Miscellaneous

Renaming Second Street

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Once upon a time, our hometown and stomping grounds thought it would be clever to re-name Second Street "Pete Rose Way." Soon we learned the reasoning behind naming people after they're dead: they can screw up if they're still alive.

And Mr. Rose (apologies to my fellow citizens here, where he is as beloved as Marge Schott and chili spaghetti) did screw up. He was banned from baseball, but not from Cincinnati's heart. The street kept the name of one of the town's most (in)famous sons, born and raised along the Ohio River, educated in its public schools (and later, fulfilling his community service in them), who grew up to be an important cog in the Big Red Machine. Baseball may have abandoned him, but his hometown never will. If Charlie Hustle can't get into the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame will come to him.

Now a federal court is in a similar situation. Does a portrait of Judge Martin T. Manton, belong alongside portraits of Presidents Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt? Judge Manton is less well-known than his fellow faces in the Executive Branch. He also did time (19 months) for accepting bribes.

The judge to whom the portrait belonged passed away, and the court is deciding what to do now. Is it, as one judge claims, "just an old picture of a person best left unremembered," or is it a morality lesson, as the judge who owned the portrait seemed to view it?

See Hang Him Up? The Bad Judge and His Image, Benjamin Weiser, NYT (January 27, 2009).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).