Federal Register: January 24, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 16)
DOCID: FR Doc 02-1971
Presidential Documents
Veterans Affairs Department
NOTICE: Part III
DOCUMENT SUMMARY:
[[Page 3579]]
Proclamation 7520 of January 18, 2002
National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2002
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
This Nation was founded upon the belief that every
human being is endowed by our Creator with certain
``unalienable rights.'' Chief among them is the right
to life itself. The Signers of the Declaration of
Independence pledged their own lives, fortunes, and
honor to guarantee inalienable rights for all of the
new country's citizens. These visionaries recognized
that an essential human dignity attached to all persons
by virtue of their very existence and not just to the
strong, the independent, or the healthy. That value
should apply to every American, including the elderly
and the unprotected, the weak and the infirm, and even to the unwanted.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that, ``[t]he care of human life
and happiness and not their destruction is the first
and only legitimate object of good government.''
President Jefferson was right. Life is an inalienable
right, understood as given to each of us by our Creator.
President Jefferson's timeless principle obligates us
to pursue a civil society that will democratically
embrace its essential moral duties, including defending
the elderly, strengthening the weak, protecting the
defenseless, feeding the hungry, and caring for
children--born and unborn. Mindful of these and other
obligations, we should join together in pursuit of a
more compassionate society, rejecting the notion that
some lives are less worthy of protection than others,
whether because of age or illness, social circumstance
or economic condition. Consistent with the core
principles about which Thomas Jefferson wrote, and to
which the Founders subscribed, we should peacefully
commit ourselves to seeking a society that values
life--from its very beginnings to its natural end.
Unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.
On September 11, we saw clearly that evil exists in
this world, and that it does not value life. The
terrible events of that fateful day have given us, as a
Nation, a greater understanding about the value and
wonder of life. Every innocent life taken that day was
the most important person on earth to somebody; and
every death extinguished a world. Now we are engaged in
a fight against evil and tyranny to preserve and
protect life. In so doing, we are standing again for
those core principles upon which our Nation was founded.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 20,
2002, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call
upon all Americans to reflect upon the sanctity of
human life. Let us recognize the day with appropriate
ceremonies in our homes and places of worship,
rededicate ourselves to compassionate service on behalf
of the weak and defenseless, and reaffirm our
commitment to respect the life and dignity of every human being.
[[Page 3580]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand two, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.
(Presidential Sig.)B
[FR Doc. 02-1971
Filed 1-23-02; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
SUMMARY:
Executive Office of the President, Presidential Documents,
DOCUMENT BODY:
[[Page 3579]]
Proclamation 7520 of January 18, 2002
National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2002
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
This Nation was founded upon the belief that every
human being is endowed by our Creator with certain
``unalienable rights.'' Chief among them is the right
to life itself. The Signers of the Declaration of
Independence pledged their own lives, fortunes, and
honor to guarantee inalienable rights for all of the
new country's citizens. These visionaries recognized
that an essential human dignity attached to all persons
by virtue of their very existence and not just to the
strong, the independent, or the healthy. That value
should apply to every American, including the elderly
and the unprotected, the weak and the infirm, and even to the unwanted.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that, ``[t]he care of human life
and happiness and not their destruction is the first
and only legitimate object of good government.''
President Jefferson was right. Life is an inalienable
right, understood as given to each of us by our Creator.
President Jefferson's timeless principle obligates us
to pursue a civil society that will democratically
embrace its essential moral duties, including defending
the elderly, strengthening the weak, protecting the
defenseless, feeding the hungry, and caring for
children--born and unborn. Mindful of these and other
obligations, we should join together in pursuit of a
more compassionate society, rejecting the notion that
some lives are less worthy of protection than others,
whether because of age or illness, social circumstance
or economic condition. Consistent with the core
principles about which Thomas Jefferson wrote, and to
which the Founders subscribed, we should peacefully
commit ourselves to seeking a society that values
life--from its very beginnings to its natural end.
Unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.
On September 11, we saw clearly that evil exists in
this world, and that it does not value life. The
terrible events of that fateful day have given us, as a
Nation, a greater understanding about the value and
wonder of life. Every innocent life taken that day was
the most important person on earth to somebody; and
every death extinguished a world. Now we are engaged in
a fight against evil and tyranny to preserve and
protect life. In so doing, we are standing again for
those core principles upon which our Nation was founded.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 20,
2002, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call
upon all Americans to reflect upon the sanctity of
human life. Let us recognize the day with appropriate
ceremonies in our homes and places of worship,
rededicate ourselves to compassionate service on behalf
of the weak and defenseless, and reaffirm our
commitment to respect the life and dignity of every human being.
[[Page 3580]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand two, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.
(Presidential Sig.)B
[FR Doc. 02-1971
Filed 1-23-02; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P