[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 15, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 30663-30664]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-14720]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: June 15, 1994]




                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 114
Wednesday, June 15, 1994

____________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6699 of June 10, 1994

 

Flag Day and National Flag Week, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                In this week we salute the flag of the United States of 
                America: our history's proud pennant; noble banner of 
                freedom, liberty, opportunity, and independence; and 
                the glorious emblem of our national pride and 
                patriotism.

                Woven into the Stars and Stripes and into the fabric of 
                our Nation is the legacy of our Founders, who crafted a 
                government built on a revolutionary respect for the 
                rights of individuals. Coming ashore on this new 
                continent, they had fled the tyranny of sovereigns: 
                ``We the People'' were to be sovereigns of this new 
                land.

                On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress established 
                the design of a flag for the new Republic so that we 
                might bestow our loyalty, not to kings, but to 
                countrymen, all of us created equal. Eleven years 
                later, the Constitutional Convention placed a written 
                rule of law at the symbolic head of government, and we 
                have since pledged our allegiance not only to the Stars 
                and Stripes, but also ``to the Republic for which it 
                stands.'' We salute the achievement and wisdom of our 
                Founders, embodied in our flag, and we honor all of the 
                men and women who have upheld and defended the ideals 
                stitched into its billowing folds.

                Our flag's bright stars, ancient symbols of dominion 
                and sovereignty, represent the constellation of States 
                in our federal system of government--its stripes, the 
                first States born of the original thirteen colonies. 
                Its bright colors embody the essence of our American 
                heritage: red, for valor; white, for hope and purity; 
                and blue, the color of loyalty, reverence, justice, and 
                truth. Witness to our past, it holds aloft the promise 
                of our future.

                ``Old Glory,'' as it was nicknamed in 1831 by Navy 
                Captain William Driver, was first carried into conflict 
                at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. As 
                the Nation now observes the 50th anniversary of the 
                Battle of Normandy, we honor the courageous Americans 
                who carried our standard into the infernos of war at 
                all of our history's most critical crossroads. It has 
                saluted the final resting places of lives lost in the 
                defense of liberty, from the beaches of Normandy to the 
                jungles of Vietnam and the deserts of Iraq and Somalia.

                Our flag has been borne aloft into the heavens by our 
                gallant astronauts and has been worn bravely on the 
                shoulders of those who each day risk their lives to 
                protect the public safety. It flies freely from its 
                place of honor in classrooms, churches, businesses, 
                government buildings, and is proudly displayed by 
                Americans serving their Nation in distant points across 
                the globe. Its silent, solemn presence makes each of 
                those places ``home'' and keeps the spirit of liberty 
                alive in the hearts of Americans wherever they may be.

                To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, 
                by a joint resolution approved August 3, 1949 (63 Stat. 
                492), designated June 14 of each year Flag Day and 
                requested the President to issue an annual Proclamation 
                calling for its observance and for the display of the 
                Flag of the United States on all Government buildings. 
                The Congress also requested the President, by joint 
                resolution approved June 9, 1966 (80 Stat. 194), to 
                issue annually a Proclamation designating the week in 
                which June 14 occurs as National Flag Week, and calling 
                upon all citizens of the United States to display the 
                flag during that week.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 14, 
                1994, as Flag Day and the week beginning June 12, 1994, 
                as National Flag Week. I direct the appropriate 
                officials of the Government to display the Flag of the 
                United States on all Government buildings during that 
                week. I urge all Americans to observe Flag Day, June 
                14, and Flag Week by flying the Stars and Stripes from 
                their homes and other suitable places.

                I also call upon the American people to observe with 
                pride and all due ceremony those days from Flag Day 
                through Independence Day, also set aside by the 
                Congress (89 Stat. 211), as a time to celebrate our 
                heritage in public gatherings and activities and to 
                publicly recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of 
                the United States of America.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                tenth day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and 
                eighteenth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-14720
Filed 6-13-94; 3:38 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P