In Anniston, a prominent military statue sits in disrepair. It needs a savior.

In Washington, a not-so-prominent military memorial was in disrepair. It needed lots of love.

In Anniston, neither urgency nor advocacy is swarming.

In Washington, there were equal doses of both. The wheels of motion turned. Progress happened.

Hang with me here; this comparison — D.C. and The Model City — isn’t gibberish. It comes from modest dilemmas these disparate cities are facing concerning their World War I memorials. The facts are incongruent, the minute details widely vary. But they’re part of a larger discussion, nonetheless.

The doughboy statue — “The Spirit of the American Doughboy,” one of more than a hundred erected in U.S. cities after the war — has resided among Quintard’s grassy plaza since May 30, 1922. He faces south, gazing at 12th Street. To his left is Parker Memorial Baptist Church. Trees surround him.

He’s made of pressed copper that now carries an odd, green tint. His extended right arm carries a grenade. His left hand holds a rifle that’s seen better days: its bayonet and strap are long gone. He stands on a four-sided concrete base that’s needed restoration for decades. Cracks are common. Pieces of concrete are missing. The City Council has considered renovations going back as far as the early 1990s; the current council discussed it last summer. The damage remains.

Fortunately, its plaque, along with its history, is intact. “Erected by the Anniston Post American Legion to the Calhoun County Men Who Served in the Great War,” the plaque reads. Records show that Lee Brothers Foundry donated the plaque, which was initially displayed in the window of Saks Clothing Co. and paid for by a minstrel-show fund-raiser.

Fortunately, too, is that Quintard’s other prominent World War I memorial — at the intersection with 10th Street — isn’t in disrepair. Its eagle remains impressive. The names of Calhoun County soldiers are legible. Meanwhile, at nearby Zinn Park, small markers at the base of trees that line 14th Street honor the memory of local soldiers.

Now, back to our comparison.

Washington is all aflutter over a movement to designate that city’s World War I monument as the national World War I memorial. Shocking as it may sound, there is no national monument to the Great War. Thousands of U.S. cities have their own statues, plaques and memorials to their local servicemen. D.C.’s, dedicated by President Hoover in 1931, carries the name of 26,000 Washington residents who fought in World War I; of those, 499 didn’t return.

Anniston owns a statue and an eagled monument; Washington’s, as you’d imagine, is larger and more impressive. It’s a round, domed, columned monolith. It’s halfway between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. And, like Anniston’s doughboy, Washington’s memorial had seen better days. Time cracked its walkways, steps and columns.

A year-long, $2.3 million project has restored the oft-overlooked site. The memorial reopened last November. Interest in it is abounding. And some members of Congress are pushing to make the D.C. memorial the national memorial since (a.) there isn’t one and (b.) law prohibits new construction on the National Mall.

Washington’s city leaders are revolting.

“The District of Columbia Memorial is for the people of the District of Columbia, and it will never be otherwise,” Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents D.C. in Congress, told The Washington Times.

“We should resist this with every fiber of our being,” Mayor Vincent Gray told the newspaper.

Fine. Resist away. Where one city closes a door, another one can open it.

Anniston, you game?

It’s outlandish, but it’s worth a listen nonetheless. Follow the logic: Anniston has multiple World War I memorials of various size, shape and condition. The departed Fort McClellan was borne because of World War I; it trained National Guardsmen before the war, but it only reached military adulthood because of America’s urgent need to prepare for the European trenches. Fort McClellan-trained soldiers from across the United States fought with distinction in France and Belgium. That Anniston is already home to Centennial Memorial Park, with its granite walls and etched names, is a feather in the city’s memorial cap.

Plus, in complete honesty, Anniston needs an injection of positive national attention. Mayor Gene Robinson should place a call to Washington and make Anniston’s odd pitch.

Crazy? Of course. Consider this a silly conversation-starter, not a doable proposal. But do count this as a call for Anniston to take care of its valuables, whether they’re an eagle perched atop a stone mount or a soldier charging through No-Man’s Land.

Anniston’s doughboy deserves better, don’t you think?

Phillip Tutor — ptutor@annistonstar.com — is The Star’s commentary editor.