Family Day, 2001

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Part IV

The President

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Proclamation 7470--Family Day, 2001

Memorandum of September 25, 2001--Delegation of Authority To Compensate
Air Carriers for Losses Resulting From the Terrorist Attacks of
September 11, 2001

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7470 of September 24, 2001

Family Day, 2001

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Strong families make a strong America. Responsible,
caring, and involved parenting dramatically affects the
direction of a child's life and fundamentally
influences the well-being of society as a whole. To
help ensure a bright future for our children and for
our Nation, we must expand our efforts to strengthen
and empower families in their important task of
effectively preparing children for the challenges of
tomorrow.

To help families, we must fight crime and violence in
our schools and communities, and we must make a quality
education available to all young people, regardless of
background. We must also work to ensure that adults
have the skills and resources they need to provide for
the health, safety, and well-being of their children.

Our Nation should send a consistent message that hails
the vital importance of families. We live in an era of
busy schedules and significant commitments to work,
school, and community. However, quality time among
family members remains as vital as ever to maintaining
strong and loving bonds between parents and children
and to protecting young people from harm. In its most
recent survey, the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) found
that a teenager who sits down to dinner with his or her
family seven nights a week is 20 percent less likely to
smoke, drink, or use illegal drugs than those that do
not. By contrast, teenagers who never eat dinner with
their families are 61 percent more likely to engage in
these activities.

According to CASA's research, other family-bonding
activities can similarly promote the avoidance of drug,
alcohol, or cigarette use by teens. These include
helping teenagers with homework, attending religious
services with them, making religion an important part
of their lives, and praising and disciplining teens as
appropriate. CASA also advises that parents should
monitor their teen's television viewing, music
purchases, and Internet use, and should establish
curfews and know where their children are after school
and on weekends. Perhaps most importantly, parents
should send a clear message, by example and word, of
their clear disapproval of cigarette, alcohol, and drug
use.

CASA's findings demonstrate how parental influence
remains the single most important weapon in the war on
drugs. Americans must continue to recognize the
importance of strong families and involved parents in
setting our Nation on the road to a drug-free society.
The health, safety, and well-being of our young people
merit nothing less.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, 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 September 24, 2001, as
Family Day. I call upon the people of the United States
to observe this day by spending quality time with
family members and engaging in other wholesome
activities that help unite and strengthen the bonds
between parents and children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord
two thousand one, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.

(Presidential Sig.)B