Flag Day and National Flag Week, 2000

Proclamation 7321 of June 9, 2000

Flag Day and National Flag Week, 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 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.