For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 21, 2001
Parents' Day 2001
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Being a parent is the most important job in the world. As we hold a newborn in our arms or embrace an older adopted child, the promise we make in our hearts to love, protect, and nurture our children stays with us and with them forever. We are eternally linked to the children whom we are blessed to parent and to the generations before us who helped shape our
lives.
Both mothers and fathers play a vital role
in giving children the best possible start in life. As
parents, we provide our children with the love and support they need to
grow up to be caring individuals and responsible
citizens. The care we express and the values we instill help
our children achieve their greatest potential and ultimately will
determine the future of our Nation.
Unfortunately, children who lack a strong
parental presence in their lives can suffer over both the short and the
long term. Study after study has demonstrated that children
who grow up without both parents in their home are more likely to end
up in poverty, drop out of school, become addicted to drugs, have a
child out of wedlock, or go to prison. Single-parented children who
avoid these unfortunate outcomes will nevertheless miss out on the
balance, unity, and stability that a two-parent family can bring.
Recognizing that strong families make a
strong America, I have committed my Administration to help parents do
better by encouraging the formation and maintenance of loving
families. We have proposed several major initiatives
designed to promote responsible fatherhood, strengthen families, and
make adoption easier and more afford-able, so that every child has a
better chance of living in a stable and loving home. We also
have achieved widespread support for the historic reform of our public
education system that will significantly improve our
schools. This improvement is founded on the core principles
of my education reform agenda, which
include: accountability; flexibility; local control; and
more choices for parents.
Government bears an important
responsibility to provide excellent schools and educational programs
that leave no child behind; but Government cannot replace the love and
nurturing of committed parents that are essential for a child's
well--being. Many community organizations, centers of faith,
and schools offer services and programs to help parents improve their
child-rearing skills. As we observe Parents' Day, I
encourage all Americans to join me in honoring the millions of mothers
and fathers, biological and adoptive, foster parents, and stepparents, whose
selfless love and hard-working efforts are building better lives for
their children and our Nation.
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 and
consistent with Public Law 103-362, do hereby proclaim Sunday, July 22,
2001, as Parents' Day. I urge all Americans to express their
love, respect, support, and appreciation to their parents, and I call
upon citizens to observe this day with appropriate programs,
ceremonies, and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my
hand this twenty-first day of July, 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
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