pd09oc95 Proclamation 6833--National Children's Day, 1995...

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bell all told me their stories. One of them had to have her back broken 
before she actually asked for help. Another waited until her oldest 
child was assaulted with a meat cleaver.
    This is not just a woman's problem. I was glad to hear that. This is 
a children's problem, and it's a man's problem. And we're not doing 
anybody any favors, least of all the abusers, by ignoring it any longer. 
And I thank all these brave women for the power of their example. And 
there are others in this audience who have been severely abused in 
domestic situations; I thank them all for having the courage to be here 
and for the fight they are fighting.
    I'd also like to thank the Congress for the support that they gave 
this program a year ago and to say a special word of appreciation to the 
United States Senate for restoring funding for the Violence Against 
Women Program just last week. Thank you, Senator Leahy; thank you, 
Congresswoman Morella; thank you, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. And I have 
to thank my good friend Senator Joe Biden, in his absence, for all of 
their work on behalf of this program.
    Last week we had a great week in Washington. We celebrated progress 
in peace in the Middle East. We celebrated the beginnings of peaceful 
agreements in Bosnia. I spend a whole lot of my time trying to make or 
keep peace, Northern Ireland, Southern Africa, Haiti; trying to get rid 
of the nuclear weapons that have threatened to disturb our peace 
profoundly and permanently. But we don't need just peace with other 
countries, we need peace on our streets, in our schools, and perhaps 
most of all, in our homes. All of us should want a peaceful world, but 
we know a peaceful world has to start with each of us, in our homes and 
at work and in our lives.
    This problem has been swept under the rug for quite a long while 
now. It's really always existed at some level or another. It is time to 
recognize that domestic violence can quickly and easily become criminal 
violent activity that affects us all, regardless of our race, our 
income, or our age, regardless of where we live or what we do.
    You've heard about how it increases health costs and absenteeism and 
reduces the productivity of businesses. You know the most important 
thing is that it undermines the most important things in life; it 
undermines the most important institution in the world.
    Most of us have been privileged to know, in greater or lesser 
degree, the joys of family life. And everyone who has ever been part of 
any family knows there's no such thing as a perfect family, and they all 
have their problems. But there's a whole lot of difference between a 
family with joys and problems and a family dominated by violence and 
abuse.
    If there is anything I could say to you today that would leave a 
lasting impression, I would hope it would be to echo what the fine man 
who introduced me said, and that is that we don't have to put up with 
this. We do not have to put up with this. We can do something about it. 
It can be changed. It can be better.
    And everybody, not just the battered women, but their children who 
suffer psychological wounds that can only be imagined and can never be 
fully predicted, and the abusers themselves, will be better off if we 
determine that we are going to put a quick, firm, rapid, unambiguous 
stop to every single case we find out about, as soon as we find out 
about it. That is what we should all leave here determined to do.
    I wish the First Lady could be here today, but Hillary has to--she's 
going to New York, and she couldn't be here. But when we lived in Little 
Rock, we spent a lot of time at the shelter for battered and abused 
women and children. It was run by some saintly people we knew and 
respected. We enjoyed, if you can use that word, the time we spent 
there. We learned a lot. And it sort of stiffened my resolve to see this 
as a problem of society, not just an unfortunate thing that happens to 
some families on occasion, including mine.
    And when we were debating the crime bill a year ago, I was so moved 
by the commitment that the Attorney General had and that many in the 
Congress had to make a bipartisan departure from national policy and say 
that we were actually going to single this out, that we were going to 
pass a crime bill that was comprehensive and meaningful, that carried 
the real potential of lowering the crime rate, changing the conditions 
in which crime

