Center for Citizen Initiatives

Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.

CCI Citizen Diplomats Met Krasnodar Citizens!

Dear CCI Friends,

Enjoy this report from lovely Krasnodar in the south of Russia. In September, our CCI travelers Pamela Tetarenko and Bill Headley visited the region for four days. In this short writing, they will become wonderful reporters for you to vicariously enjoy this city and its warm people.

Sharon (signature)
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

A modern day Krasnodar with a new bridge in town is shown above.  Note the number of new high-rise residential buildings in the background of this photo. Leaving their new soccer stadium last year, I was trying to find a city bus route for my group. I tried a shortcut, and we found ourselves walking through some of these new residential areas. It was the time of day when parents and small children were arriving home from work and child care centers. Between each building were long, wide play areas. These areas were fenced in and safe for the kids. Mothers and fathers were pushing swings, helping manage the seesaws and getting some physical exercise themselves. All seemed to be enjoying these areas between the houses. Shopping and medical clinics were in the immediate vicinity.

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CCI September Travelers Visit to Irkutsk in Siberia!

Dear CCI Friends,

We are sending belated reports from our travelers who visited Russia’s regions this past September.

Relatively few Americans have visited the city of Irkutsk, Siberia which is 4,200 kilometers or 2,260 miles due east from Moscow. Russia is approximately 6,000 miles wide. Irkutsk was settled in 1661 as a Cossack community.

Following the 1825 St. Petersburg Decembrist Revolt, many young aristocrats were exiled in chains to Irkutsk and other God-forsaken places across Siberia. They traveled in shackles and were put in prison cells. Then amazingly, their young wives began the many months-long journeys to get to their husbands in exile.  Local prison keepers finally allowed them to live in cells with their husbands. