together in person Monday to commemorate Acadian Remembrance Day at a ceremony at Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst National Historic Site.
from CBC | Prince Edward Island News https://ift.tt/3ETF85Q
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Thank you for coming.
The soul of our beloved City is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way – for both good and for ill.
It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans: the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Color, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of Francexii and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese and so many more.
You see: New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures.
There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum — out of many we are one.
But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market: a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were brought, sold and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor of misery of rape, of torture.
America was the place where nearly 4,000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined ‘separate but equal’; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp.
So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.
And it immediately begs the questions: why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans.
So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission.
There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth.
As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”
So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other.
So, let’s start with the facts.
The historic record is clear: the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This ‘cult’ had one goal — through monuments and through other means — to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity.
First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy.
It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America, They fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots.
These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.
After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone’s lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city.
Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, made it clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining slavery and white supremacy.
He said in his now famous ‘Cornerstone speech’ that the Confederacy’s “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”
Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a false narrative of our history that I think weakens us and make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago so we can more closely connect with integrity to the founding principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter path toward a better city and more perfect union.
Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments about the need to contextualize and remember all of our history. He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it.
President Obama said, “Consider what this artifact tells us about history … on a stone where day after day for years, men and women … bound and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as history with a plaque were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men.”
A piece of stone – one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored.
As clear as it is for me today … for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family’s long proud history of fighting for civil rights … I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought.
So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race. I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes.
Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter who Robert E. Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city. Can you do it?
Can you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too?
We all know the answer to these very simple questions.
When you look into this child’s eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right and what we must do. We can’t walk away from this truth.
And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once.
This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and, most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong.
Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division, and yes, with violence.
To literally put the confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, it is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future.
History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.
And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans — or anyone else — to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd.
Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place.
Here is the essential truth: we are better together than we are apart. Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that the people of New Orleans have given to the world?
We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz; the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages from different cultures.
Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God, just think. All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity.
We are proof that out of many we are one — and better for it! Out of many we are one — and we really do love it!
And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”
We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say “wait, not so fast.”
But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “wait has almost always meant never.”
We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now. No more waiting. This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain.
While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts, not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.
Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful daughters at their side.
Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity.
He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride … it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don’t respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.”
Yes, Terence, it is, and it is long overdue.
Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and Robin’s remarkable footsteps.
A message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond; let us not miss this opportunity New Orleans and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this the City we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.
We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves — at this point in our history, after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe and after the tornado — if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces … would these monuments be what we want the world to see? Is this really our story?
We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations.
And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people.
In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals.
We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That is what really makes America great and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America.
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. And New Orleanians are in, all of the way.
It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes.
Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans and set the tone for the next 300 years.
After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6-1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments in accordance with the law have been removed.
So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become.
Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned and now universally loved Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid. “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.”
So before we part let us again state the truth clearly.
The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered.
As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history. Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause.
Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest President Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one people when he said:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish: a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Thank you.
NOLA Mayor Landrieu via http://pulsegulfcoast.com/2017/05/transcript-of-new-orleans-mayor-landrieus-address-on-confederate-monuments
#nola#new orleans#confederate monuments#long post#slavery#rape#american history#american politics#us politics
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🕖 December 13 🤔 Thought of the Day &🕺 Observances: ✍️ Acadian Remembrance Day Acadians Acadiens du jour du Souvenir Acadiens ✍️ National Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from United Kingdom in 1979. ✍️ Saint Lucy's Day (mainly Scandinavia, some regions of Italy (for example, Sicily, Veneto and Trentino), and Malta). ✍️ Martial Law Victims Remembrance Day Dzień Pamięci Ofiar Dnia Walki Poland Stan wojenny Ofiary stanu wojennego Polska ✍️ Nanking Massacre Memorial Day 南京大屠杀阵亡将士���念日南京大屠杀 China 中国 ✍️ Nusantara Day Hari Nusantara Indonesia ✍️ Republic Day Jum ir-Repubblika Malta ✍️ Sailor's Day Brazil Diadosmarinheiros Brasil #AcadianRemembranceDay #Acadians #AcadiensdujourduSouvenir #NationalDay #SaintLucia #UnitedKingdom #SaintLucysDay #MartialLawVictimsRemembranceDay #MartialLaw #MartialLawVictims #DzieńPamięciOfiarDniaWalki #Ofiarystanuwojennego #Stanwojenny #Polska #NankingMassacreMemorialDay #南京大屠杀阵亡将士纪念日 #南京大屠杀 #China #中国 #NankingMassacre #NusantaraDay #HariNusantara #Indonesia #Nusantara #RepublicDay #JumirRepubblika #Malta #SailorsDay #Diadosmarinheiros #Brasil
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