Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 3.djvu/1254

 98 STAT. 3626

PROCLAMATION 5228—AUG. 17, 1984

By that measure, women became equal partners with men in the responsibilities of citizenship. The contributions of American women to free government in the United States date back to the Colonial Era. The importance of those contributions has been recognized by writers such as the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, who attributed the success of the American experiment in selfgovernment largely to the extraordinary qualities of our Nation's women. In democracies, government is founded on popular consent, expressed through the process of free elections. Indeed, the absence of free and fair elections is a crucial element by which we define regimes that are not democratic. By exercising the right to vote, American women and citizens of other free countries continue to affirm their faith in self-government. u s e prec. title 1.

The 19th Amendment gives women the same political means as men have to participate in the process of self-government. On this 64th anniversary of its ratification, we honor the pioneer suffragettes, and we applaud today's women who are pioneering in fields new to women and men alike. Most importantly, we reaffirm our national commitment to the goal of equal opportunity for each individual to pursue and to achieve her or his goals. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim August 26, 1984, as Women's Equality Day. I call upon all Americans and friends of popular government around the world to mark this occasion with appropriate observances. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and ninth. RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 5228 of August 17, 1984

Fortieth Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Forty years ago, one of the most heroic battles of World War II, the Warsaw Uprising, occurred. Polish resistance to aggression throughout World War II had been courageous and uncompromising. As the Nazi forces retreated before advancing Soviet armies, the Polish Home Army that led the resistance seized its chance to throw off the Nazi yoke. For sixty-three days, the people of Warsaw fought against insurmountable odds, endured unimaginable suffering, and made countless sacrifices to regain their independence. Nevertheless, the lightly-armed resistance fighters were overwhelmed by the full weight of Hitler's war machine. The Nazis mercilessly crushed the uprising while Soviet forces passively looked on from across the Vistula River. Warsaw lay in rubble. Two hundred-fifty thousand Poles were killed, wounded, or missing. Yet the victims of the Warsaw Uprising did not die in vain. The example of those who fought for freedom during the Warsaw Uprising is a stirring chapter in history, as vivid today as it was then. The ongoing struggle of the faithful, the shipyard workers of Gdansk, the miners of Silesia, and farmers throughout the countryside is but a continuation of the proud history of the Polish quest for freedom.

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