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player ready...Lincolnwood’s Human Relations Commission has decided the village should reinstate its annual Lincoln Avenue flag display—the trademark of the town’s long-running diversity month—two years after village officials suspended it indefinitely.
The village board overhauled the tradition of displaying the flags of more than 60 countries every August along one of its busiest thoroughfares after the display came under scrutiny in the summer of 2014. Then, residents packed into village hall for a public hearing, with many decrying the Palestinian flag’s presence among other countries’.
The majority of residents and officials who have publicly spoken out against the flag display, including Village Trustee Ron Cope, have said that anger and resentment now overshadow the original intent of Diversity Month—to celebrate the many cultural backgrounds of the people of Lincolnwood.
“I’m opposed because I believe it has done nothing but invoke hostility,” Cope said while speaking as an audience member at the Dec. 12 meeting at village hall. “Two years ago at a meeting at village hall, the mayor called for people to come forward to speak in favor or against it, and ultimately it came down to one flag—the PLO.”
Commissioners voted 6-1 to allow the village board to come up with new regulations to allow the flag display to continue.
Rebecca Kohn, chair of the commission, abstained from the vote.
The controversy started with a handful of people who police Chief Bob LaMantia said called the police department in August 2014 to ask the village to take down the Palestinian flag.
The complaints about the flag snowballed, prompting Lincolnwood Mayor Jerry Turry to call a special meeting to address the issue.
The meeting grew so heated at one point that the mayor threatened to kick out one person who shouted “terrorists” toward one side of the room where a group of people wearing Muslim attire was sitting. Others who spoke at the meeting said the Palestinian flag was being unfairly singled out.
Despite what transpired that night, Lincolnwood kept Palestine’s flag flying along with the others until the display was taken down at the end of August 2014 when Diversity Month came to a close.
The flags did not return the following year. A streetlight replacement project planned for the stretch of Lincoln Avenue where the flags would usually hang was the village’s explanation for not having the flags in 2015, but officials declined then to say whether the tradition would be retired permanently.
The Human Relations Commission—a volunteer-based advisory board formed by the village—tested out new events to celebrate diversity this past year, including a gathering of religious leaders at the Community Center in September called “Coffee with the Clergy” and a cultural dance event at Proesel Park the month prior.
Even as commisioners attempted to highlight the town’s diversity throughout the year instead of having the flag display be the focal point, members of the village board ultimately asked the commissioners to come up with a recommendation to ether discontinue the tradition or to send the flag issue back to the village board.
“If it continues, there will have to be some policies in place to make sure the village isn’t exposed to inappropriate flags,” LaMantia said, referring to a future decision trustees could make following the Human Relation Commission’s decision.
Lincolnwood resident Dale Wickum, who spoke in favor of reinstating the flags at the Human Relations Commission meeting, said the Palestinian flag shouldn’t have been singled out.
“The diversity of Lincolnwood is why we moved here in the first place,” Wickum said. “What kind of public perception are we sending by taking the flags away? That Lincolnwood will buckle under the demands made by a small group of people?”
His wife, Nancy, agreed.
“Having the flags on Lincoln Avenue is a beautiful thing that gives people a sense of pride,” she said.
The Human Relations Commission started the flag tradition 12 years ago by allowing residents of the village to buy flags representing their cultural heritage. The display grew larger each year as more residents bought flags.
Many residents have since begun to wonder what happened to the flags they purchased, Trustee Craig Klatzco said at the commission meeting.
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The next step is for the vllage board to consider at its Jan. 7 meeting a new policy to regulate the flag display, according to LaMantia.
Natalie Hayes is a freelancer.