It’s June and Wheaton, Illinois is showing its colors. Unfortunately, they’re not red, white, and blue—not even at the community-beloved Cantigny Park. Instead, Cantigny Park is flying the colors appropriated by a shameful faith and family-unfriendly political movement. Cantigny Park is a 500-acre estate in Wheaton on property owned first by Joseph Medill and then his grandson Colonel Robert R. McCormick—both Republicans.
Col. McCormick’s will “established the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust and designated Cantigny as a public space for education and recreation.” Cantigny Park “was named after a small village in France, where Colonel McCormick commanded an artillery battalion in 1918 as a member of the U.S. Army’s First Division. The Battle of Cantigny was America’s first victory in World War I.”
Cantigny Park includes 30 acres of gardens, a golf course, and three miles of walking trails. But the heart of Cantigny is its “First Division Museum, dedicated to the history of the ‘Big Red One,’ the famed 1st Infantry Division of the Army” and its Tank Park, “a collection of tanks and artillery pieces dating back from World War I to Desert Storm and Desert Shield.” Cantigny Park is a place Wheaton families repeatedly visit with their children and visitors.
So, how is the Robert R. McCormick Foundation using Col. McCormick’s money and property? How is the foundation honoring the memory of Republican Robert R. McCormick, his love of America, and his service to the country?
On June 22, 2023, Cantigny is hosting a “pride” event that includes a drag queen performance and hawking the wares of a “queer underworld witch” and homosexual artist Peter Thaddeus who produces vulgar, kitschy “art.”
For those unfamiliar with “gay” culture, some men are erotically attracted to fat, hairy men who are called “bears.” The bear pawprint and the colors of this childish painting are derived from the bear pride flag.
Equally offensive, the Glen Ellyn Public Library is contributing to this degrading spectacle.
Do Glen Ellyn taxpayers know that they are subsidizing this?
Do Cantigny visitors and donors know how their money is being used?
Do our veterans know how their service is being “honored”? I know how my father, a 98-year-old WWII Navy veteran, feels. He said, “This is not the country I fought for.”
Col. McCormick must be spinning in his proverbial grave.