As you may recall, Chicago did not win the bid to host the 2016 Olympics. If it had, officials in the Office of the City Flag Design would have considered adding a fifth red star to the iconic Chicago flag to commemorate the event. The new flag would have resembled the flag below.
But that didn’t happen, so the flag still has 4, very meaningful, stars. Without getting too specific, the 4 red stars represent 4 things or events that came to define Chicago’s history. The first star represents Fort Dearborn (no longer standing); the second star represents the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (no longer burning). The third and fourth stars represent the Columbia Expedition of 1893 and the Century of Progress in 1933, respectively. The white stripes represent the north, west, and south sides of the city, while the two blue stripes on the flag represent the north and south branches of the Chicago river (although the river is not blue and only occasionally green). Now that you know more about the history of the flag, we can get back to the important event that may change the flag as we know it.
Hearing that President Obama had chosen Chicago as the host of the G8 Economic Forum
as well as the NATO Summit is something to make your jaw drop. According to the official website (
http://www.chicagog8nato.org/), this is the first time any American city other than Washington D.C. has hosted the G8 summit, and the first time in 30 years that the high-profile gatherings have taken place in the same city. Truly, this will be one for the history books.
If this combined economic and military forum does not earn Chicago a star on the flag, I am not really sure what else would. The Olympics? Okay. The Cubs winning the World Series? Meh. Chicago finally instituting a comprehensive recycling program? Not a chance.
The economic and military forum combined with the Occupy Wall Street movement is likely to make for a unique gathering of energetic protesters. Local and state law enforcement personnel have been training for months in preparation for this event, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel has asked corporations for monetary support, an all to common reality in politics. Powerful corporations monetarily supporting the meeting of high-profile political leaders, who will be discussing economic and military policy for the coming years will only fan the flames of the protestors. And only time will tell whether or not an extra star will come to represent a summit of progress or a great political fire.
robbiebob 