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PROCLAMATION 4048-APR. 20, 1971

[85 STAT.

important national priority which warrants their attention and productive efforts. I request that appropriate Federal, State, and local officials cooperate in observing that week. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-fifth.

C/ZLA^^^'K:^ PROCLAMATION 4048

Senior Citizens Month, 1971 April 20, 1971

Bj the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation From its beginnings, the American Nation has been dedicated to the constant pursuit of better tomorrows. Yet, for many of our 20 million older Americans the "tomorrows" that arrive with their later years have not been better. Rather than days of reward, happiness, and opportunity, they have too often been days of disappointment, loneliness, and anxiety. It is imperative that this situation be changed. Some of the problems of older Americans have their roots in economic causes. For example, the incidence of poverty is more than twice as great among older Americans as among those under 65. This is especially tragic because many of these people did not become poor until they reached their later years. Moreover, the economic gap between the age groups has been accompanied in recent years by a growing sense of social and psychological separation, so that too often our older citizens are regarded as an unwanted generation. The generation of Americans over 65 have lived through a particularly challenging time in world history. The fact that our country has come through the first two-thirds of the twentieth century as a strong and growing Nation is the direct result of their devotion and their resourcefulness. We owe them a great deal—not only for what they have done in the past but also for what they are continuing to do today. Perhaps the greatest error which younger Americans make in dealing with the elderly is to underestimate the energy and skill which they can still contribute to their country. During the last year, several hundred thousand older people wrote to officials of the Federal Government and told us in their own words—

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