[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