National Family Week, 1995

Proclamation 6852 of November 15, 1995

National Family Week, 1995

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Blessed with an extraordinary diversity of people from
every culture and nation around the globe, the United
States has always drawn strength from our citizens'
shared commitment to the importance of family life. The
family is society's most basic unit, daily providing
the acceptance, love, and reassurance that enable each
of us to flourish and succeed. It creates the earliest
and strongest bonds between individuals--bonds that we
seek to build upon to improve our Nation as a whole.

Families are where we first learn important lessons
about responsibility and where we absorb the ideals and
traditions that define our unique American character.
Yet we must do more to address the variety of troubles,
such as substance abuse, domestic violence, and teenage
pregnancy that have placed strains on the American
family and threaten the well-being of our young people.
At the same time, our efforts to combat crime and
poverty cannot fully succeed until we rebuild our
families and renew our commitment to their progress. A
strong network of community, State, and national
partnerships can also help families to face the
challenges of everyday life.

This week, as young and old gather around the
Thanksgiving table, it is crucial that we embrace and
empower American families, offering them the
opportunities they need to thrive and grow. Let us each
take time to appreciate the value of our family
relationships and rededicate ourselves to building
essential ties of kinship among all people.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of
the United States, do hereby proclaim November 19
through November 25, 1995, as National Family Week. I
call upon Federal, State, and local officials to honor
American families with appropriate ceremonies and
programs; I encourage educators, community
organizations, and religious leaders to celebrate the
moral and spiritual strength to be drawn from family
relationships; and I urge all the people of the United
States to reaffirm their own familial bonds and to
reach out to others in friendship and goodwill.

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