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Romano: Ditch Capitol statue because of obscurity, not Confederacy

 
Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith has represented Florida as a statue in the U.S. Capitol since 1922. [U.S. Department of the Interior] 
Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith has represented Florida as a statue in the U.S. Capitol since 1922. [U.S. Department of the Interior] 
Published Nov. 19, 2015

It would be a shame — a travesty, really — if legislators in Florida vote to remove the statue of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith from the grounds of the U.S. Capitol just because of his Confederate Army roots.

Instead, they should remove the statue because he's a dud.

Seriously, who is this guy? A leader for the losing side in a hopeless effort? If that's the standard, we should be churning out statues of Buccaneer quarterbacks.

I would bet 99 out of 100 Floridians have no idea who Smith was. Maybe 999 out of 1,000. And yet, for nearly a century, his likeness has represented Florida in D.C.

While other states have founding fathers (Sam Adams of Massachusetts) or religious (Brigham Young of Utah) or cultural (Helen Keller of Alabama) icons, Florida has a trivia question.

Which Confederate general kept fighting for two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox?

Yup, that's our Edmund.

He wasn't a renowned entertainer (Will Rogers of Oklahoma), famous inventor (Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania) or president (Andrew Jackson of Tennessee).

No, Smith was a West Point grad who quit the U.S. Army and joined the Confederacy after Florida seceded. When he finally surrendered his troops in 1865, he took off for Cuba and Mexico to avoid being prosecuted as a traitor.

Upon gaining amnesty, Smith settled in Tennessee, where he became a math professor and chancellor.

That's it? That's our version of a military leader (Dwight Eisenhower of Kansas)? Of an influential statesman (Daniel Webster of New Hampshire)?

Now, I fully understand there are varying strategies when it comes to choosing honorees for the two statues that every state is afforded. Some states, such as Virginia, go with their big guns (George Washington and the aforementioned Lee). California, on the other hand, has one populist choice (Ronald Reagan) and one more esoteric (Father Junipero Serra).

And then, there's Florida. We've doubled down on obscure.

We have a general (Smith) lost to the back pages of history, and a medical pioneer (John Gorrie) who almost invented something.

Gorrie is considered the godfather of air conditioning and refrigeration, but he pretty much died a penniless and broken man 160 years ago because he couldn't find anyone willing to provide funding to complete his inventions.

Woo hoo!

Nothing against Smith or Gorrie, but it's past time for Florida to swap out its Capitol representatives. Think of it as urn limits. Gorrie's memorial has stood for 101 years, and Smith's has lasted 93.

During that time, Florida has had a few more residents with greater name recognition and noticeable imprints. Maybe Walt Disney. Or Ernest Hemingway. Or Thomas Edison. Or Norman Schwarzkopf. Or Zora Neale Hurston.

Heck, you could even consider former Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who changed the course of U.S. history by putting her thumb on the Electoral College scale in the 2000 presidential election.

The point is the Legislature is right to consider removing Smith's statue, and it has nothing to do with Confederate cleansing. Just to prove they're not being politically correct, they should consider taking Gorrie down with him.

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Florida may not have a Who's Who of honored Americans, but we can certainly do better than a Who's That?