Lecture Vol. 19 # 14 April 12, 1989 cover
Address by C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD.
Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health service
U.S. Department of Health and Human services
Presented to the John F. Kennedy Lodge of B'nai B'rith
Washington, DC
April 12, 1989
This lecture is included in the archive because included just a few speeches ahead of this one are my remarks at a Prayer breakfast to the Commissioned Corps at their annual meeting in New Orleans - March 28, 1989. Because a single Jewish activist succeeded in squelching future Prayer breakfast to that group, I thought it only fair that the user of this archive realizes that a particularly well known Jewish group in Washington, considered me worthy to be the recipient of their "Profiles in Courage Award", which they had given to such people as Earl Warren, Charles Evers, Father Hesburgh, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat, as well as Elie Wiesel. The way my schedule was made out, I would have been able to finish another "engagement" and still get to Washington in time to keep this obligation. Let me explain:
The Commandant of the Coast Guard had invited me to be a guest on the United States cutter Chase, which was the Coast Guard vessel that circled the racing yachts at the America's Cup Race off Newport, RI. It was a wonderful time for me, because I was the highest ranking officer on the North Atlantic that day, and because of that, much to the glee of the crew of the Chase, because it meant that every time we passed the several cruisers and destroyers on hand for the races, their crews had to line up on deck and salute us as we passed. The last race was becalmed and if I had stayed to see the postponed run of that last race, I could not have gotten to Washington for this engagement. So, I was not on hand to see the United States lose the America's Cup to the Australians.
Nothing I said in this lecture I hadn't said before, but it's put concisely and in relatively few words, and is here for the reasons already given.