September 16, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 160 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page S5655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





 SENATE RESOLUTION 699--EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR THE DESIGNATION OF THE 
     WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 11 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 17 AS ``PATRIOT WEEK''

  Mr. PETERS (for himself and Mr. Kennedy) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 699

       Whereas the events that led to the signing of the 
     Constitution of the United States by the delegates to the 
     Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, have 
     significance for every citizen of the United States and are 
     honored in public schools across the United States on 
     Constitution Day, which is September 17 of each year;
       Whereas the rule of law, the social compact, democracy, 
     liberty, equality, and unalienable human rights are the 
     essential values upon which the United States flourishes;
       Whereas diversity is one of the greatest strengths of the 
     United States, and the motto inscribed on the Great Seal of 
     the United States, ``E pluribus unum'', Latin for ``out of 
     many, one'', symbolizes that individuals in the United States 
     from all walks of life are unified by shared values;
       Whereas exceptional, visionary, and indispensable 
     individuals such as Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, John Adams, 
     John Marshall, George Washington, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 
     Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Abraham 
     Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas 
     Jefferson, and James Madison founded or advanced the United 
     States;
       Whereas the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution 
     of the United States, the Declaration of Sentiments and 
     Resolutions signed in Seneca Falls, New York, the Gettysburg 
     Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the ``I Have a 
     Dream'' speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr., express 
     sentiments that have advanced liberty in the United States; 
     and
       Whereas the Bennington flag (commonly known as the ``'76 
     flag''), the Betsy Ross flag, the current flag of the United 
     States, the flag of the women's suffrage movement, the Union 
     flag (commonly known as the ``Fort Sumter flag''), the 
     Gadsden flag, and the flags of the States are physical 
     symbols of the history of the United States: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) supports the designation of the week of September 11 
     through September 17 as ``Patriot Week'';
       (2) recognizes that understanding the history of the United 
     States and the first principles of the United States is 
     indispensable to the survival of the United States as a free 
     people;
       (3) acknowledges, in great reverence to the victims of the 
     September 11, 2001, attacks, that citizens of the United 
     States should take time to honor the first principles, 
     founders, documents, and symbols of their history;
       (4) recognizes that each generation should renew the spirit 
     of the United States based on the first principles, 
     historical figures, founding documents, and symbols of the 
     United States; and
       (5) encourages citizens, schools and other educational 
     institutions, and Federal, State, and local governments and 
     their agencies to recognize and participate in Patriot Week 
     by honoring, celebrating, and promoting the study of the 
     history of the United States so that all people of the United 
     States may offer the reverence that is due to the free 
     republic.

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