I’d like to comment on one of the key arguments offered by those opposed to the upcoming referendum on repealing the 2015 Illinois anti-boycott law. Multiple people, including former elected officials and candidates for village office, claim that the referendum is divisive and thus should be voted down. Opponents have tried multiple times to keep the referendum from appearing on the ballot. Adopting this approach, people in this country would have had to keep silent about many things, including chattel slavery, the disenfranchisement of Black people and women, denying them the basic right to vote, Jim Crow and segregation, restrictive housing covenants, the U.S. war on Vietnam, the rights of workers to organize and unionize, and so much more.
The list is long. These issues tore communities apart. And these movements represent some of our proudest moments and our most significant victories over injustice. To avoid “division in the community,” would referendum opponents have Oak Parkers remain silent about myriad injustices that, in fact, have and will often split communities?
It is glaringly apparent that there is a division in the Oak Park Jewish community regarding the state of Israel, its many instances of human rights abuses and its ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Why are opponents of this referendum pretending that they can in fact suppress that division? It exists.
I think the No on the referendum is actually a statement that people are just fine with that 2015 law. Just say it. Don’t come up with arguments about divisiveness in the community.
Change always comes through struggle.
Deborah Adelman
Oak Park
