Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 95.djvu/1846

 95 STAT. 1820

PROCLAMATION 4846—JUNE 1, 1981

Our fathers bear an awesome responsibility—one that they shoulder willingly and fulfill with a love that asks no recompense. By turns both gentle and firm, our fathers guide us along the path from infancy to adulthood. We embody their joy, pain and sacrifice, and inherit memories more cherished than any possession. On Father's Day each year, we express formally a love and gratitude whose roots go deeper than conscious memory can recite. It is only fitting that we have this special day to pay tribute to those men—our natural fathers, adoptive fathers and foster fathers—who deserve our deepest respect and devotion. It is equally fitting, as we recall the ancient and loving command to honor our fathers, that we resolve to do so by becoming ourselves parents and citizens who are worthy of honor. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim, in accordance with the joint resolution of Congress (36 U.S.C. § 142a}, that Sunday, June 21, 1981 be observed as Father's Day. I call upon all citizens to mark this day with appropriate public and private expressions of the honor we owe our fathers, and invite the States and local communities throughout the Nation to observe Father's Day with appropriate ceremonies. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred eighty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifth. RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 4846 of June 1, 1981

Flag Day and National Flag Week, 1981 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as our national flag. Ever since, the American flag has embodied the continuity of our original ideals and principles. The stars in varying constellations and the stripes of alternating red and white have accompanied Americans from the Marne to the Moon. The flag was flying when the British surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown, when Admiral Peary reached the North Pole, and when our soldiers battled at Iwo Jima. Recently, we saw the American flag proudly on the side of the Space Shuttle Columbia as she circled the Earth. Yet the flag flies not only over the great events of our history but also over the more personal moments of American life. Who cannot recall the vivid images of children at parades waving small flags in patriotic delight, of immigrants solemnly reciting the oath of allegiance before a flag in a judge's chambers, or of a grieving military widow clutching the folded Stars and Stripes? The American clergyman Henry Ward Beecher conveyed the full meaning of the flag when he wrote, "A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag,

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