[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 101 (Wednesday, May 27, 1998)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 28889-28890]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-14165]


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                         Presidential Documents 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 101 / Wednesday, May 27, 1998 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 28889]]

                Proclamation 7099 of May 22, 1998

                
Prayer For Peace, Memorial Day, 1998

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Today Americans live in a time of great hope. Our 
                Nation is free, prosperous, and at peace. While very 
                real dangers and problems still exist in the world, the 
                Cold War is over, democracy is sweeping the globe, and 
                old adversaries are forming new partnerships.

                But the blessings we enjoy today are not the happy 
                accidents of history; they are the culmination of 
                promises kept by generations of young Americans and 
                paid for by their courage and sacrifice. The promise of 
                freedom articulated in our Declaration of Independence 
                was made real by a ragtag army of brave Americans who 
                were prepared to die for their convictions. The promise 
                of unity was kept during the Civil War by thousands of 
                Americans, black and white, who were willing to fight 
                to preserve our Union. The promise of democracy was 
                kept by the hundreds of thousands of Americans who 
                fought and died in World War I, World War II, Korea, 
                Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf. On home soil and in 
                foreign lands, lost at sea or brought down from the 
                skies, our young men and women in uniform have given 
                their lives to keep their promise to America: to defend 
                our freedom, to preserve our values, and to advance the 
                ideals of democracy.

                On this Memorial Day, we, too, have promises to keep. 
                We remember and honor all those gallant Americans who, 
                in the eloquent words of President Lincoln, ``gave the 
                last full measure of devotion'' for the well-being of 
                our Nation and their fellow citizens. We express our 
                profound sympathy and gratitude to the families who 
                have lost their sons and daughters in service to 
                America. We promise to keep faith with all those who 
                have died for our country by remaining vigilant in our 
                defense of freedom and democracy. And we promise always 
                to work for permanent peace in the world so that a new 
                generation of Americans will never have to know the 
                horrors of war.

                In respect and recognition of the courageous men and 
                women to whom we pay tribute, the Congress, by joint 
                resolution approved on May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), has 
                requested the President to issue a proclamation calling 
                upon the people of the United States to observe each 
                Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and 
                designating a period on that day when the American 
                people might unite in prayer.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial 
                Day, May 25, 1998, as a day of prayer for permanent 
                peace, and I designate the hour beginning at 3:00 p.m. 
                EDT of that day as a time to join in prayer. I urge the 
                press, radio, television, and all other information 
                media to take part in this observance.

                I also request the Governors of the United States and 
                the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the appropriate 
                officials of all units of government, to direct that 
                the flag be flown at half-staff during this Memorial 
                Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels 
                throughout the United States and in all areas under its 
                jurisdiction and control, and I request the people of 
                the United States to display the flag at half-staff 
                from their homes for the customary forenoon period.

[[Page 28890]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-second.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 98-14165
Filed 5-26-98; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P