This is what GI Joe means to me:
I was ten years old and laying in a hospital bed after my second open heart surgery, my Dad came in and asked me how I was, I told him like I always did "I'm great", and I was. I was just happy to be among the living. He then handed me my first GI Joe comic, issue #2, in it the story of Snake Eyes and Kwinn.
It really made an impact, I loved how Snake Eyes and the Joe team never gave up and kept going no matter what. How Snake Eyes always gave of himself, throughout the comic books. How the team lead by Hawk, then Duke continued to protect the American values that we have all grown to love. They never gave up and that was the message I needed as a child laying in that bed fighting and going through what I was.
GI Joe means to me being a real hero, and holding on to those values whether you where born in the good ol' US of A, Canada or abroad. It became a way of life to me, as I became a man, and even though I couldn't join the armed forces because of my heart I learned martial arts and taught weaponless defense classes to do my part, and through all of my troubles, and hardships and my successes, I took those lessons taught in a hospital room by a child's comic with me.
GI Joe now means being able to share the times that I spent in the backyard "saving the world one backyard at a time" with my three boys. Teaching them about truth, justice and the American Way. Because you see Snake Eyes was my Superman, and the Joe team my Justice League, they where just something that I latched onto as a child and seemed real to me if just for that thirty minutes under the tree in the backyard fighting Cobra and saving the day. But we all now know as adults that the message behind the toys is a real message and the dream a real dream. The dream of something bigger than ones self and fighting to keep the world free.
That's what GI Joe means to me!
YO JOE
Joe Fan : formerly Little Dragon