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SATURDAY'S EDITORIAL

Don't prohibit naming roads for living people

THE ISSUE: Naming of roads

OUR OPINION: Isolated cases should not be used to prohibit honoring some of our finest

The controversy over a road named for former Lt. Gov. Earle E. Morris Jr. is the catalyst for legislation to prohibit naming state roads for living individuals.

The road, S.C. 153, runs through Pickens and Anderson counties, where there is heartache for 8,000 investors who lost $278 million when Carolina Investors went under in 2003. Morris was the chairman of the company. A jury found Morris guilty of 22 counts of securities fraud.

The House has passed legislation that would strip Morris' name from the road. It remains to be seen what the Senate will decide.

The House also has approved a bill sponsored by Speaker David Wilkins that prohibits the naming of any "state road, highway, interstate highway, bridge, interchange, or intersection" for a person before his or her death. The Senate also must consider that legislation.

With bipartisan support in the House, Wilkins is pushing the legislation as taxpayer-friendly.

"This is something easy we can do to show our respect for the taxpayers of our state," he said. "It says in word and deed that we value the sensibilities of South Carolinians more than we do our own public recognition."

Wilkins filed the bill in January. The speaker said then, "Only after a proper amount of time following one's passing can their contributions and life's legacy be legitimately evaluated."

The speaker says the proliferation of roadways and other highway infrastructure with names now attached to them makes the public skeptical and diminishes the recognition.

But does it? Or is this legislation simply reactionary?

There have been times before the Morris case in which roads, bridges and other infrastructure have been named for individuals famous at the time but later discredited for one reason or another. But is it not equally possible that a person's reputation can become tarnished after death? Waiting until a person dies is no guarantee.

Don't penalize all because of the misdeeds of the few. While lawmakers should reserve naming roads and such for those of real renown in their communities, being required to wait until an individual dies to be honored is not necessary.

We recall fondly the naming of the highway at the entrance to South Carolina State University for the school's longtime president, M. Maceo Nance Jr., who died in 2001. How nice it was to have Nance there on the that day in 2000 to hear the accolades and offer his response to all the words in his honor.

And what about former Rep. Earl Middleton, a notable figure in Orangeburg still in 2005. Should a section of the U.S. Highway 21 Bypass not be named in his honor?

The Wilkins legislation does not target state buildings such as those on our educational campuses because lawmakers say they do not want to deter private donations to state-funded schools and public-private partnerships.

If its OK to take a chance for the bucks, there's no reason to limit by law the naming of roads and bridges.