Today in front of the Margaret Haughery Monument, the volunteer members of the Monumental Task Committee, Inc. (MTC) will release more than 31,000 petitions in support of keeping all of the monuments in New Orleans. The MTC is a 26-year old non-profit organization. Volunteer members work tirelessly to restore, repair, and maintain all of the monuments in New Orleans.

In his bid to remove four Confederate monuments, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has divided the city over an issue that until recently was not being discussed. The Mayor turned a non-issue into a controversy when he decided to make the removal of the monuments a top priority of his administration. Unfortunately, while the Mayor and his underlings spend precious time on the supposed problem of four inanimate objects, too many of his living and breathing constituents are facing the threat of violent crime on the streets of New Orleans.

In an ongoing political skirmish today between US Senator David Vitter and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the gubernatorial candidate Vitter, returned to the issue of crime and confederate statues.