Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 103 Part 3.djvu/595

 PROCLAMATION 5914—NOV. 23, 1988 103 STAT. 2663 The Congress, by Public Law 100-600, has designated the period of No- vember 27 through December 3, 1988, as "National Home Care Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the period of November 27 through December 3, 1988, as National Home Care Week, and I call upon government officials, interested organizations and associations, and all Americans to observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty- eigjit, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirteenUi. RONALD REAGAN Proclamation 5914 of November 23, 1968 National Book Week, 1988 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation "Books," Thoreau once wrote, "are the treasured wealth of the world, the inheritance of generations and nations." In the love of books and the accumulated learning they represent lie the heritage and the hope of mankind. For us in America, that love by tradition and experience has been a decisive force in our existence and development as a free people. We proclaimed it so for all entemity in the First Amendment to our Constitution, and we proved it so at the dawn of the American Revolution when we chose as our foremost weapon the printing press. During National Book Week, we pause to recall all that books have had to do not only with the founding and building of this land, but also with the transmission of those ideas and practical achievements that form the basis of our culture. Published maps, journals, and accovmts of explorers, adventurers, and missionaries inspired the early pioneers to follow them across new horizons of discovery in the Americas. Like- wise, the writings of poUtical philosophers and scholars from ancient times onward imparted wisdom and knowledge to the lovers of liberty who declared our country's independence. Another book, the Bible, gave them enduring inspiration and deep confidence in the transcend- ent value of their stniggle. Anyone who doubts the power or permanence of books need only look today at countries aroimd the world where the mere composition, print- ing, binding, and distribution of a book is a prosecutable act of defi- ance against the state. Even the rulers of these regimes must secretly acknowledge the futility of their aims. For the printed word is an im- placable enemy of tyranny, whether that tyranny comes in the form of official censorship by government or fashionable neglect by academia. In every society, the goals of education must include such a wide expe-

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