[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]


                              {time}  1640
 
                        FLAG DAY, JUNE 14, 1994

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Lambert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Bentley] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. BENTLEY. Madam Speaker, today, the 14th of June, 1994, is Flag 
Day, as well as the 180th anniversary of the ``Star Spangled Banner,'' 
and the 15th anniversary of the ``Pause for the Pledge.''
  At 7 p.m., by a Joint Resolution of the Congress, all Americans 
should pause to pledge allegiance to the flag. It is an act of 
patriotism, started in Maryland and supported by the Congress which 
encourages all Americans to think of what that ``Star Spangled Banner'' 
has meant to generations of Americans.
  There is a long history of Maryland's proprietary interest in the 
stars and stripes--Mary Pickersgill's needlework gave us the flag that 
flew over Ft. McHenry. The very flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to 
write of it still ``gleaming in the dawn's early light''. The flag 
which is still on display at the Smithsonian. Barbara Fritchie's heroic 
stance--protecting the flag from Southern troops at Frederick during 
the Civil War--was recorded for posterity by John Greenleaf Whittier.
  It is an ancient tradition to celebrate a nation with a standard. 
Prehistoric excavations have documented the display of banners in the 
earliest of civilizations, identifying their country, hearalding their 
sovereignty.
  The flag which we salute today came into being in 1818, when 
President Monroe designated 13 stripes, one for each of the original 
colonies--instead of the 15 shown in the Ft. McHenry flag--assigning 
one star for each State--allowing for new States to be recognized as 
they entered the Union.
  The name ``Old Glory'' began to be spread when a mother stitched 
together a flag for her son, a ship's captain named William Driver. 
When he raised it above his first command, he told his sailors, ``This 
is Old Glory, boys.''
  So Old Glory sailed the world until Captain Driver retired in the 
late 1850's to his hometown of Nashville, TN. When the Civil War broke 
out, the captain sewed Old Glory up in his mattress cover to protect it 
from being seized by Confederate troops.
  Toward the end of the war, when the Union Army broke through to 
liberate the city, Captain Driver took the flag out and flew it over 
his house to welcome the Army. The Union soldiers were so excited at 
seeing one of their flags, they took up the cry that it's ``Old Glory'' 
and spread the story of the flag and its name across the country as 
they returned home after the victory.
  To every citizen of this country, the flag has a unique meaning. In 
1992, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Colin 
Powell, spoke about the meaning it had to him--as a soldier. He 
suggested it ``captures the soul of a nation and its people.''
  That it absorbs ``the blood of patriots into its crimson stripes.''
  But, when carried into battle, when flown over the Capitol of the 
United States or over any public building, it is a sign of the 
sovereignty of this Nation. Of the power of the American people over 
their own destiny.
  It carries the hope of freedom to all of the oppressed in the world. 
I have been told by refugees--from behind the old Iron Curtain--of how, 
when they finally reached the refuge of an American Embassy, looking up 
at the Stars and Stripes, they fell to their knees--thanking God for 
all it represented to them.
  We must never forget what this wonderful banner means to the image of 
freedom around the world. It represents the ``land of the brave and the 
free'' to millions of the oppressed.
  In the current times it is a real worry to me that this flag and what 
it represents is threatened by pre-emption by the flag of the United 
Nations. That our men and women should serve under a flag other than 
their own--leaders other than their own--representing nations other 
than their own should not be happening by a mere expansion of actions 
taken during the gulf war.
  As we pause for the pledge tonight--let us each and every one think 
deeply--about what these actions will mean to this Nation and to this 
flag in the future. The passing of this power should not be made 
lightly--and the preeminence of the stars and stripes above our troops 
and their commanders should not be given up.

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