When Senators Learned Sen. Inouye Died
from the WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/wp/2012/12/17/when-senators-learned-that-daniel-inouye-died/?print=1
____Reid walked to the back of the chamber and made his way down the center aisle. As the majority leader sought permission to speak, Durbin took his seat and quickly hushed nearby colleagues who were oblivious to what would come next.
“Our friend, Dan Inouye just died,” Reid said.
Senators froze in silence, except for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who gasped, grabbed his desk, leaned forward and stood briefly, as if in prayer, before sitting down. Leahy stood at his desk, off behind Reid’s left shoulder, before taking his seat.
“I have never known anyone like Dan Inouye. No one else has,” Reid said, his voice quivering as he struggled to find words to match the moment. “The kindness that he has shown for my time here in the Senate is something I will cherish always. A man who has lived and breathed the Senate. If there were ever a patriot, Dan Inouye was that patriot.”
read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/wp/2012/12/17/when-senators-learned-that-daniel-inouye-died/?print=1
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As his squad distracted the third machine gunner, Inouye crawled toward the final bunker, eventually drawing within 10 yards. As he raised himself up and cocked his arm to throw his last grenade into the fighting position, a German inside the bunker fired a rifle grenade that struck him on the right elbow, severing most of his arm and leaving his own primed grenade reflexively "clenched in a fist that suddenly didn't belong to me anymore". Inouye's horrified soldiers moved to his aid, but he shouted for them to keep back out of fear his severed fist would involuntarily relax and drop the grenade. As the German inside the bunker reloaded his rifle, Inouye pried the live grenade from his useless right hand and transferred it to his left. As the German aimed his rifle to finish him off, Inouye tossed the grenade off-hand into the bunker and destroyed it.
War sucks.
This kid wanted to be a surgeon, but he returned to college to study political science under the G.I. Bill. And then he became a Senator.
I think his story illustrates how we should never exclude anyone from the fight for a better future.
Where will the next Inouye come from? A kid from the inner city who served in Afghanistan? A woman who was born into the worst sort of abusive poverty?
If our society excludes anyone from national service -- and it doesn't have to be military service -- or we deny a college education to anyone capable of it, then we are discarding the potential contributions of people like Senator Inouye to our society.
Senator Inouye's was a life well lived.
We shall not see his like again. 
