The Merchant Marines deserved better treatment on Butler County's World War II Memorial in Diamond Park than they've received. The critical role that they played during the war, along with the wounds and terrible loss of life they incurred while navigating the dangerous, enemy-infested oceans to supply troops with fighting materiel and other supplies, merited better recognition than what the local memorial committee was willing to give.

The mariners are lumped together with a number of other groups on a plaque on the back of the memorial, none of those other groups having experienced the casualty rates and challenges that the Merchant Marines endured. Their recognition here is a pittance to what they have been accorded on the national World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., which should have a guiding influence regarding the local memorial.

That said, a county-appointed mediator brought on in an attempt to resolve the long-term dispute over the mariners' place on the local memorial made some good points in the decision that he handed down — although the decision itself doesn't urge the granting of a level of recognition that the mariners truly deserve.

The decision is merely a window for the mariner dispute to continue to simmer, although there is a window for a better resolution in Commissioner Dale Pinkerton's suggestion that "we need to digest it (mediator's ruling)" and then discuss the ruling with both sides before opting for any action.

It is to be hoped that the county commissioners become more of a vehicle for finally resolving the dispute than they have been up to now — as well as being more decisive than the previous commissioners board's "hands off" attitude.

Diamond Park is a county facility and, thus, the commissioners should have the final say in the details of that park, regardless of guidelines put in place for the World War II Memorial Committee to do its work.

For years, the dispute has consumed more than its fair share of attention, diverting energy from more pressing issues.

No member of the memorial committee is a county commissioner; therefore, no committee member wields more power on county issues than Pinkerton and Commissioners James Lokhaiser and James Kennedy.

The challenge for the commissioners now is to use that power in a fair, reasonable way, regardless of who doesn't agree. As in contract negotiations, when the best pact is one in which neither side is totally happy, the best solution to the mariner dispute will be one about which neither side is totally victorious.

But the mediator, George Force, a retired political science professor, can't be faulted for the observations that accompanied his report, particularly the one that "a volume of egregious mistakes by all those involved have tarnished an admirable and honorable project."

He added, "All of the parties involved bear some responsibility for dishonoring, through their words and actions, the concept of the World War II memorial. This is a controversy that did not need to happen."

As it currently stands, the memorial does deviate from the principle of fair inclusion, judging from the role that the mariners played during the war. And, whether the commissioners and memorial committee admit it or not, there is a suitable resolution of the issue that can be implemented, if all concerned finally abandon the stubbornness and bullheadedness — and the county government abandons the wimpishness — that they have displayed in the past.

Leading up to the meeting with all concerned, the commissioners should seek outside professional guidance on how best to accommodate the Merchant Marines' goal without damaging the intent and structure of the memorial — and without any promise that any recommendation ultimately will be accepted.

Going into the meeting, the recommendation would serve as a reasonable talking point. With the passage of nine years since the project was initiated, it's finally time for the board of commissioners to be a leader on the issue, not the willing acceptor of edicts by others on what will or will not, or what should or should not, be done.

Force was right when he observed that people involved in the dispute displayed an intolerance for differing viewpoints throughout the long debate. And, unfortunately, he was correct that his report likely would not immediately defuse the controversy.

While he said the report could help pave the way for ending the dispute, judging from the first reactions to the report, it appears unlikely that will happen, without the commissioners' more determined involvement to settle the dispute once and for all — and respecting both sides, not one or the other.

The commissioners finally must take a public stand respecting both the committee and the mariners. County residents who were involved in the war effort deserve that a memorial that honors them also is a symbol of unity, not of divisiveness.