Stone cold Ohioans

Peter Bronson has an interesting column about Ohio history in Thursday's Enquirer about the figures in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.

As Pete explains it, each state gets to put up statues of two famous citizens. In Ohio's case we have former President James Garfield and former Governor/Senator/Congressman William "Earthquake" Allen, a 19th Century poll who is an eminently forgettable old racist. An Ohio legislative committee, as noted in the column, is working on replacing Allen with somebody a little more memorable and worthy of the honor.

The only other ways for somebody to have their statue in the Capitol is through an act of Congress or as a gift from some outside group that Congress chooses to accept. The latter resulted in the statue of a third Ohioan, Ulysses Grant, being placed there as a gift to the nation from the Grand Army of the Republic.

I digress.

Replacing Allen with a better candidate is something we all have a chance to weigh in on. We have a message board on our Community Conversation page to take your suggestions, which will be forwarded to State Sen. Robert Schuler, R-Cincinnati, and his committee. Pete suggested such luminaries as the Wright Brothers, Roy Rogers and Albert Sabin. I'd toss in Paul Brown or Harriet Beecher Stowe. The two main qualifications are that you have a connection to Ohio and that you be dead.

Let's have some more suggestions.