Proclamation 5548

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

In October, we celebrate Polish American Heritage Month in the United States. Our Nation owes an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the millions of freedom-loving Poles who have come to our shores to build a new land. Polish Americans can be justly proud of the vital contributions people of Polish descent have made to our Nation in the arts, the sciences, religion, scholarship, and every area of endeavor. The military genius of Kosciuszko and Pulaski was essential in the defense of our freedoms in the Revolutionary War. Since then, millions of Poland's sons and daughters have helped build our country's prosperity and defend our liberty.

Mankind's desire for liberty is universal. We are, as a country, linked with the Polish people in love for individual liberty, faith, and defense of the family. We share unstinting devotion to political and religious freedom, as expressed so courageously by Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa.

We have supported the aspirations of Poles in recent years for a greater voice in determining their nation's destiny. We welcome the recent general amnesty for political prisoners in Poland as a positive step. We reaffirm our solidarity with these brave Polish citizens who, at great risk to themselves, have sought to expand liberty and to promote justice in their homeland.

As Polish Americans celebrate their cultural and spiritual values across the country during Polish American Heritage Month, all Americans can express gratitude for Poland's heroic example of faith and sacrifice through the centuries and for Polish Americans' manifest contributions to our Nation.

The Congress, by House Joint Resolution 547, has designated the month of October as "Polish American Heritage Month" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 1986 as Polish American Heritage Month. I urge all Americans to join their fellow citizens of Polish descent in observance of this month.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:42 a.m., October 14, 1986]