[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 192 (Wednesday, October 5, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50679-50680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-24816]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: October 5, 1994]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 192
Wednesday, October 5, 1994
____________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
Proclamation 6728 of September 30, 1994
Child Health Day, 1994
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
It has been said that ``(i)n every child who is born .
. . the potentiality of the whole human race is born
again.'' Since James Agee wrote those words in 1941,
generations of children have been born into our world,
each individual holding as much promise and potential
as the children of ages past. In recent decades,
children have grown up to see the human race produce a
vaccine for polio and pull back from the precipice of
nuclear war. Indeed, in many ways, the world is a much
safer place for all of us. It would seem that today's
children would have a better chance than ever to
fulfill the tremendous potential of humanity.
Yet as we celebrate Child Health Day this year, our
young people face challenges to their well-being that
their grandparents and great-grandparents could
scarcely have imagined. In virtually every school and
community, drugs and guns threaten our youths' safety,
and gangs have become the closest thing to family that
many young people will ever know. Girls too young to be
mothers are struggling to meet the demands of
parenthood, and many boys too young to be fathers are
turning from the profound responsibilities they should
shoulder. Among the primary health risks confronting
our young people, homicide and suicide have become the
leading causes of death.
If our Nation is to succeed in the years to come, we
must take new responsibility for the lives of our
children, from promoting proper nutrition and basic
health and safety to raising awareness of the terrible
dangers of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and AIDS.
Already, we have made important progress in those
efforts. We have enacted legislation that expands and
improves the Head Start program, providing health,
education, and social services for children of low-
income families. My Childhood Immunization Initiative
will help to vaccinate at least 90 percent of our
Nation's infants--the most sweeping effort of its kind
in American history. Our new crime bill supports
programs that encourage youth to develop a sense of
self-worth apart from gangs, and it goes a long way
toward keeping guns out of the hands of juveniles.
Already, we are saving children's lives.
But for all that we have accomplished in the past year,
much remains to be done. We must forge active
partnerships among health, child development,
education, and social services organizations. We must
involve parents and siblings, schools and communities
in protecting our youth. Every child needs and deserves
our concern and respect, and these begin with personal
involvement. Children need love, tempered by
discipline. They need the freedom to dream, tempered by
the knowledge of hard work. They need someone who will
lift them up when they fall, who will care for their
bruises and scrapes, who will kiss their tears away
when they falter and applaud them when they succeed.
Only we can do these things. And it is only in reaching
out to children that we may discover the true potential
within ourselves.
The Congress, by joint resolution approved May 18,
1928, as amended (36 U.S.C. 143), has called for the
designation of the first Monday in October as ``Child
Health Day'' and has requested the President to issue a
proclamation in observance of this day.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim Monday,
October 3, 1994, as Child Health Day. I call upon all
Americans to rededicate themselves to ensuring that
every generation of children enjoys bright and healthy
futures.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and nineteenth.
(Presidential Sig.)>
[FR Doc. 94-24816
Filed 10-3-94; 1:42 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P
