[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 14, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 14, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        FLAG DAY, JUNE 14, 1994

  (Mrs. BENTLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BENTLEY. Mr. Speaker, today is Flag Day. It also is the 180th 
anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner, as well as the 15th 
anniversary of the Pause for the Pledge. At 7 p.m., by joint resolution 
of the Congress, the entire Nation should pause to pledge allegiance to 
the flag. It is an act of patriotism which was begun in Maryland by one 
person, Louis Koerber, chairman of the National Flag Day Foundation. 
Supported by the Congress, it encourages all Americans to think of what 
that Star Spangled Banner has meant to generations of persons, from 
every nation and every walk of life, who recognize the freedoms the 
Stars and Stripes represent.
  Maryland's long history of proprietary interest in the Stars and 
Stripes include Mary Pickersgill's needlework, which gave us the flag 
which flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write 
about the flag's still ``gleaming in the dawn's early light,'' while on 
a boat out in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812.
  The history includes Barbara Fritchie's heroic stance, protecting the 
flag from southern troops at Frederick during the Civil War. Our flag 
is called Old Glory, as a symbol of our sovereignty.
  It is an honor to pledge allegiance to this flag tonight, to 
rededicate ourselves to the glory that is America.

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