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Consider best ways to replace toppled statues

Civil rights demonstrators this summer have engaged in a new round of tearing down statues of people they see as champions of bigotry. Why not replace them with statues of the heroes and heroines of the civil rights movement?

Late last year, people in Montgomery, Alabama erected a statue of civil rights legend Rosa Parks. A few weeks ago, officials in Cincinnati unveiled plans for a bronze statue of Marian Spencer, another heroine of the cause.

Removal of statues such as those honoring men who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War is seen by some as refusing to pay homage to people who defended slavery. Would it not be appropriate to recognize men and women who, sometimes at the cost of their lives, battled it and the associated evil of racial bigotry?

Why can’t we do that right here in Ohio? There are men and women clearly worthy of such honor.

It is something Gov. Mike DeWine and state legislators should consider — and not through one more study to be written, then placed on a shelf to gather dust.

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