Stacey Hunt: Hi! Guess what I did on Monday?! I faced a very horrible (Jewish) Mayor in Evanston, IL after pro-palis marched in a 4th of July celebration.

I started off my speech with... I'm That Jew!!

Good evening, Mayor Biss, members of the City Council, and neighbors.

My name is Stacey Hunt. I'm That Jew—a grateful American, a longtime Evanston consumer, a lover of Israel and this country, an Orthodox Jew, and a proud member of the Chicago Jewish Alliance.

Israel is part of our faith and our history. America is our home.

Our children were born here. We built our businesses here. We vote and volunteer here. We stand for the national anthem. And every Fourth of July, we celebrate this extraordinary country because we believe in the American promise.

That's why what happened hurt so deeply.

Many Jewish families arrived expecting a celebration of our shared American identity and instead encountered political messages that they experienced as divisive and out of place at a Fourth of July celebration.

The Fourth of July is meant to unite us in celebrating our shared American identity when people of different backgrounds, faiths, and political beliefs come together around a common purpose.

Some participants wore keffiyahs, a once harmless symbol representing fishing nets which has been perverted to symbolize violence against Jewish people, felt here in Chicago and around the world. Whether that was the intent or not, the keffiyah makes many people feel their safety is at risk.

Likewise, many Jewish residents hear "Free Palestine" not as a call for self-determination, but as a slogan often associated with rhetoric that denies Jewish self-determination and the Jewish connection to Israel.

When members of a minority community tell elected leaders they felt unwelcome at a civic event, the response should begin with empathy and acknowledgment, even amid political disagreement.

When those families reached out, they weren't demanding censorship or special treatment.

They were asking whether anyone in city leadership had stopped to ask a harder question:

Not, "Was this legal?"

But, "Was this wise?"

Mr. Mayor, your response stated that doing otherwise "would have been a violation of and insult to the American ideals we were celebrating."

Respectfully, that response illustrates why so many residents left disappointed.

Leaders, recognize that inclusion is measured not only by who is allowed to participate, but also by whether every resident feels they belong.

Leadership is measured not by how well a decision is defended, but by whether people felt heard before it was.

That is the tragedy here.

In a nation divided by politics, civic traditions are precious because they remind us that we are Americans first, before we belong to competing causes and movements.

We are not asking this Council to relitigate the First Amendment.

We're asking something more difficult.

Whether wisdom requires more than legality; Whether empathy should come before explanation; Whether listening should come before defending.

And whether next year, every Jewish child standing along that parade route will know what every American child should know on the Fourth of July:

This celebration belongs to them, too.