The Akron Legal News

Bipartisan plan would protect state's war relics

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 24, 2019

A proposal in the Ohio House of Representatives acknowledges the state's fallen sons and daughters and the role Ohio veterans have played in wars since before the country's founding.

At the same time, the Ohio Veterans' Heritage Protection Act was proposed to thwart future desecration of war memorials, cemeteries and relics throughout the Buckeye State.

A bronze statue representing one of the thousands of Confederate soldiers buried at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus' Hilltop neighborhood in 2017 was surreptitiously decapitated and knocked from the Memorial Arch that declared all of the former rebel inhabitants of the prison camp as Americans.

The Veterans Administration, charged with managing the cemetery, is responsible for the statue's restoration and re-installation, a job that was put to bid last year.

Published reports note that the VA also has hired a security contractor to surveil the local cemetery and another former Confederate prison camp on Johnson Island in Lake Erie.

Filed as House Bill 155, the legislation would prohibit a war relic located on public property or on cemetery property from being sold or otherwise disposed of by any person, instead allowing it to be returned to the federal government.

Additionally, the bill would prohibit destruction, removal, relocation or alteration of such relics by any person.

Relics include cannons or other artillery from the era of a war or a statue, monument, memorial or plaque erected for or named or dedicated in honor of a war or an individual's or group of individuals' service in a war.

"In my district we have a truly historic war relic," said Rep. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, a joint sponsor of the bill. "In fact, it is a crown jewel of Lancaster - an authentic Civil War cannon used by Ohio native Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman during the Battle of Shiloh and his famed March to the Sea through the South."

In addition to the Civil War, HB 155's protections include relics from the French and Indian War, American Revolution, War of 1812, United States-Mexican War, Spanish-American War, the Mexican border period, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada), Operation El Dorado Canyon (Libya), Operation Just Cause (Panama), Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm (Persian Gulf War I), Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Persian Gulf War II).

"... These pieces of history remind us of the sacrifices brave men and women made in the name of freedom and liberty," Schaffer said. "They let us pause so we can remember how high the cost truly is to preserve the rights and privileges we enjoy as Americans."

In circumstances in which the federal government does not want to take ownership of a relic, it must be offered to the Ohio History Connection. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Department of Ohio, would be offered any relic not accepted by the Ohio History Connection.

Democrat Rep. John Rogers of Mentor-on-the-Lake, the bill's other joint sponsor mentioned the importance historical preservation and education of future generations.

"Wars, created with words, sadly result in a horrific means to settle differences," he told fellow House members seated for the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committee. "It is brutal, destructive and is mankind at his worst. Yet we should not hide from history nor reinterpret it, rather learn and remember those lessons from the past to create a lasting peace for the future.

"War relics serve to remind us of what was both good and bad in history, while helping to create dialog and hopefully lessons learned."

Purchase or destruction of any relic could result in fines of up to $10,000.

In the circumstance of an illegal sale of such an item, the purchaser must pay the fine to the veterans service commission of the county in which the war relic was located and the purchaser must return the war relic to the seller, who must pay any money received from the sale to the veterans service commission of the county in which the war relic was located.

In the event of a relic's destruction, removal, alteration or disturbance, the individual responsible would have the option to return the relic to its original condition within 90 days of notice of the violation in lieu of a fine.

Seven fellow lawmakers have signed on as cosponsors of the bill, which had not been scheduled a second hearing at time of publication.

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