A seemingly innocuous proposal to name July 23 as the National Day of Egypt in Burr Ridge drew a protest from one resident at a July board meeting.
The meeting — and the proposed designation — happened a day after the proposed National Day of Egypt, a recognition meant to signify the independence of Egypt after British rule in 1952. Burr Ridge has a Coptic community of Egyptians and the recognition — a first for the community — would have simply marked the prior day as important for that community.
In part, the proclamation read it was intended as “recognizing the start of the 1952 Egyptian revolution which culminated in Egypt gaining its independence from British colonialism. The attached proclamation declares July 23 as the National Day of Egypt in the Village of Burr Ridge in recognition of the Egyptian population living, working or otherwise contributing to the civic health and cultural diversity in the Village of Burr Ridge.”
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The Village has, in the past, passed resolutions as in support of various ethnicities and nationalities, including a resolution supporting Ukraine, at the start of the war against Russia. Mayor Gary Grasso said the resolution did not imply the village would pass another resolution next year.
The Egyptian community in Burr Ridge is represented mostly by Copts, a Christian sect, dating to the earliest days of Christianity, and the community has a large Coptic church, St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church. The resolution was intended to show widespread support for that community.
Nevertheless, one resident, John Szynal, opposed the proclamation as offensive. First, he argued only Congress could create a national day — although the proclamation was not a national day for the United States — and he demanded to know how the proclamation event came to be.
“Egyptians aren’t the only ethnic group residing in Burr Ridge,” he told the board.
Further, he said he felt such a declaration would force residents of Burr Ridge to honor a group of people against their will by calling on residents to recognize the contributions of Egyptians in the community.
“Do other ethnicities not deserve the same recognition?” he asked.
“The Egyptian revolution may be a joyous occasion,” he continued. But, Szynal said, if the Egyptians got a proclamation of their independence, every single other ethnicity in Burr Ridge should get one, too. Again, however, the action would have been a retroactive recognition of a day already past.
In response, the Rev. Theodore Labib of St. Marks Church in Burr Ridge — a large Coptic church — said he didn’t particularly care about the language of the motion but he did appreciate the gesture.
“If this is a matter of semantics … we as the Coptic community living in Burr Ridge and who have been living here for a very long time appreciate the gesture,” Labib said.
Labib noted he’d recently become a citizen 20 days ago and he is happy to make Burr Ridge his home and felt welcomed by the gesture.
“It does mean a lot to us when our presence and our history are understood,” he said. “A proclamation like this doesn’t begrudge other people in this community.”
Michael Durkin, village attorney for Burr Ridge, pointed out the proclamation had no national significance and thus didn’t require an act of Congress — the ‘national day’ referred only to the Egyptian holiday — but even so, the board voted to rephrase the wording, even as Mayor Grasso added that the board had honored other ethnicities in the past.
“This is not out of the ordinary for what this village has done,” he said. “I’m OK the way it is but if someone wants to amend it … that’s all right.”
The board then amended the proclamation delete the word national from the text and it passed unanimously.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.