Crystal Lake Gala Fest

Crystal Lake has one of the biggest festivals in McHenry County. In fact, this was the festival which was voted as the best in the County by the NW Herald. What does the Gala Fest consist of? The famous Taste of Crystal Lake. Not quite like the Taste of Chicago, but there are certainly a large variety of vendors present and lots of different foods to try, ranging from Chinese to European. There is a giant carnival set up in front of the Dole Mansion, which also features free tours that day. There is music every night. And, to round it off, there is the famous 4th of July parade. Quite a big event altogether.
So, what seems to be the problem?
Well, last year, the parade had a couple of floats that several people complained about. One was the Libertarian Party float, which questioned the Patriot Act and the liberties that citizens are starting to lose in our country. The other was the McHenry County Peace Group, which carried signs announcing how many people were killed in the Iraq War so far. Because of the several complaints, fair organizer Louise Steinbach decided to prevent these groups from expressing their views. Their freedom of speech has basically been stifled right on Independence Day. In fact, the whole parade is supposedly meant to celebrate our rights and what people in 1776 fought for! So, this year, the only thing political groups are allowed to do is to hold up signs naming their group. They may not have floats or pass out literature. Now, mind you, other groups may do these things. But only politically oriented organizations are stifled in this manner. So, if one is part of a church and believes in a certain religion, no matter how esoteric, one may go and build a float and pass literature pushing that religion down our throats. If one is part of the current political party that is in vogue, one may do the same. If one owns a business and wants to advertise their products, even if its an offensive business to the rest of us, one may likewise advertise their views. Only the groups that Luise Steinbach personally has a problem with are stifled in this manner. And this is again, a parade celebrating our independence.
What did we do about it? Earlier this year, we put together this website to protest the treatment of these two groups and the trampling of the freedom of speech involved. The website appears in search engines right below the festival website. Therefore, whenever one types in the words "Gala Festival" one gets our "I Hate Gala Site" :
http://www.geocities.com/rebel1776rebel/
Of course, at the time we were again threatened with lawsuits and arrest for putting together this website!