[[Page 1752]]

would occur. And it really was a brilliant piece of legislation. It had 
the assault weapons ban. It had stronger penalties for serious 
offenders.
    You see now people are beginning to be put away for good under the 
``three strikes and you're out'' law, and the two cases that I've seen, 
I'd say the law has been properly implemented. It had money for 
prevention, for community strategies. It had money for 100,000 police 
officers. We see all over the country now community policing lowering 
the crime rate. You do not have to put up with this; we can make this 
better. We can bring the crime rate down, and we can certainly reduce 
the rate of domestic violence.
    But the Violence Against Women Act is really a peculiar part of the 
genius of the crime bill because of its commitment to raise to national 
prominence an issue that had never, ever been there before and because 
it combines tough sanctions against abusers with assistance to police 
and to prosecutors and to shelters. And I don't know--several of the 
people who talked with me before I came out here were emphasizing how 
important it is to educate and train not only the police officers but 
also the prosecutors and the judges. All the police can do is to bring 
the case to the criminal justice system. Prosecutors and the courts have 
to do the rest.
    To make sure this act had a good chance to work, we created the 
Office of Violence Against Women in the Justice Department, and we named 
Bonnie Campbell, the former attorney general of Iowa, to head it. And we 
hope that we can say now that as a matter of national policy, with the 
support of people all across America in uniform, in women's groups, in 
support groups, ``The days of men using physical violence to control the 
lives of their wives, their girlfriends, and their children are over.'' 
And it is not a women's issue; it's an American issue; it's a values 
issue; and it is now an issue around the world.
    A lot of kind things have been said about the speech that Hillary 
made at the Women's Conference in Beijing, speaking out against abuses 
against women and little girls in other parts of the world. But I would 
remind you, she also spoke out against the problem of family violence. 
And the Beijing conference made that an international goal for improving 
the condition of women the world over. And since we had so much to do 
with that, we ought to say, ``We've got a lot of work to do right here 
in the United States, and we want to lead the way to guarantee women and 
their children a safe life and a chance at a good, constructive 
family.''
    Again, let me say, I'm grateful to all the corporations who have 
worked on this. Jerry Rossi made an eloquent statement. There are many 
others; the GAP, Liz Claiborne, Aetna, Polaroid are among the great 
companies in this country who have made a difference in the way their 
employees are treated and the way they think about themselves and their 
options and their possibilities. I thank them for that.
    I want to thank the Congress again--I mean, the Senate, for 
restoring the funding. I want to say again, we will not be able to do 
this right unless there are police officers like Sergeant Wynn who will 
give themselves to this work. And I often say this in Washington--very 
often a national movement like this starts with someone like him, who 
had to live with the reality of domestic abuse. But we can't bring it 
all the way home with only police officers who grew up in families where 
there was abuse. We now have to have a systematic commitment to 
sensitize people who, thank God, did not have to live through it to be a 
part of this movement, to sensitize prosecutors, to sensitize judges, to 
sensitize all of us in decisionmaking capacities, whether or not we had 
domestic abuse in our homes.
    And let me finally say that as a kickoff to the National Domestic 
Violence Awareness Month, I signed today an Executive memorandum to 
ensure that our Federal Government continues to be a leader in this 
national effort. I've asked the heads of all the executive departments 
to conduct employee awareness campaigns modeled after the one that the 
Attorney General has put in place at the Department of Justice, to 
provide information and the resources to deal with domestic violence. 
After all, we know there must be Federal employees at work, even as we 
speak, who themselves are the victims of domestic violence and who are 
sitting there at their desks staring blankly at a piece of paper while 
we here proclaim victory in this

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fight, and they haven't even taken the first step. So we want to set a 
good example.
    Let me lastly say that, to all the women here and all across America 
who are abused or who have been abused, you are not invisible. The 
people who have stood with you today can now say that you are being 
heard, you are being seen, you are being understood.
    The following quote is from one of Hillary's favorite books, and I 
asked if I could use it today. It's called ``In the Spirit,'' by Susan 
Taylor, the editor of Essence magazine, and it talks about your courage, 
your strength, and your hope. She writes, quote, ``While we cannot 
change the past, with the wisdom of spirit, we can change what it means 
to us and to our future. With understanding and compassion, we can break 
a cycle of despair, rise above our sorrows, and find a new emotional 
home from which to create a brighter tomorrow. Each breath we take 
offers us a chance to create a better life.''
    Now, I hope because of all these efforts, we will all, with each 
breath we take, resolve that a part of that better life will be less and 
less and less domestic violence and abuse, until we have taken it out of 
the spirit and the soul and the life of the United States of America.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 2:06 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Sgt. Mark Wynn, detective, 
Nashville-Davidson, TN, police department; Jerry Rossi, president, 
Marshalls, Inc.; and Tana Sherman, survivor of domestic violence.


