After hearing nearly two hours of impassioned public comment during a special meeting on Monday, May 17, the Signal Hill City Council voted not to fly the Cambodian flag on May 20.
Mayor Edward Wilson had asked the council to amend Signal Hill’s commemorative flag policy so the City could fly the flag on that day, which is the Cambodian government’s date for observing Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day, made official in 2018.
See related story: Signal Hill City Council recognizes Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day and condemns anti-Asian racism
The City had already flown the flag throughout the month of April, as per its commemorative-flag policy, honoring California’s April 17 date for Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day.
Wilson said the council was not meeting to change the date of Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day but to decide whether to fly the flag again.
“We’re not saying you cannot recognize April 17,” Wilson said. “We’re just, at this point, attempting to recognize that this is what the government of Cambodia said.”
See related story: Signal Hill City Council approves flying five commemorative flags in 2021
However, the proposed amendment drew backlash from local and national Cambodian communities. The council heard from 16 objectors by phone and video-conference during the virtual meeting.
City Manager Hannah Shin-Heydorn and Deputy City Manager Scott Charney also read aloud 18 protest letters sent to the council, some signed by multiple people, from local cities such as Signal Hill, Long Beach and Lakewood, other cities in California and other states, such as Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Most commenters argued that observing May 20 would be an “insult,” as commenter and Signal Hill resident Charles Song called it, and “borderline offensive,” as his daughter Veronica Song said. Cambodians in the United States recognize only April 17 as Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day, they said, with May 20 having no historical significance.
“Time is important,” another commenter said. “Because [April 17] marks the day in which the life of Cambodians everywhere, forever, tragically changed.”
The “foreign date” of May 20 is “very insensitive” to the victims’ experience, said another letter signed by 22 Cambodian-Americans.
“May 20 is an arbitrary date selected by a foreign power, not by the victims of the genocide that live here. I stand in support of our local Cambodian community, in solidarity, honoring Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 17.”
–Signal Hill Vice Mayor Keir Jones
Commenters recounted how on April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge regime took power in Cambodia, evacuating the capital of Phnom Penh and killing nearly 2 million Cambodians over four years through execution or starvation. Many of those executed were doctors, artists, teachers and scholars—anyone who posed a threat to the regime.
They recalled grandparents, parents and siblings who died in what became known as the “Killing Fields.”
Many survivors became refugees, settling in countries across the world, including 140,000 to the U.S., according to Song, one of those survivors and now a board member on the Signal Hill Community Foundation.
“If we were to speak in Cambodia, I would be the first to be locked up,” he said. “Perhaps killed.”
Song lifted up his shirt during the virtual meeting to reveal a long scar on his stomach.
“I have been blown up and left to die,” he said. “I’ve been shot up. I’ve been beaten up. My brother didn’t get killed by a gunshot to his head. They had hundreds of people beat him to death.”
Though Song and his family suffered, his protest was not about him but the nearly 2 million dead who haunt his memory, he said.
“Your reputation is on the line, honorable mayor,” Song told Wilson. “We ask you to stand with Cambodian Americans, not the Cambodian government.”
After hearing public comments, the council agreed to simply receive-and-file the information rather than vote on amending the flag policy.
Vice Mayor Keir Jones and Councilmember Robert Copeland—who had initially questioned why flying the Cambodian flag on May 20 would be offensive—said the comments had opened their eyes.
“I’m absolutely 100% clear now,” Copeland said. “I don’t know how we got here. I’m kind of embarrassed that Signal Hill is getting national attention.”
Jones concurred, saying he learned a lot and it’s important not to forget.
“May 20 is an arbitrary date selected by a foreign power, not by the victims of the genocide that live here,” Jones said. “I stand in support of our local Cambodian community, in solidarity, honoring Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 17.”
Jones made a motion to receive-and-file the information with no change to the flag schedule. Councilmember Tina Hansen seconded the motion.
“I don’t understand why we would take something that remembers a time of such pain, and inflict further pain on the people that have already been through it,” Hansen said. “I’m sorry to the people that have had to relive this.”
The council voted 3-1 in support of the motion not to amend the flag schedule, with only Wilson voting no. Councilmember Lori Woods was absent.
“It wasn’t about replacing the date of April 17,” Wilson maintained. “I was asking us to be supportive of those in Cambodia on May 20 […] who are using that date as the national remembrance day because that is the designation by the government of Cambodia.”
But Wilson did affirm the value of the council and community learning more about the Cambodian genocide.
“More people have been educated tonight,” he said.
