Proclamation 5810 --
Father's Day, 1988
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
Once
again we celebrate Father's Day, by tradition the third Sunday in June, a day
to honor and salute fathers everywhere for their love and devotion.
As
a weary child tumbles into his father's arms, to be lifted up and carried, he
feels his father's strength and is content. In that perch he is like a captain,
confidently scanning the horizons of his world, secure in the knowledge that
his ship will carry him safely through any threatening seas. Children,
vulnerable and dependent, desperately need such security, and it has ever been
a duty and a joy of fatherhood to offer it.
Being
a father requires strength in many ways; above all, it requires character.
Raising a family is no easy task, of course, but one of trial, frustration, and
disappointment. Great strength and more than a little courage are needed to
persevere, to fight discouragement, and to keep working for the family. In that
strength, and with God's grace, fathers find the patience to teach, the
fortitude to provide, the compassion to comfort, and the mercy to forgive. All
of this is to say that they find the strength to love their wives and children
selflessly. And it is above all for this wondrous, mysterious love that fathers
shower upon their families, and that allows them to ceaselessly put their
families' needs first, that we honor fathers with their own special day.
Our
gratitude is not limited to Father's Day, but remains constant; indeed, there
are not enough days in the year to express it properly. Still, it is fitting
that on such a day the American people pause to celebrate all fathers for their
loving care for their youngsters. Our Nation can only continue to prosper if
our families prosper. Nothing can replace the family's role as prime nurturer
and educator of children, and nowhere are our country's shared values more
effectively transmitted to future generations.
So
let us thank all fathers on this day; but, above all, let us each take this
occasion to express our thanks and our affection to our own fathers, whether we
can do so in person or in prayer. We are perhaps no longer little children
riding on our fathers' shoulders, yet we will forever feel their firm and
loving guidance through life's challenges.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in
accordance with a joint resolution of the Congress approved April 24, 1972 (36
U.S.C. 142a), do hereby proclaim Sunday, June 19, 1988, as Father's Day. I
invite the States and communities and people of the
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of May, in the year
of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register,