The multi-cultural aspects of the ever changing city of Lynn is now being reflected in the flags being flown from the pole in city hall square.
According to Mayor Judith Flanagan-Kennedy, that flagpole will become Lynn’s link with the world outside of the city in the weeks and months to come.
In that spirit, the mayor has scheduled ceremonies coinciding with the hanging of flags from Ireland, Greece, Cambodia and Italy in city hall square.
The display of foreign flags denoting Lynn’s widely varied international demographic is born of two things – the display yearly for a number of years of the Dominican Republic’s flag and because of e-mails received by the mayor requesting that other flags beside that one alone be flown.
“Why just the Dominican flag,” one e-mail writer wrote the mayor’s office. “Isn’t it nice to distinguish between nations and to highlight other nations which are represented here with sizable minority populations?”
The mayor agreed.
“We are receptive to feedback. I have immediately ordered a succession of flag raisings and displays to take place here. I think this tradition in the making will be a good thing for the city,” the mayor said Monday morning.
Scheduled to be flown are the Irish flag and then a Greek flag raising on March 26 followed by a Cambodian flag raising on April 16 and then for Columbus Day, the Italian flag raising.
“I believe these types of ceremonies do a lot to improve understanding and to allow Lynn’s population who came here from other nations to express pride in their countries of origin. It helps to bring people together. It helps to improve the city,” added the mayor.
The mayor also added that proper protocol was being shown in raising and flying the foreign flags, and at no time will the foreign flags be raised higher than the American flags flown by the city.