A PROCLAMATION
Parents play a crucial role in shaping our lives and the life of our
Nation. They nurture us as infants when we are unable to help ourselves,
protect us as toddlers when we wander into trouble, encourage us as
adolescents when we dream about the future, and guide us as adults as we
face the challenges and opportunities of our own families and careers.
It is through their care that we learn the invaluable lessons of love,
family, and community; and it is through their selflessness that we come
to understand the joy of making a difference in the life of another.
Throughout our Administration, Vice President Gore and I have strived
to provide parents with the tools they need to meet their
responsibilities. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which I signed in
1993, has allowed more than 20 million Americans to take up to 12 weeks
of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or an ailing relative without fear
of losing their jobs. We have also worked to make child care safer,
better, and more affordable for millions of families, and we have
expanded preschool and after-school programs to give parents more
flexibility in balancing the demands of job and family. And we have
worked hard for parents to make the dream of a college education for
their sons and daughters a reality -- with new HOPE scholarships, more
work-study opportunities, higher Pell grants, and more affordable
student loans.
Parenting is a lifetime commitment and a lifetime challenge -- it
involves balancing the demands of family, friends, career, and
community. Yet parenting is also one of life?s greatest gifts. To hold
one's sleeping baby, watch one's children take their first tottering
steps and hear them say their first words, boast with pride about their
first home run or first music recital, and witness firsthand their
journey into adulthood -- these are some of the most precious rewards of
parenthood.
Only when we pass from childhood to adulthood can we appreciate the
value of our parents and the extent of their sacrifices. For these, we
owe our parents -- whether biological or adoptive, stepparents or foster
parents -- a profound debt of gratitude. On Parents Day and throughout
the year, let us pay tribute to America's parents, whose unconditional
love and constant devotion have helped create a bright future for the
next generation.
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 and consistent with Public Law 103-362, do
hereby proclaim Sunday, July 23, 2000, as Parents' Day. I call upon all
Americans to join together in observing this day with appropriate
ceremonies and activities to honor our Nation's parents.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day
of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence
of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
