Proclamation 5645—Loyalty Day, 1987

For nearly 30 years, Americans have celebrated May 1 as Loyalty Day. This is a day to reaffirm our loyalty to our land of liberty and to recall with pride and gratitude the generations of our countrymen who preserved our freedom by their loyalty to America.

Loyalty to our country means being faithful to our heritage of liberty and justice for all. During this Bicentennial year of the Constitution, let us make our observance of Loyalty Day one of reflection on all the profound good that our experiment in individual liberty and limited government has meant for the United States of America and for the hope of the world. Let us rekindle in every heart the unshakeable strength and purpose that was our forefathers'. Let us ask the Author of Liberty, as did they, to bless and protect the United States. In these ways we will, in loyalty, fulfill our sacred trust to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

To foster loyalty and love of country, the Congress, by joint resolution approved July 18, 1958 (72 Stat. 369, 36 U.S.C. 162), has designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day."

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 1987, as Loyalty Day and call upon all Americans and patriotic, civic, fraternal, and educational organizations to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies. I also call upon all government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings and grounds on that day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eightyseven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN