National Park Week, 1998

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Part IV

The President

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Proclamation 7086--National Park Week, 1998

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7086 of April 22, 1998

National Park Week, 1998

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Within our national parks, we find all the rich
diversity and extraordinary beauty of America's natural
heritage. From the majestic Grand Tetons to the
mysterious Everglades, our parks preserve for us the
treasures of our magnificent country: the astonishing
variety of plant and animal life, the tranquility of
forests and meadows, and the breathtaking grandeur of
our great rivers, deserts, and mountains. Our national
park sites also provide us with vital links to our
heritage as a people and a Nation. They tell us the
stories of the individuals, places, and events that
have shaped the American character.

The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis
Island are tangible reminders of the more than 12
million immigrants who came to the United States
through this small gateway to a new world and a new
life. For many Americans, this national park site tells
a very personal story of family struggles and triumphs
and of the courage it takes to seek freedom.

Many African Americans took a different but equally
brave route to freedom. Their story has been preserved
for us by the National Park Service in the many
historic sites marking the route of the Underground
Railroad. In homes, churches, and farms in communities
throughout Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, and
elsewhere, we can experience the determination and
indomitable spirit of African American men and women
fleeing the bonds of slavery, and we can learn more
about the many heroes like Harriet Tubman who helped
them on their dangerous trek north to freedom.

This summer, our Nation will celebrate the 150th
anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention in
Seneca Falls, New York. That event will be commemorated
at Women's Rights National Historical Park, where we
are reminded that the idea that men and women are
created equal was once considered radical. On this
site, visionaries such as Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, and Frederick Douglass helped our Nation take
an important first step toward legal, political, and
educational rights for American women.

At these and so many other historic places across our
Nation, the National Park Service preserves and
protects the American legacy, reminding us not only of
who we are as a people, but also of how far we have
traveled together on our great American journey. Our
national parks are classrooms and laboratories, windows
on our past and doorways to our future. As we celebrate
National Park Week, I commend all the talented and
dedicated men and women of the National Park Service
for telling the story of the people and places that
have shaped our destiny and for preserving for our
children the riches of our natural and cultural
heritage.

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 April 20 through April 26,
1998, as National Park Week.

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