Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 96 Part 2.djvu/1405

 PROCLAMATION 4973—SEPT. 21, 1982

96 STAT. 2767

Words alone are insufficient to express our lasting gratitude and admiration to those whose patriotism and courage have ensured our peace and freedom despite threats of tyranny and aggression. Significant disruptions in their lives and other personal hardships have been the price that our Nation's veterans have paid so that the rest of us might enjoy the fruits of justice and liberty. In order that we pay meaningful tribute to their efforts, Congress has provided (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 shall be set aside each year as a national holiday to honor America's veterans. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby call on all Americans to join in observing Thursday, November 11, 1982, as Veterans Day. I urge both public ceremonies, as well as private thoughts and prayers, in recognition of the great contribution of our veterans to an America that today is an example to all nations of freedom, liberty, and democracy. On this day, let us give special consideration to those who have died in our Nation's wars and to those who have been disabled. I call upon Federal, State and local Government officials to mark Veterans Day by displaying the flag of the United States, and I ask those Government officials to support fully and personally its observance by appropriate ceremonies throughout the country. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of Sept., in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventh. _, RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 4973 of September 21, 1982

Honoring the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group

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By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation The spontaneous formation on November 9, 1976, in Kiev, Ukraine, of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords affirmed once more that the human spirit cannot be crushed and that the desire for human freedom cannot be conquered. The long prison terms meted out to members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group for their courageous activities to secure greater freedom in Ukraine are graphic testimony to the inability of Communism to compete with the principles of freedom in the marketplace of ideas. The flagrant persecution and imprisonment of Ukrainian citizens for their attempts to exercise basic human rights is an international embarrassment to the Soviet Union and proof that the Soviet Union has failed to live up to its pledges to honor the understandings embodied in the Helsinki Accords. In commemorating this sixth anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group, we renew our determination never to forget the valiant struggle of the peoples of Ukraine for their inahenable rights, and we pledge to do all we can to ameliorate the plight of those Ukrainians who have been persecuted by the Soviet authorities for attempting to assert their rights.

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