[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