Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 103 Part 3.djvu/1099

 PROCLAMATION 6075—NOV. 21, 1989 103 STAT. 3167 Proclamation 6075 of November 21, 1989 National Family Week, 1989 and 1990 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation As individuals, we find in our families a sense of identity, purpose, and security. As a Nation, we find in our families the vision and strength we need to remain a truly free and just society. A family is more than a group of individuals related by blood, mar- riage, or adoption—a family is a community of persons united by their love and their commitment to one another. It is through family life that our Nation's most cherished values and traditions are passed from one generation to the next. Through our experience as members of a family, we leam important lessons about love and faith, duty and fidelity, per- sonal responsibility and concern for others. Because those lessons are conveyed to the community at large, and because the family gives us a model of hirnian relationships after which all other social institutions are fashioned, the strength and integrity of the family are vital to our well-being as a Nation. Over the years, the family has withstood every assault upon it. It has endiu-ed in societies where rulers have sought to subject individuals to the collectivism of the state, and it has stirvived more subtle attempts to distort or belittle its value as an institution. As one expert on public policy and the family has so eloquently expressed it, "It is as if the family, as the fundamental reality of human society, is the small but stubborn rock that breaks the ideologues' plow of abstractions about human natiire." While the family is the most resilient and endiuing of all human institu- tions, it needs protection and encoiu-agement. Today, our Nation is con- fi'onted by problems that are, in large part, consequences of the break- down of the traditional family. Drug abuse, child abuse, domestic vio- lence, illegitimacy, teen pregnancy, and poverty cost the United States billions of dollars each year in social programs alone. But the waste in dollars pales before the most tragic loss—the waste of human spirit and potential. As a Nation, we must remain committed to policies and programs that recognize and reinforce the family as the primary source of love and support that every individual needs. We must ensiu-e that our families enjoy the benefits of economic opportunity and political representation, and we must recognize that parents have primary authority in the edu- cation of their children. American families need and deserve a cultural and legal framework that encourages and supports stable marriages and family life. In the inimitable shelter of home and family, we leam how to give and receive love. There we discover the inestimable worth and imalienable rights God has granted each of us; and there we discover the responsi- bilities we have toward others. Thus, the integrity of the family is es- sential to otu- ability to remain a strong and stable Nation. During Na- tional Family Week, we renew our determination to strengthen and

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