Bill of Rights Day, 2014

Vol. 79

Wednesday,

No. 242

December 17, 2014

Part III

The President

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Proclamation 9220--Bill of Rights Day, 2014

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 9220 of December 12, 2014

Bill of Rights Day, 2014

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

For more than two centuries, our Nation has been shaped
by courageous women and men who have dared to raise
their voices and work to safeguard the blessings of
liberty and justice. In the face of tyranny, early
patriots stood up against an empire and proclaimed the
independence of a new Nation, declaring that we are all
created equal, endowed by our Creator with unalienable
rights. To secure these rights, they fought a war and
enshrined these truths into our Constitution. The
product of a fierce debate and great compromise, our
founding charter was a remarkable yet imperfect
document. It provided the foundation for a society
built on freedom and democracy, but essential
questions--including those of race and gender--were
left unresolved. Yet before it was fully ratified, our
Founding Fathers began working to refine its text, an
early milestone in our unending journey to form a more
perfect Union.

Ratified on December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights
secured our most fundamental freedoms. These first 10
Constitutional Amendments protect our rights to
protest, practice our faiths, and hold our Government
accountable. They guarantee justice under the law,
allow for the dissemination of new ideas, and create
the opportunity for those left out of our charter to
fight to expand its promise. In times of war and peace,
and through waves of depression and prosperity, these
tenets have not only endured, but they have
strengthened our Nation and served as an example to all
who seek freedom, fairness, equality, and dignity
around the world.

On the anniversary of the Bill of Rights, we reflect on
the blessings of freedom we enjoy today, and we are
reminded that our work to foster a more free, more
fair, and more just society is never truly done. Guided
by these sacred principles, we continue striving to
make our country a place where our daughters' voices
are valued just as much as our sons'; where due process
of law is afforded to all people, regardless of skin
color; and where the individual liberties that we
cherish empower every American to pursue their dreams
and achieve their own full measure of happiness.

Our fidelity to these timeless ideals binds us together
as a Nation. As we celebrate Bill of Rights Day, let us
recommit to the values that define us as a people and
continue our work to broaden democracy's reach by
strengthening the freedoms with which we have been
endowed.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim December 15, 2014, as
Bill of Rights Day. I call upon the people of the
United States to mark this observance with appropriate
ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord two
thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
ninth.