Many of us devote more than our fair share of time focusing on the negative aspects of "establishment Amerika." With such rampant, blatant and unpunished corruption, how can we avoid it? The daily barrage of squalid news concerning Washington and Wall Street is nauseating at best.

I don't know about you, sometimes I just feel shell shocked. Tired and disgusted. Ready to throw in the towel and about to walk away from it all...

But then, just in the nick of time, a story like this comes along.

How many times in your life can you honestly say you discovered a new hero?

Today I discovered one, Army private Barney Hajiro who sadly, passed away on January 21.

The following is quoted from a New York Times article that was brought to my attention today:

"After Barney Hajiro, an Army private, single-handedly wiped out two German machine gun nests and killed two snipers in a gallant charge in World War II, his superiors recommended him for the Medal of Honor.

As part of a regiment composed entirely of Japanese-Americans below the officers’ ranks, Private Hajiro epitomized the unit’s brash motto, “Go for Broke!” His commanding officer’s report said that in October 1944 in eastern France, he had run 100 yards through a stream of bullets, walked through a booby-trapped area and led the charge up “Suicide Hill” screaming “Banzai!” before taking out the machine gun nests.

He was shot four times — then insisted that 40 other wounded men be evacuated first.

But he, like Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, who was also a member of the regiment, did not initially receive the Medal of Honor for which he was recommended. Only in 2000, after 56 years and a belated Pentagon review, did President Bill Clinton present the medal, the nation’s top military honor, to Mr. Hajiro, Senator Inouye and 20 other Asian-American soldiers. Racial prejudice, Mr. Clinton said, had prevented such a ceremony after the war.

“I nearly gave up hope,” Mr. Hajiro said at the time.

“Barney was a good man,” Senator Inouye said in an interview on Wednesday. “He didn’t go around blowing his own horn. He would just say he was doing something he was supposed to do.”

Mr. Hajiro, who had battled cancer, died on Jan. 21 in Honolulu at 94, his family said. He had been the nation’s oldest Medal of Honor recipient. His background was modest: born in Hawaii, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade to work for 10 hours a day, at 10 cents an hour, on a sugar plantation. He was a dockworker when he was drafted into the Army in 1942 and assigned to dig ditches. He resented not being allowed to carry arms.

“I didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor,” Mr. Hajiro said in an interview in 1999.

“Why did they blame us?” As angry about Pearl Harbor as anybody, many Japanese-Hawaiians were eager to fight.

Mr. Hajiro was one of the first to volunteer, in March 1943. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a newly formed unit, would go on to be called the most decorated regiment for its size and length of service: its 14,000 men earned 9,486 Purple Hearts, 8 Presidential Unit Citations and 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, the second-highest individual honor in the Army. Mr. Hajiro received three of those."

WB7: When I think of a hero, and I only have a handful, I think of someone who exemplifies positive human attributes well worth modeling oneself after.

Mr Hajiro was a humble man. But he displayed uncommon valor in the battlefield, he "went for broke" at a common enemy, he was selfless when injured and he never gave up hope.

Reading about someone like this is enough to extinguish anyone's cynicism and restore one's faith in humanity. A welcome diversion from the cesspool of front page greed, corruption and deceit that we stare at in growing disbelief each and every day.

I don't know about you, I don't want to be like all those elite you know whozits. I want to be like Barney Hajiro (corrected) and for this reason he has earned the distinction of being one of the handful of Banzai7 heroes.

Banzai Barney!

Rest in Peace...