Proclamation 4172—National Family Week

As prospects brighten for a lasting peace in the world, we can hope to approach more closely the age-old ideal of a single, harmonious family of man.

As we work toward that great goal, however, we must never forget that our starting point—the center of our affections and the wellspring of our self-renewal—must be the basic family circle. Parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister, all truly mean "home" to every human being.

No institution can ever take the family's place in giving meaning to human life and a stable structure to society; indeed, as a wise philosopher observed thousands of years ago, "the root of the state is in the family." The pressures of our modern age make this a time of challenge for families in America, but every community has its inspiring examples of families which have risen to the demand and made the time of challenge a time of glory.

Our long-cherished American observances of Mother's Day and Father's Day are fittingly complemented by this new idea of a National Family Week, which this year will coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday—a time when families traditionally reunite, and when the family unit itself should stand high on that list of blessings for which we offer our thanks to God.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, in consonance with House Joint Resolution 135, do hereby proclaim the week beginning Sunday, November 19, 1972, as National Family Week.

I invite the Governors of the several States, the chief officials of local governments, and all the people of the United States to mark this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

RICHARD NIXON