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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 24, 1996

PRAYER FOR PEACE, MEMORIAL DAY, 1996

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

On the last Monday of May each year, our Nation takes time to remember those who have given their lives to safeguard America's freedom. Courageous and loyal citizens have died on battlefields around the world in defense of the United States, our interests, and our values, thus ensuring more than two centuries of independence and a society based on individual rights. Their selflessness demands our profound gratitude and calls us to consider anew the awesome price of liberty.

On this special day, let us reflect upon the supreme sacrifice made by our fellow citizens lost in battle. All were proud members of our national community, and all perished while protecting our country's honor and the American way of life. Let us share in the grief of the families whose loved ones remain unaccounted for or fell while defending this great Nation. And let us pray, each in our own way, for peace throughout this land and across the globe. As beneficiaries of the freedoms our troops secured, we can best pay tribute to their deeds by leaving to future generations an America that continues to be a beacon of justice and freedom for people everywhere.

In respect and recognition of the courageous men and women to whom we pay tribute, the Congress, by joint resolution approved on May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the American people might unite in prayer.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 27, 1996, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to join in prayer. I urge the press, radio, television, and all other information media to take part in this observance.

I also request the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff during this Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control, and I request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the customary forenoon period.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twentieth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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