[Title 3 CFR 6997]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - January 1, 1998 Edition]
[Title 3 - Presidential Documents]
[Proclamation 6997 - Proclamation 6997 of May 1, 1997]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


3Presidential Documents11998-01-011998-01-01false6997Proclamation 6997Presidential Documents
Proclamation 6997 of May 1, 1997

 Loyalty Day, 1997

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Each year, Americans dedicate the first day of May to formally 
acknowledge our love for this great land and our loyalty to the 
principles of freedom and equality on which our Nation was founded. This 
love and loyalty cannot be mandated or legislated; rather, these traits 
spring freely from our hearts and minds.
Looking back across the centuries, we recognize that each generation of 
Americans has been called upon to express its love and loyalty in a 
unique way. Our founders, defying the forces of tyranny, solemnly 
pledged their lives and futures to defend the new Nation they had 
created, a Nation born of reverence for human rights and the principle 
of self-determination. Less than a century later, another generation of 
Americans spilled its blood to preserve the unity of our Nation and to 
ensure that America lived up to its ideals of freedom, justice, and 
equality.
The challenges of our own century have called for an extraordinary 
measure of devotion from millions of our citizens. Through two 
devastating world wars and the decades of the Cold War, Americans laid 
down their lives for love of country and to defend democracy, advance 
human rights, and oppose the specter of oppression.
Today we are blessed to be living in a time of unprecedented peace and 
possibility, when the ideals of democracy and human dignity so 
eloquently articulated by our founders have been widely embraced by 
nations in our own hemisphere and around the world. But we have fresh 
opportunities to prove our love and loyalty to America. The challenge 
for our generation is to realize the promise of our Nation: to be a 
strong and steady influence for peace and freedom across the globe; to 
be a powerful voice for human rights wherever they are silenced; to live 
up to America's promise of justice, equality, and opportunity by 
ensuring that all of our people have the tools and encouragement they 
need to meet their God-given potential.
The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, has designated May 1 of each year as 
``Loyalty Day.'' Let us, on this day, remember the contributions of the 
many courageous Americans who have gone before us, and let us keep faith 
with them by reaffirming our love for and loyalty to this Nation they 
sustained with their service and sacrifice.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of 
America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 1997, as Loyalty Day. I urge all 
Americans to recall, on this day, the valor and selflessness of all 
those who made this Nation so worthy of our love and loyalty. I call 
upon Gov-

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ernment officials to display the flag of the United States and 
to participate in patriotic activities in support of this national 
observance.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, 
in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
first.
                                                    WILLIAM J. CLINTON