Proclamation 4267—Save Your Vision Week, 1974

Most of us, rarely, pause to think about how or why we see. Many of us give little thought to the care of our eyes. But the importance of good vision cannot be overstated. Even though most people retain effective vision throughout their lives, eyesight can deteriorate at any moment.

Yet within our grasp is the knowledge and means to help us combat even very serious vision problems. This is possible because of the skills of our Nation's optometrists, ophthalmologists, opticians, and allied health professionals as well as the Nation's scientists who conduct research on vision problems assisted by Federal support from the National Eye Institute and by many private organizations.

To focus the Nation's attention on the importance of good vision and upon ways of preserving and improving it, the Congress by a joint resolution approved December 30, 1963 (77 Stat. 629), requested the President to proclaim the first full week in March of each year as Save Your Vision Week.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of March 3, 1974, as Save Your Vision Week. I urge optometrists, physicians, and government and private agencies concerned to inform every American of the need to protect the precious gift of vision.

I invite the Governors of the States and appropriate local government officials to support Save Your Vision Week activities and I call upon the Nation's mass communications media to join in encouraging all Americans to heed the message of Save Your Vision Week—to preserve good vision and to enhance the joy of seeing.

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

RICHARD NIXON