Tribute to an American Giant: A Friend and Colleague Remembers

By Norman Mineta

 

One of the greatest Americans in his­tory passed away recently.

I’m not entirely objective about Sena­tor Daniel Ken Inouye. (None of us who knew him can be.) Many Americans know him as the second longest serving U.S. Senator in history, who most recent­ly, as President Pro Tempore of the Unit­ed States Senate, was third in line for the Presidency of the United States, and the highest ranking Asian Pacific American in U.S. history.

Many, particularly in his beloved home state of Hawaii, knew him as a leader who had helped guide the Territory of Hawaii to statehood, and then represent­ed it in Washington for its entire history as a state. His steadying presence, so fa­miliar to his constituents, was familiar to those of us from other parts of the nation, as well.

In countless ways, he spent his entire adult life protecting and guarding and guiding this country. He never lost sight of its principles, its values, and its dreams to always reach further into new realms of discovery, and ever widening vistas of justice and fairness for everyone.

That’s really what Senator Inouye was all about, after all —seeing the potential that each of us has to make a difference for the better. He was dedicated to seeing that potential because he had, too often in his life, had his own potential doubted and questioned, as many Americans of Japanese ancestry of his and my generation had.

I listened to the speakers at a memo­rial service for Dan Inouye at the Nation­al Cathedral in Wash­ington, D.C. Among those speakers was another native son of Hawaii, the President of the United States of America. Someone else whose potential had been doubted and questioned. The Pres­ident spoke of being inspired by his Sena­tor as a little boy, and the great pride he felt years later, when that same Senator was there to greet him—as a newly-elected col­league.

Having known Dan In­ouye for all my years in Washington, D.C., I can confidently say that he felt equally proud.

Dan was one of those Senators who rarely blew his own horn. Not that he had to. His courage, integrity, dedication to his country and to his country doing the right thing could not be missed.

When the actions of some shook the foundations of our government to its core during the Watergate Scandal, his Sen­ate colleagues naturally turned to him as someone who could sort things out and try to put them back together again.

When scandals rocked the intelligence community, he was chosen to lead the ef­forts to reform our intelligence operations to align them with our values as a nation.

When the rights of any American to equal justice and the equal protection the law were questioned—whether on grounds of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, religion, or sexual orienta­tion—he was there to answer those ques­tions with resolve and determination.

So many of his tremendous achieve­ments in public service were fore­shadowed by his first. As a teenager, during World War II, he had initially been blocked from military service simply be­cause of his race. He enlisted as soon as he was allowed to do so, and in actions that earned him some of his highest ac­colades, including the award of the Con­gressional Medal of Honor, he proved that doubts about his loyalties were with­out foundation.

He gave his right arm fighting the forces of one of the greatest evils in human his­tory, on behalf of a country which was not sure he could be trusted, but which he nev­er stopped loving with all of his heart. Be­cause, Dan would be the first to tell you that, when something you love lets you down, you cannot just cut and run—be­cause it is in precisely that moment that the thing you love needs you the most.

He reached his heights of achievement through qualities that far too often go un­noticed, but which matter most of all: a generosity of spirit, a sense of caring, and an unwavering integrity, to which his fam­ily, his friends, his staff, and all of the peo­ple from every walk of life he dedicated his life to helping, his students can attest.

Dan Inouye was a great man—but his greatest achievement may lie in the fact that it was impossible to know him with­out becoming more in that process than you were when you started.

The nation he loved so much stands as proof.

Norman Mineta was Commerce Secretary in the Clinton Administration and Transportation Secretary in the Bush Administration.