-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Gillespie [mailto:ggillespie3@netscape.net]
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2000 11:12 PM
To: Openletter@mail.kinkele.net
Cc: JohnJr@mail.kinkele.net
Subject: you are not alone


September 8, 2000

Hi John.

I am the guy who sent in the poem "High Flight." I want you to know
that you are not alone in your grief and the you and your family have a great
many people who share with you, although in much smaller way, the sadness and
pain that you feel.

I had to go to Spokane on Friday, September 7, and stopped in North Bend for a
coffee when I happened to see a used copy of the Everett Herald. The news on
the front page deeply affected me. I took the paper and sat in my car for a
long time reading the article and looking at the photo of your mother. It is
funny because I never met Scott, but all day I was saddened and moved. Maybe
because a close friend of mine was murdered fifteen years ago at a young age.
I remember at that time it helped just to know that others were grieving too.


On the long drive home today I contemplated all that I have read about your
brother. It became clear to me that Scott's lifestyle was a perfect example of
all that is best with America. No other culture could have produced a man like
him. Maybe if more people learn of his life and how it ended, good men and
women will be inspired to make this nation a better place.

Last week I gave a copy of one of the Herald articles and a print out of the
first page of the memorial web page to a group of college students that I
coach. We were discussing goal setting and I used Scott as an example of a man
who accomplished so much by willing to be his best and to live to the fullest.
I asked the students to imagine if they were to die, how they would want to be
remembered. I will continue to share this story with college students in the
future.

I hope these words are not presumptuous since I didn't even know Scott. But, I
want to say that from now on every time I look at an American flag I am going
to think of the one that your mother was holding in that photo.

May God give you strength and peace to make it through these difficult days.

--Gary Gillespie, Kirkland, Washington.