Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on August 5, 2010, I was presented with the flag of the United States Public Health Service by the Commissioned Officers Association, COA, of the U.S. Public Health Service, PHS, and its affiliated PHS Commissioned Officers Foundation. The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is one of our Nation's seven uniformed services. When the COA was kind enough to present me with their Health Leader of the Year Award several weeks ago, it was noted that, while I had the flags of the five armed services displayed in my office on Capitol Hill, there was no PHS flag to complete the display. The first thing I noticed when presented with the PHS flag was its color--a bright yellow field with dark blue crest and inscription. The PHS flag reveals the history of our Nation's Public Health Service. The Public Health Service traces its origins to 1798 with the passage of an ``Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.'' The economic survival of our young country was almost totally dependent on maritime commerce and this law was aimed at protecting the health of merchant seaman, without whose labors the young nation would not long survive, much less prosper. Medical quarantine of ships found to be carriers of disease was an essential tool in protecting the commercial interests of the United States. The PHS flag is the same yellow color as the maritime ``quebec'' signal flag which is the international signal for a ship under quarantine.…”