My name is Bart, Vicki McGlinsey's husband. She has been profiled in several articles for The Elkhart Project. It is an item I have been following since it's arrival here in Elkhart. In fact Vicki didn't know about it until we went to the fair. So needless to say, now that she's been the subject of an ongoing story, I have been a loyal follower. I wonder why? I like seeing her pictures.

The article you wrote about retraining got me down. I look at facts, take half of the media reports as factual and like you, come up with my own decisions. The reason for this was that I found the stats uneasy. I then went to the comments and weeded out the rhetoric about the politicians and found the ones about retraining. Not many, had good things to say about it.

Since Vicki was originally laid off in Feb 2007 at the manufacturing company that I work at currently, it was hard then to get a job with her limited skills. We both were overjoyed at any job interview that she got. Celebrated any job she got! When she was laid off from her last one, I knew it would be tougher than usual for her to find a job. But, through it all, I always gave her support and encouragement. The deal with WorkOne was the hardest of them all. It took over 6 months of doing what they said to do and she did it. Only to do something else. All the time we kept hoping to hear about the training voucher. When the new people took over, she was ready to give up all because she had to go in "one more time" and deal with this "again".

She literally was in tears when she told me the news that she got her voucher and that she would be starting her class in a week. I've watched her struggles since then, prodded her when she was tired. And through all of this we have hopes of a new future.

We know that her benefits will end soon, and times will be even tougher. She has went and talked to few prospective employers with them saying, "Come back after you graduate." Which I understand would be a solid answer to prove to me if I was the employer. I know that her dream job is not going to be there when she gets done. I know that it's not going to be handed to her on a silver platter. She will have to work for it like everyone else has to.

As a manufacturing person for the last several years, I have watched our jobs slip away to Mexico and China. The RV industry was hit from several sides and some manufacturing companies diversified before all this hit, but they still feel the effect. And I know they won't come back any time soon, if at all.

The President has hopes for this country. And some of his ideas for people in the field of IT has been around for years. Remember when we were supposed to save more trees and go paperless? Anyhow, I don't see much hope here.

After The Elkhart Project leaves here, it is my hope, that msnbc comes back to check up on these people and this community. I have hopes for my wife. Some people in her class thinks she a wiz kid. One of the traits in her that I like, is the tenacity in her to do something to achieve a goal. I'll be right there pushing her again if needed.

The struggles I see from the articles posted, I know, are the same in other parts of the country. But I hope that Elkhart will turn around and you and your team will come back and prove your article wrong.

I look forward to seeing more of The Elkhart Project in the days ahead.