I'm Nora McNeerney and this is terrible. Thanks for asking.

I'm going to call this meeting of Charlottesville City Council to order.

Let's begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, everyone.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, and one country God, indivisible, like the liberty and justice for all.

It's February 6th, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Seven people in suits are sitting on a platform. The walls behind them are gray. There's a large, letted board on their right, which has five names on it.

I move the following resolution, and I'd like to read the following language into the record as the motion printed on our agenda slightly different than what I had originally submitted.

So now therefore, be it resolved that the City of Charlottesville shall remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from the park currently known as Lee Park, and be it further resolved that the park currently known as Lee Park shall be renamed, and be it further resolved that we hereby direct staff to bring council a range of recommended options for moving forward with decisions on destination, design, and park name within 60 days for our consideration. Thank you.

Thank you.

There are two votes. In one, the City Council is voting to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a downtown park.

In the second vote, to change the name of the park. And the responses are mixed. Some people totally get it. Racism is bad. Let's not have monuments for it.

It is a shameful contradiction that the Charlottesville today, seemingly righteous sanctuary city, still maintain statues of Confederate generals who defended the miserable conditions which caused our own flood of African-American refugees.

The Sanctuary City Declaration reveals Charlottesville's empathy gap. Our town is willing to shelter international refugees, even if it means losing HUD funding. Yet we debate the cost of removing monuments of White's premises order that drove African-American refugees from our own town.

We're tired of talk. We're tired of commissions. We're tired of promises down the road. We need action now. And I would add, you know, finally that voting to remove the statue would be a good beginning point in the long road of transforming the city and resisting the Trump agenda. Thank you.

This decision was a part of a big national debate happening all over the country, especially in the south. After the mass shooting at the church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, the question of Confederate icons and public spaces started to heat up.

By this time in 2017, dozens of statues had been taken down at courthouses, schools, public parks. Some of these had been done in the middle of the night to avoid violence.

Because, and this was true in Charlottesville, some people really didn't want them taken down.

Blacks don't have a corner on the market when it comes to anti-Semitism or hate. And all you with your blue signs, even each a thousand bucks.

A thousand bucks raised the money to move the statue, instead of you paying for it. Tough guys, tough guys, right?

On behalf of myself and my family and those who value art and history, please let this historical work of art stand.

Robert E. Lee had the courage of his convictions to never take up arms against his home, his old Virginia.

I simply can't leave. We're even talking about this. There is no doubt that slavery was America's original and greatest sin. But this is not about that. This is about partisan politics and cheap political points.

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