I know it can be time consuming to draft emails for each politician so I typed up a draft you can use if you feel the need to express your discontent at the decision. It's specifically formatted for the Inver Grove Heights city council, but feel free to edit it as needed for other towns that try to follow suit. Below are the names and emails of the IGH mayor and council, the template will follow.
Mayor Brenda Dietrich- bdietrich@ighmn.gov
Sue Gliva- sgliva@ighmn.gov
John Murphy- jmurphy@ighmn.gov
Tony Scales- tscales@ighmn.gov
Mary T'Kach- mtkach@ighmn.gov
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(Mayor/Councilmember Name),
I am writing you to express my disappointment with the city council’s decision to fly the outdated Minnesota state flag. A flag that, at its’ heart, is steeped in disrespect for the indigenous peoples of our great state and has officially been discontinued from use on the state level. It is not for individual city governments to determine how to represent our state and the decision to revert to the previous design is problematic and feeds into a mindset of combativeness that does not belong in our community.
The flag that was revealed in 1983 features an obvious reference to Manifest Destiny, the belief that colonization of indigenous lands was not only obvious, but certain to happen due to a misguided sense of racial superiority. The imagery present not only evokes a troubled past, but it also shines a light on an unwillingness to change, with that seal remaining much the same since the very first design in 1893.
When the redesign commission was formed in 2023, it brought together representatives from the many cultures that reside in our state to decide upon a design that would represent the best of our state while standing out from other state flags aesthetically. After the thought and work that went into that decision, to blatantly ignore it in favor of the previous flag feels not only disrespectful, but condescending and provocative, clearly meant to divide our community rather than bring it together.
(Mayor Dietrich/ You) has/have gone on record stating that the “public reaction to the new flag has thus far been overwhelmingly negative and underwhelmingly accepted”. With all due respect, more residents spoke up in favor of the new flag at the meeting where this was decided. There is also a high number of people, myself included, that are very content with the current flag and saw no reason to express that contentment prior to this outcome. It is my hope that by sending this email, you receive enough feedback to reconsider this decision and return the 8-pointed star design to our flagpoles.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to the day this issue is revisited.
-(Your name here), a proud citizen of Inver Grove Heights
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Just edit the bolded text to personalize and you should be good to go.
If this isn't allowed, feel free to delete. Thanks for your time.