[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 15, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: X94-120615]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: June 15, 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.
