If you want to communicate with the American public, the literature tells you you’ve got to be talking at about a sixth-grade, seventh-grade level. Richard Carmona Read Quote
I am classified as a disabled veteran. The reason I’m disabled is because I have wounds and injuries that I got while on active duty… from parachute jumping to combat to gunshot wounds, all that stuff. Richard Carmona Read Quote
I still look at my job as being a doctor of the people, and I’m going to look at the science… If we can find a viable alternative that gave us harm reduction as people are withdrawing from nicotine, I’m happy to engage in that science and see if we can do that. Richard Carmona Read Quote
When I was 5, 6 – so you know, memories aren’t that great – I remember coming home and I remember seeing all of our belongings on the street and a Salvation Army truck picking them up. We got taken to a shelter. And then we moved around a lot, finding places to stay. Richard Carmona Read Quote
Lucy Mercedes Martinez, my mother, was probably my first mentor. She really tried to take care of me in spite of myself, and in spite of her own struggles with alcohol. She was an immigrant who had never finished school. But she was also a Renaissance woman who read voraciously. She spoke several languages. Richard Carmona Read Quote
While my mother tried to stem my truancy, it would be a complete stranger – an Army Officer in the Special Forces home on leave – who would be the mentor to drive home my mother’s goal of getting me educated. His name was Saul Hassan. Richard Carmona Read Quote
I got into medical school at the University of California in San Francisco and did well. A lot of smart kids in medical school, and believe me, I wasn’t not nearly the smartest one, but I was the most focused and the happiest kid in medical school. In 1979, I graduated as the valedictorian and was honored with the Gold Cane Award. Richard Carmona Read Quote
I am not a Hispanic candidate. I am an American candidate who happens to be of Hispanic heritage, who understands the culture, who has worked the border and has a unique understanding of those issues. But rest assured my job is to represent all Americans as a U.S. senator. Richard Carmona Read Quote
The fact is that a bill allowing any employer to deny insurance coverage based on a moral objection – along with giving an employer permission to ask for medical records showing why a woman is taking birth control – opens up a set of problems that I’m sure its sponsors have not fully considered. Richard Carmona Read Quote
