[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 24 (Monday, June 19, 2000)]
[Pages 1331-1332]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7321--Flag Day and National Flag Week, 2000

June 9, 2000

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Our long national journey has brought the United States safely to a 
new century and to a position of unprecedented leadership in the world. 
Throughout that journey, one symbol has endured as a badge of honor for 
every American and a beacon of hope for the oppressed: the flag of the 
United States.
    For more than two centuries, ``Old Glory'' has challenged us to make 
real the highest ideals of the patriots and visionaries who chose it as 
our national symbol in the early days of our Republic. The flag of the 
United States has inspired us in battle, reassured us in times of peace, 
and comforted us at moments of great national grief. In its white 
stripes, we recognize the sanctity of the American ideals on which our 
Republic was founded: liberty, justice, equality, and the guarantee of 
individual rights. In its red stripes, we salute the generations of 
American patriots who have shed their blood to keep our flag flying over 
a free Nation. And in the cluster of white stars on an unchanging blue 
field, we read the story of America's remarkable evolution from 13 small 
colonies to 50 great States, with millions of citizens from every race, 
creed, and country united by the hopes and history we share as 
Americans.
    To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, by joint 
resolution approved August 3, 1949 (63 Stat. 492), designated June 14 of 
each year as ``Flag Day'' and requested the President to issue an annual 
proclamation calling for a national observance and for the display of 
the flag of the United States on all Federal Government

[[Page 1332]]

buildings. In a second joint resolution approved June 9, 1966 (80 Stat. 
194), the Congress requested the President also to issue annually a 
proclamation designating the week during which June 14 falls 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, 2000, as Flag Day and the 
week beginning June 11, 2000, as National Flag Week. I direct the 
appropriate officials to display the flag on all Federal Government 
buildings during that week, and I urge all Americans to observe Flag Day 
and National Flag Week by flying the Stars and Stripes from their homes 
and other suitable places.
    I also call upon the people of the United States 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 honor 
our Nation, to celebrate our heritage in public gatherings and 
activities, and to recite publicly the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag 
of the United States of America.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of 
June, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence of 
the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., June 13, 
2000]

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