Proclamation 3965—Save Your Vision Week, 1970

Sight is one of man's greatest gifts. The preservation of that gift is one of his greatest challenges.

Modern research has developed the technology for preventing nearly one-half of all new cases of blindness in this country. Cataracts that cruelly deprive older people of their sight can now be corrected surgically. Regular examinations can detect visual disorders, especially among school children who need good sight in order to learn.

In the case of disorders such as glaucoma—which can rob a person of much of his sight before he is aware that a problem exists—early detection is essential if treatment is to be effective.

To impress upon each person in this country the urgent need for eye care, the Congress by joint resolution approved December 30, 1963 (77 Stat. 629), has 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 1, 1970, as Save Your Vision Week; and I invite appropriate officials of State and local governments to issue similar proclamations.

I also call upon all our citizens, especially those in the communications media, the health care professions, and other interested organizations to unite during that week in support of programs to improve and protect the vision of Americans.

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

RICHARD NIXON