Not a terribly good day if you were a popular Comedian or a President. News bulletins broke over the air on June 9, 1980 of an accident concerning Richard Pryor, which left him hospitalized in critical condition and with a 25-30% chance of survival. All because of, initially reported, an exploding Butane Lighter. A few raised eyebrows, to be sure. But later it was revealed Pryor was allegedly engaged in that recent phenomenon known as "Freebasing" - another new word to quickly enter our Lexicon of Popular Culture. Meanwhile, President Carter had his woes but certainly not of the pharmaceutical kind. His was an angry crowd in Miami, mostly blacks displaced by the recent riots. With tossed bottles and rocks at the motorcade as it left downtown Miami. Carter claimed unawares, although the photographer who was cold-cocked from a "things go better with" bottle claimed otherwise.

And not the least of the Carter woes came in the form of a foul up in speaker appearances in Seattle that threatened to put him on the same podium as Presidential Challenger Senator Ted Kennedy, causing ruffled feathers and egg smeared faces from the organizers. The Kennedy camp grimaced and said "thanks, but no thanks".

And meanwhile, the Middle East continued to be the Middle East with on-again/off-again/maybe/kind-of peace negotiations between all the usual suspects stopping and starting every other minute or so.

And so the World turned, albeit akimbo on this 9th day of June in 1980.

As reported by CBS Radio Hourly News.

(Senator Ted Kennedy - passing of an era)

Regardless of having known the end would come for some time, hearing the news that Senator Ted Kennedy lost his battle to brain cancer still came with an overwhelming sadness - a true sense of loss. The passing of an era.

So as way of a tribute, here is Ted Kennedy at the National Press Club from January 18, 1972, outlining the priorities for the upcoming session of Congress. As always, Health Care was forefront on his mind.

Ted Kennedy: “If you think we have a (health) system that is working well today, ask the person next to you. Ask a mother who tries to call a doctor after dark. Ask a man who lost is health insurance because he lost his job. Ask a senior citizen whose Medicare has run out. Ask anyone who ever paid a bill or tried to file a Health Insurance claim. Our people will never get fair value for their enormous investment in Health Care, unless we break the strangle hold of the Health Providers and Health Insurance companies. We have a mammoth Health Care crisis because we have a mammoth health care system that works well, but only for the few. It works well for the doctors. It works well for the hospitals. It works well for the insurance industry. It works well for everyone but the sick. And it is the people who pay the price for this enormous profiteering. They have been sold a bill of goods for a system that is marred throughout by high cost and inefficiency, by inconvenience and incompetence. And by implicit or outright fraud. I do not believe that the Congress will be a party to the passage of any Health Insurance bill that maintains such vital flaws. We stand on the threshold of real reform. And 1972 can be the year when we cross that threshold and fulfill at last the promise that health is a basic right for all our citizens, not just an expensive privilege of the few”.

He never quit the fight.

(People just get sick - it's what people do.)

It always sounds like a good idea and it's always debated, and it makes great soundbites, and it sometimes gets votes. But the seemingly endless debate on a National Health Plan I'm sad to say, never quite goes anywhere.

In 1974 President Nixon offered a Health Plan. Actually, he offered one in 1972 and in 1973 - with each year being dubbed "The Year Of The Health Plan", but nothing ever came of it.

So in response to this version of a health plan offered by Nixon, Senators Ted Kennedy and Wilbur Mills offered an alternative, one which would be funded via Social Security. Kennedy explained the details of his plan in a radio address on May 22, 1974. Granted, the timing wasn't particularly terrific - with Impeachment hearings looming and most of America reeling from daily revelations.

So, as history has shown, the Kennedy/Mills idea of a Health Plan didn't fly either.

Someday, one will.