Proclamation 6699—Flag Day and National Flag Week, 1994

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.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON