[Title 3 CFR 7054]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - January 1, 1998 Edition]
[Title 3 - Presidential Documents]
[Proclamation 7054 - Proclamation 7054 of November 21, 1997]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


3Presidential Documents11998-01-011998-01-01false7054Proclamation 7054Presidential Documents
Proclamation 7054 of November 21, 1997

National Family Week, 1997

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

As we approach the end of the 21st century, our world is becoming 
increasingly complex, our society more mobile, and our pace of life more 
rapid. It is at times like this, full of dynamic challenge and change, 
that we need to remember the fundamental values and institutions

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that 
strengthen and uplift us. Among the most precious of these are our 
families.
Families come in many forms and sizes. They can number several 
generations or only one; they can include birth parents and stepparents, 
foster children and adopted children. Families are created by ties of 
blood or law, but they are sustained by ties of love and caring.
Few people in our lives will have so profound an effect on us as our 
family members. From the day we are born, the people who live with us, 
nurture us, and guide us play a crucial role in shaping the kind of men 
and women we become. They challenge us to look beyond ourselves and to 
respect and care for others. At their best, they help us to be our best. 
Families are the most basic--and the most important--unit of our 
society.
Recognizing this, we realize that many of our dreams for America begin 
with strong families. We want to be a caring people, and the lessons of 
tolerance, sharing, and compassion are best taught in the home. We want 
to be a peaceful people, and we look to families to teach our young 
people how to respect one another's differences and resolve disputes 
without resorting to violence. We want to be wise people, so we need 
families that value education and acknowledge the importance of lifelong 
learning.
Nothing is more important to our future than preserving and promoting 
strong, loving families. This week, as we gather with our own families 
to celebrate Thanksgiving, let us resolve to do all we can as 
individuals, and as a Nation to help families who are in need, to 
provide support and encouragement for troubled families, and to promote 
policies at the local, State, and Federal level that will help America's 
families to flourish.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of 
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 23 through 
November 29, 1997, as National Family Week. I call upon Federal, State, 
and local officials to honor American families with appropriate programs 
and activities; I encourage educators, community organizations, and 
religious leaders to celebrate the strength and values we draw from 
family relationships; and I urge all the people of the United States to 
reaffirm their family ties and to reach out to others in friendship and 
goodwill.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of 
November, 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-second.
                                                    WILLIAM J. CLINTON