    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [January 20, 1997]
    [Pages 47-48]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Proclamation 6968--National Day of Hope and Renewal, 1997
    January 20, 1997

    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]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January
    23. It is included here as an example of the proclamations which are
    listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume and compiled annually in
    title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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