Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 2.djvu/1019

 PROCLAMATION 5420—DEC. 10, 1985

99 STAT. 2129

In order to encourage citizen involvement in prevention efforts and to increase awareness of the seriousness of the threat, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 137, has designated the week of December 15 through December 21, 1985, as "National Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness Week."

Ante, p. 284.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of December 15 through December 21, 1985, as National Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness Week. I call upon each American to help make the difference between the needless tragedy of alcohol- and drug-related accidents and the blessings of health and life. I ask all Americans to take this message to heart and to urge others not to drive if they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth. RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 5420 of December 10, 1985

Bill of Rights Day Human Rights Day and Week, 1985 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation On December 15, 1791, the adoption of the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States—the Bill of Rights—gave legal form to the noble principles which our Founding Fathers had set forth in the Declaration of Independence as the very basis for the birth of our Nation. Benjamin Franklin, then 81 years old, in a moving address, reminded the members of the Constitutional Convention that it was God who had seen them safely through the War of Independence and that it was only through His "kind Providence" that they were able to meet in peace to shape "the means of establishing... future national felicity.... And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice," Franklin asked, "is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" Mindful of this, and deeply convinced that fundamental human rights are not a concession from the state but a gift of God, the Founding Fathers knew that government has a solemn obligation to safeguard those rights. That is why they were at pains to devise and ordain a constitutional system that would ensure respect for the dignity and uniqueness of every human being. Thus, they brought into existence a form of limited government—representative democracy—whose powers are circumscribed by law and whose legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed. For the first time in the history of nations, a written Constitution based on the inalienable God-given rights of the individual was promulgated. It is with sincere thanksgiving that we reflect on the successful efforts of those wise patriots of two hundred years ago who laid the political foundations of our beloved Nation, and also to those millions of citizens ever since who have cherished and defended the Constitution and the principles it embodies. Many have given their lives on the field of battle so that freedom

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