Proclamation 3895—Save Your Vision Week, 1969

Eyes are too precious to neglect, and every individual or family should take every precaution to protect the gift of sight.

If detected and treated early, most disorders that might reduce vision or cause blindness can be stopped before the eyes are seriously damaged.

Periodic examinations will reveal such disorders, and I urge every adult who has not had an eye examination in the past two years to arrange for such an examination promptly. A re-examination should be had at the first indication of visual defect or impairment.

Other preventive measures can be taken to protect sight. Proper illumination in the home and at work is essential. And, with a little forethought and caution, accidents to the eyes can be avoided—for example, by wearing protective glasses or safety goggles when engaged in hazardous sport or work, and by shielding the eyes from strong sunlight or harmful radiation in any form.

Where there are children, special precautions must be taken: making eye examinations a routine part of health care; immunizing against diseases, such as measles, which affect sight; teaching children to care for their eyes as they are taught to care for their teeth; and eliminating hazardous substances, tools, or toys which may cause eye injuries.

Effective preservation of vision requires not only individual and family responsibility but also an active interest by all citizens in the community's efforts to bring better eye care to all who need it—to the children in the schools, and to the men and women laboring on the farms and in the factories. We must encourage and support medical research to find the causes and cures of visual disorders; support those groups which help the visually handicapped to obtain medical care, education, and rehabilitation so that they may live independent and significant lives; and support such organizations as Eye Banks which encourage the pledging of one's eyes for the future good.

To make our people more fully aware of the importance of sight-saving, the Congress by a joint resolution approved December 30, 1963 (77 Stat. 629), requested the President to proclaim the first week in March of each year as Save Your Vision Week.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of March 2, 1969, as Save Your Vision Week; and I call upon all our citizens to join in this observance.

During this week every American should make certain that he is not only taking positive action to protect his own precious gift of sight, but also is giving thought to his responsibility for the conservation of sight among his family and his fellow countrymen.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-third.

RICHARD NIXON