Proclamation 4235—National Next Door Neighbor Day, 1973

In recent years, our growing ability to travel and communicate across great distances has caused some loosening in those bonds of neighborhood and community which have always been fundamental to the fabric of American life. These ties have not snapped, however; they still exist. And we can contribute a great deal to the quality of our existence and to the vitality of our society by doing all we can to revive and strengthen the place of neighborliness in our daily lives.

We cannot expect to have good neighbors, however, unless we are ready to be good neighbors, to go out of our way to extend friendship and support to those who live near us. Each of us, after all, is our neighbor's neighbor—and the responsibility for building a happier, livelier, fuller life in each of our communities must rest, in the end, with each of us.

It was with these important thoughts in mind that the Congress enacted Senate Joint Resolution 25, 93rd Congress, which authorizes and requests the President to issue a proclamation designating the fourth Sunday of September, 1973, as National Next Door Neighbor Day.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the fourth Sunday of September, 1973, as National Next Door Neighbor Day, and do call upon the people of the United States and interested groups and organizations to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-eighth.

RICHARD NIXON