Speech #900071653

To these men and to all others in this Chamber and across this Nation whom they represent. the flag is more than Just a cloth symbolit truly stands for the untapped potential of the worlds greatest democracy. seen throughout the world as a bastion of individual civil liberty and human freedoms. As one War rages in Southeast Asia and one hopefully draws to a close inthe Mideast. we must consider the plight of the people of those warravaged countries and reflect how the American flag stands as a symbol to them too: of peace as an alternative to war. of prosperity as an alternative to poverty. and of Justice as an alternative to oppression. In his book "A Nation of Immigrants." the late President Kennedy quotes the poet Walt Whitman: These States are the amplest poem. Here is not merely a nation but a teeming Nation of Nations. Although nearly two centuries have gone by since the American flag first waved. the basic desires and yearnings of the people of the world are little different now than then.