Mayor Gerald Turry addressing hateful comments and outbursts at the Lincolnwood meeting.
The Mayor of Lincolnwood Illinois, Gerald Turry, defended the decision of the Human Relations Commission to rebuff complaints from a handful of activists demanding that the Palestine Flag be removed from a display of ethnic national flags placed on Lincoln Avenue in the north suburban Chicago community.
Lincolnwood has displayed ethnic flags representing the various nationalities in Lincolnwood for the past 10 years since 2004 and this year had more than 60 flags on public display during August which is designated as Ethnic Pride Month.
Turry, who is Russian Jewish American said that the issue of politics and the battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was not an issue and had no relevance over the display of the flag.
During an interview on Talk of the Town Radio show Friday August 15, with host Ray Hanania on WCEV 1450 AM Radio and live on www.YahalaVoice.com, Turry said that he received some negative and vulgar complaints following the meeting last week but that the overwhelming majority of residents of Lincolnwood, Jews and Arabs, supported the decision to keep the Palestinian Flag on display.
Turry said that the commission also had debates between Greeks and Turks, Indians and Pakistanis, and other rival ethnic groups but said only the debate over the Palestinian flag received media coverage.
More than 200 people attended the Human Relations Commission meeting on Monday August 11, 2014. Talk of the Town Radio show is presented by Yahala Voice radio and The Arab Daily news at www.TheArabDailyNews.com.
Click here to read an overview of the Human Relations Commission meeting held on Monday August 11, 2014.
The audio podcast of the radio show is displayed below.
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Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
Click here to send Ray Hanania email.