Proclamation 6968

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Today as we celebrate the last Presidential Inauguration of the 20th century and raise our sights with hope and humility toward the challenges of a new age, let us together ask God's guidance and blessing.

This day marks not a personal or political victory but the triumph of a free people who have freely chosen the course our country will take as we prepare for the 21st century.

During the past 4 years, we have grown together as a people and as a Nation. Touched by tragedy, strengthened by achievement, exhilarated by the challenges and opportunities ahead, we have come a long way on our journey to change America's course for the better. We have always been a people of hope-hope that we can make tomorrow brighter than today, hope that we can fulfill our Nation's enduring promise of freedom and opportunity. And we have always known that, by the grace of God and our mutual labor, we can make our hopes reality.

Today, we live in an age of possibility-a moment of rich opportunity that brings with it a deep responsibility for the future and the generations to come. We must seize this special moment with a commitment to do right by those who will follow us in this blessed land.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life and vision we honor today, recognized that the destiny of each American is bound to the destiny of all Americans; that if we are to go forward, we must go forward together. So, let us pledge today to continue our national journey together. Let us reaffirm our commitment to our shared values of family and faith, work and opportunity. And let us resolve to work together, one Nation under God, to build a bridge of hope and renewal to a new American century.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 1997, a National Day of Hope and Renewal, and I call upon the citizens of this great Nation to observe this day by reflecting on their obligations to one another and to our beloved country and by facing the future with a spirit of hope and renewal.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-first.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 22, 1997]