[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 39 (Monday, October 1, 2001)]
[Page 1370]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7470--Family Day, 2001

September 24, 2001

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Strong families make a strong America. Responsible, caring, and 
involved parenting dramatically affects the direction of a child's life 
and fundamentally influences the well-being of society as a whole. To 
help ensure a bright future for our children and for our Nation, we must 
expand our efforts to strengthen and empower families in their important 
task of effectively preparing children for the challenges of tomorrow.
    To help families, we must fight crime and violence in our schools 
and communities, and we must make a quality education available to all 
young people, regardless of background. We must also work to ensure that 
adults have the skills and resources they need to provide for the 
health, safety, and well-being of their children.
    Our Nation should send a consistent message that hails the vital 
importance of families. We live in an era of busy schedules and 
significant commitments to work, school, and community. However, quality 
time among family members remains as vital as ever to maintaining strong 
and loving bonds between parents and children and to protecting young 
people from harm. In its most recent survey, the National Center on 
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) found that a 
teenager who sits down to dinner with his or her family seven nights a 
week is 20 percent less likely to smoke, drink, or use illegal drugs 
than those that do not. By contrast, teenagers who never eat dinner with 
their families are 61 percent more likely to engage in these activities.
    According to CASA's research, other family-bonding activities can 
similarly promote the avoidance of drug, alcohol, or cigarette use by 
teens. These include helping teenagers with homework, attending 
religious services with them, making religion an important part of their 
lives, and praising and disciplining teens as appropriate. CASA also 
advises that parents should monitor their teen's television viewing, 
music purchases, and Internet use, and should establish curfews and know 
where their children are after school and on weekends. Perhaps most 
importantly, parents should send a clear message, by example and word, 
of their clear disapproval of cigarette, alcohol, and drug use.
    CASA's findings demonstrate how parental influence remains the 
single most important weapon in the war on drugs. Americans must 
continue to recognize the importance of strong families and involved 
parents in setting our Nation on the road to a drug-free society. The 
health, safety, and well-being of our young people merit nothing less.
    Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, 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 September 24, 2001, as 
Family Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this 
day by spending quality time with family members and engaging in other 
wholesome activities that help unite and strengthen the bonds between 
parents and children.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth 
day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
sixth.
                                                George W. Bush

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:17 a.m., September 
26, 2001]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
September 27.