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[Page 1753-1754]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
Proclamation 6828--Child Health Day, 1995

October 2, 1995

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    In hospitals and homes across the country, children begin life free 
from the burdens of the world. With their eyes and minds open to every 
influence, they depend on their caregivers to help them take the first, 
tentative steps toward adulthood. Parents and other family members, 
communities and churches, educators and the media--all play a role in 
these crucial early years, providing young people with the direction 
they need to become happy, productive citizens.
    Tragically, far too many children go without this essential love and 
guidance, living in homes, neighborhoods, and schools where they see and 
endure violence. One in five pregnant women is abused by her partner; 
millions of children each year are reported to public social service 
agencies as being neglected or abused; and in the decade between 1982 
and 1992, the number of these reports increased 132 percent. We know 
that young men and women suffer lasting effects from such experiences--
teen suicides have tripled in the last 35 years, and countless youth 
have grown up to continue the cycle of destructive behavior in their own 
relationships and families.
    In recognition of these heartbreaking realities, the theme of Child 
Health Day, 1995, is the elimination of violence. As our Nation observes 
this special day, let us renew our commitment to America's children and 
rededicate ourselves to ending the physical and emotional mistreatment 
that damage self-esteem and well-being. Solutions to the plague of 
violence lie within our own society, and we can find hope in the 
partnerships forming among public health and mental health 
professionals, schools, law enforcement officers, religious groups, 
child care experts, and community leaders. Their efforts, aided by the 
extensive Federal network already in place, will help to strengthen 
families and instill in our young people the ambition and spirit that 
has always driven America forward.
    To emphasize the importance of nurturing children's growth and 
development from birth to maturity, the Congress, by joint resolution 
approved May 18, 1928, as amended (36 U.S.C. 143), has called for the 
designation of the first Monday in October as ``Child Health Day'' and 
has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of 
this day.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim Monday, October 2, 1995, as Child 
Health Day. On this day, and on every day throughout the year, I call 
upon

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my fellow Americans to deepen their commitment to protecting children, 
taking the necessary steps to meet our obligations to them and to our 
Nation's future.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of 
October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twentieth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:58 p.m., October 2, 
1995]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
4.


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[Page 1754-1755]
 
Monday, October 9, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 40
Pages 1749-1788
 
Week Ending Friday, October 6, 1995
 
Proclamation 6829--National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 1995

October 2, 1995

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Domestic violence disrupts communities, destroys relationships, and 
harms hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. It is a serious 
crime that takes many forms and a complex problem with multiple causes. 
Those abused can be children, siblings, spouses, or parents, and both 
victims and offenders come from all racial, social, religious, ethnic, 
and economic backgrounds. Among the most tragic effects of family 
violence is the cycle of abuse perpetuated by children and teenagers who 
see and experience brutality at home--these young people often lack 
crucial guidance to help them form strong, positive bonds of kinship.
    Americans are fortunate that knowledge about domestic violence has 
increased and that public interest in deterrence is stronger than ever. 
During the past decade, vital partnerships have formed between Federal 
agencies and private-sector organizations to expand prevention services 
in urban, rural, and underserved areas across the country. These efforts 
have helped to coordinate aid for victims and their children--not only 
providing shelter, but also furnishing alcohol and drug abuse treatment, 
child care, and counseling. In addition, I am proud that the Violent 
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 contains tough new 
sanctions and includes a provision for a national ``hot line'' where 
victims can receive information and assistance.
    But the struggle to end domestic violence is far from over. 
According to a recent Justice Department study for 1992 and 1993, women 

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