Proclamation 6590—Gold Star Mother's Day

To become a parent is one of life's greatest joys. We devote ourselves to our children, investing our hopes and dreams in them and protecting them so that they may have a better life than we have had. There is probably no greater pain, therefore, than the loss of a child. None of us expects to outlive our children, and when mortal hands rob us of our posterity, the loss is devastating.

Every Gold Star Mother has experienced this pain. As much as the soldiers themselves, these brave women know the meaning of sacrifice for country. Long after a slain soldier is laid to rest, that young man or woman's mother will remember her loss every day for the rest of her life. When a mother bids farewell to a child in uniform, she begins to serve her count in her own private way, worrying that her child will be in harm's way and that this young man or woman, in whom she has invested so much love and care, may pay the ultimate price on the battlefield. And when the unthinkable does happen, the Gold Star Mother must carry the wounds within her heart forever.

We have a sacred duty to remember the devotion of Gold Star Mothers. Like the brave soldiers who have lain down their lives in defense of our freedoms, their mothers have earned our deepest honor and sympathy, having sacrificed so much for America, yet continuing to give of themselves to ensure that the ideals of freedom and democracy live on for future generations. Their losses and their contributions can be no greater, and our obligation to them cannot be measured.

To pay fitting tribute to these women, the Congress, by Senate joint Resolution 115 on June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1895), designated the last Sunday in September as "Gold Star Mother's Day" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance his day.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 26, 1993, as Gold Star Mother's Day. I call on all government officials to display the United States flag on government buildings on this solemn day. I additionally urge the American people to display the flag and to hold appropriate meetings in their homes, places of worship, or other suitable places, as public expression of the sympathy and the respect that our Nation holds for its Gold Star Mothers.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of September, 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 eighteenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON