Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 189 / Tuesday, September 30, 1997 / Presidential Documents 51365

Proclamation 7028 of September 25, 1997

Gold Star Mother’s Day, 1997

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

As a free people, Americans have always sought to live our lives in peace;

but history’s harsh lessons have taught us that to remain free, we must

be prepared for war. At many times and in many ways throughout the

year, we remember the millions of selfless Americans whose wartime service

helped preserve our freedom and the values we hold dear; and it is fitting

that we should do so. But we must also remember that not all of the

sacrifices that sustained us were made on the battlefield.

Long after the devastation of war ceases, the destruction left in its wake

continues to afflict those who survive. For America’s Gold Star Mothers—

who have lost a child in the service of our country—the grief is particularly

acute. The sons and daughters they cherished through the years, whom

they guided and comforted through all the joys and heartaches of childhood

and adolescence, were torn from their lives forever with cruel and sudden

force. These mothers must live the rest of their lives knowing that the

talents and ambitions of their children will never be fulfilled, that each

family gathering or celebration will be shadowed by the absence of a dearly

loved son or daughter.

Yet despite the enormity of their loss, America’s Gold Star Mothers have

continued to do what comes naturally to mothers: to comfort, to nurture,

to give of themselves for the benefit of others. Through their devotion

to our disabled veterans and their families, their generous community service,

and their dedication to preserving the memory of the fallen, Gold Star

Mothers remind us in so many poignant ways that true love of country

often calls for both service and sacrifice.

For these reasons and more, and in recognition of the special burden that

Gold Star Mothers bear on behalf of all of us, we set aside this day each

year to honor and thank them and to rededicate ourselves to creating a

world in which the kind of sacrifice they have been called upon to make

need never be repeated. The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 115 of

June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1895), has designated the last Sunday in September

as ‘‘Gold Star Mother’s Day’’ and has authorized and requested the President

to issue a proclamation in observance of this day.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States

of America, do hereby proclaim Sunday, September 28, 1997, as Gold Star

Mother’s Day. I call upon all government officials to display the United

States flag on government buildings on this solemn day. I encourage the

American people also to display the flag and to hold appropriate meetings

in their homes, places of worship, or other suitable places as a public

expression of the sympathy and respect that our Nation holds for our Gold

Star Mothers.
51366 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 189 / Tuesday, September 30, 1997 / Presidential Documents

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth

day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninetyseven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two

[FR Doc. 97–26121

Filed 9–29–97; 10:59 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

hundred and twenty-second.

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