Dear Joe,
It was so wonderful to get your letter on Friday. I thought reading your funny cheerful letter would be the perfect way to end a really stressful week at work. and start my weekend on a positive note. At first I thought it strange that one of your men would write me directly, but after reading his letter I'm really grateful he did.

Sorry about writing my response here, but I just had to write and thank you for the pictures of the men and your girls and share some last thoughts with you. I cannot believe how much theyÂ’ve grown since I first saw them at the end of your first deployment. How time flies! I can believe itÂ’s been a little over 3 years since we first began corresponding while you were in the middle of your first tour in Iraq.

I want you to know that since that time IÂ’ve grown to appreciate you more each time and now consider you more like a younger brother than a close friend. I never really thanked you when you and the guys called me for motherÂ’s day last year. I thought it was the sweetest most touching thing youÂ’ve done and a memory IÂ’ll treasure forever. Of course I still think you all sounded like wailing cats, but itÂ’s the thought that counts, eh?

By the way, I finally started using the Schaeffer fountain pen you sent me for Christmas. I LOVE IT!!! It's possibly the best present I've ever gotten. I didnÂ’t get a chance to tell you before because I only started using it Friday night to write in my journal.

ItÂ’s strange to be typing this letter because we always handwrote our letters to each other. In that way you and I were very much alike, old style communicators. I was really glad I decided to keep your letters, because IÂ’ve been re-reading them and laughing all over again at some of the silliness in them. I finished the most recent ones this morning and have been thinking of sending them to your Aunt so she could hold onto them for when the girls get older. I think it would be great for them to see how much you loved them and how proud you were of them. Since you write so much of them in every letter, and they express your thoughts, hopes and dreams for them, I thought it would be fitting for them to have. God IÂ’m going to miss your letters.

I want to thank you for being a persistent pain-in-the-a$$, and making me your friend. In writing my letters I was able to start giving my soul a voice once again. It helped me enormously too because I began to reach out and slowly let you into my life in a safe way. Believe me, I didnÂ’t want for us to become good friends because I really didnÂ’t want to have to mourn yet another person in my life. But you were insistent and reminded me that in changing the person I was, the free spirit, the adventurous, the risk taker, I was closing myself off from the possibility of experience moments of happiness and joy. As you said, being on the front lines straddling the line of life and death forced you not to piss away lifeÂ’s precious moments.

For over a week now I’ve been thinking about my life in terms of what you said and what Tammi wrote in her blog about "taking risks". I was once again wondering if I should make an effort and get to know the people from work by socializing with them afterwards. What’s the risk? The risk is getting close and then losing them, and having to endure and mourn the loss of someone else. Yeah, yeah, I can almost hear your voice saying: “Abso-freaking-lutely! Because without the opportunity to experience pain, there is no opportunity to experience joy!” I remember you saying that during our first internet call during your 2nd deployment. I can still hear your hearty laugh when I asked you did you become a “F*^king Sufi-mystic.” You laughed so hard you fell off your chair and we nearly lost our connection. That still makes me laugh! I think of it every time my son starts tipping his chair.

Joe, IÂ’m going to miss you! You were a brother and a friend that helped me start on the road to healing. And I will keep the promise you asked for in your last letter. I will remember only the laughs and good moments we shared through letters and not on the fact that youÂ’re gone. I also promise that someday IÂ’ll make it to Wash State to meet with the girls when theyÂ’re a bit older and explain the importance of why you were there, why you sacrificed as you did, and how much you loved our country.

Kiddo, please know that I loved you very much! Although I never said it while you were alive for fear that youÂ’d confuse it with something else, the brotherly love I felt for you was very strong and grew with every exchange we had. My muse wants to thank you most of all for the encouragment you gave me while writing, for reading my little stories and for all the feedback you collected from your men.

I know that you are smiling down on me from heaven and possibly cracking everybody up with your jokes. Know that I believe your light has not been extinguished with your death but has grown brighter with our love and appreciation for you having been in our lives. Yes, you will be missed, but you will be remembered much more and with greater love. God Bless You Joe, and thank you for having been in my life for the short time you were!

Posted by: Michele at 12:19 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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IÂ’m so glad you wrote this post. These are excellent questions and some which are currently being discussed in Congress! IÂ’m going to share my views and knowledge as it takes my mind off of my damned move!

You ask “is it different than say, Ford producing a car in China… than what Google is doing?”

Well, thatÂ’s a very good and complex question. In one sense, there is a difference as FordÂ’s production of cars in ChinaÂ’s turf does essentially 2 things: it produces an American product cheaply enough to compete in a huge new market being opened up to foreign (American) companies; it provides the Chinese with the rudimentary knowledge of how a capitalist manufacturing plant operates and prepares for the future.

China, is a country that until recently was closed off from any foreign knowledge, except that which would enable them to maintain some competitiveness in the marketplace and enable them to perpetuate their political system. In the late 1990Â’s Microsoft, and technology companies, began to make inroads through the manufacture and sales of their products in China. This impacted how Chinese knowledge was stored, organized and disseminated. It was these companies that helped fuel the imagination, hopes and dreams of students in The Tiananmen Square uprisings. They knew there was more and they wanted the knowledge that was available to the rest of the world.

Today, the Chinese old guard (party members) have seen the financial effects of Communist style secrecy and lack of information on their economy and its population during the spread of SARÂ’s in 2003. Their economy lost revenue in the millions. They now realize that transparency, openness, and information are keys to their economic survival and competitiveness in a market economy.

The Chinese are an extremely cautious people when it comes to change. Evidence of this has been seen in how theyÂ’ve adopted manufacturing concepts and ideas as opposed to technology. As they begin to take steps to gain membership in the World Trade Organization, their society will need to become even more open and transparent.

The FordÂ’s and MicrosoftÂ’s have done much in the last 5 years to help fuel the economic boon the Chinese are now experiencing. Chinese personal income and capital has nearly doubled over what they experienced exclusively under their Communist economy. So to answer your question, yes, even with limited censorship, the spread of information to a previously closed society does more for our socio-economic and political system than theirs. Of course you won't hear any of this in the MSM.

GoogleÂ’s entrance into their world will do 2 very important things: it will provide the Chinese population (in the billions) with huge amounts of information they never had access to before (what they're blocking are key phrases like Tianamen Square and Free Speech); and, through the exposure of this new knowledge, they will gain understanding to western cultural values, capitalism and personal freedoms. All concepts they will eventually be able to embrace and adopt. In the end, it will not only be better for China, but it will also be better for Ford, and ultimately all of us.

As for your meta-question: "Is Communism in China ... worse than any other... ?" We need only look at Vietnam and see the economic and political changes in their country over the last 12 years to see that trade with open markets countries leads closed societies to seek out more prosperity and eventually greater freedoms.

Posted by: Michele at 12:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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