107 STAT. 2616 PROCLAMATION 6525—JAN. 20, 1993 While government plays a critical role in the fight against discrimination through the enforcement of civil rights laws and its own hiring practices, our efforts to promote racial harmony and justice in the United States must begin at home. Martin Luther King described the family as the "main educational agency of mankind," and it is within the family that we must first teach lessons about love and fairness, decency and kindness, and the difference between right and wrong. We honor the legacy of Martin Luther King when we show our children, by word and example, what it means to lead "a committed life"—a life dedicated to excellence and to the service of one's fellowman. We equip our children for such a life when we encourage them to recognize their own self-worth, as well as the inherent rights and worth of others. "Every man is somebody," declared Dr. King, "because he is a child of God." A minister by vocation, Martin Luther King sought righteous hearts as well as just laws. He warned that humankind suffered from "a poverty of the spirit which stands in stark contrast to our scientific and technological abundance." In this last decade of the 20th century, as we marvel at the historic achievements of the past 100 years and anticipate the many to come, let us enrich our children with a wealth of encouragement, hope, and moral guidance—and with living examples of racial comity and friendship. By Public Law 98-144, the third Monday in January of each year has been designated as a legal public holiday. NOW. THEREFORE, I, GEORGE 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 Monday, January 18, 1993, as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety- three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventeenth. '^ GEORGE BUSH Proclamation 6525 of January 20, 1993 National Day of Fellowship and Hope, 1993 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation As I assimie the office of President, I stand humbly before God and ask for His guidance and blessings for our great Nation. At the same time, I ask the citizens of America to join me in renewing our commitment to the American ideals of fellowship and hope. The obligation of a President is more than the fulfillment of a set of constitutional duties. The President must carry the mantle of hope and optimism in the battle against fear and despair. I ask that every American help as we attempt, in the words of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Jr.. "to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope" and
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