Children are gifts from God, the Bible tells us, and that is what America's parents through the centuries have known their youngsters to be. We have sought to give our children—our kids—love and well-being in the present and hope and opportunity for the future. We have also sought to give them a realization of their God-given individual worth and dignity, the liberty that is their due as Americans and human beings, and the reverence, thanks, and obedience we owe the Almighty for making us His children.

The Scriptures also tell us that we are made in God's image and likeness. More than 2 centuries ago, our Founders echoed that truth when they declared that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." If these fundamental and indispensable elements of our national life and heritage always inform our efforts as parents, families, communities, and a country, in regard to the children entrusted to us, we will surely remember our duty to cherish and protect them and to respect their innate dignity and rights.

Not all children are blessed with loving, affirming, and understanding parents. Many youngsters suffer the effects of permissiveness, lack of guidance, drug and alcohol abuse, and absence of religious faith. Fortunately, remedies for these ills do exist, and families and concerned citizens are doing all they can to guarantee a future of promise and fulfillment for their own children and for all our kids. We owe our gratitude and cooperation to those who encourage us to give our children the spiritual as well as material sustenance we all need.

We must also continue to strive for public policies, educational reforms, and conditions of economic growth and opportunity that help meet every child's material needs-that break the cycle of poverty and foster health, prosperity, and progress for our kids, families, communities, and Nation. We must continue to aid school dropouts; youngsters who run away or are forced to leave home; and victims of child abuse, pornography, and prostitution. We must recognize our duty to report suspected child abuse and neglect, and to do the same in cases of selling liquor and illegal drugs to minors. And we must teach youngsters the beauty of the loving, lifelong relationship between husband and wife that is marriage.

As we celebrate this special month, let us be mindful of the worth of every child, recognize our youngsters' accomplishments, and rededicate ourselves to providing help and support for all who need them. And let us be sure to do these things with a prayer in our hearts as we prove that, truly, America Loves Its Kids.

The Congress, by Public Law 100-602, has designated February 1989 as "America Loves Its Kids Month" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this occasion.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim February 1989 as America Loves Its Kids Month, and I call upon all Americans to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirteenth.

RONALD REAGAN