Pleas to keep confederate statue heard at Fort Myers council meeting

Fiery words were exchanged Monday night at a meeting with Fort Myers city councilors over the potential removal of a confederate statue downtown.

The NAACP called for the statue of General Robert E. Lee to be removed. It was originally donated by the Daughters of the Confederacy in honor of the confederate general.

The majority of those in attendance at the meeting Monday night pushed back against the proposal to have the statue removed.

“If his bust offends, surely his name must offend. So let’s just call it what it is—renaming the county,” said one attendee.

“General Lee was a great man. I would kill a butane burning dragon for general Robert E. Lee,” said another.

In an open letter to the Daughters of the Confederacy, NAACP President James Muwakkil called the monument a painful reminder of slavery.

But resident Steve Fabian disagrees.

“The war was all about one thing…dollars,” Fabian said. “That’s why the South seceded. It had zero to do with the enslavement of blacks.”

He says the Confederacy gets a bad reputation when it comes to slavery.

“I think sometimes the term ‘slavery’ should be replaced by indentured servitude. People with no skills. People with nothing to offer the economy, no way of surviving on their own. How are they going to survive? They see that as a protection sometimes,” Fabian said.

Others, like Gerri Ware, say a statue isn’t something that concerns her.

“I’ve got bigger fish to fry now. That’s what I always say. There are issues I’m concerned about today other than a monument. If we perceive things as hate, that’s what it is,” she said.

The Fort Myers City Council did not vote on whether or not to remove the statue. But NAACP President James Muwakkil says his organization will continue to lobby the council to get the statue moved off the property.