[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 24 (Monday, June 20, 1994)]
[Pages 1269-1270]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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Proclamation 6699--Flag Day and National Flag Week, 1994

June 10, 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.

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    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:38 p.m., June 13, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on June 
15. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.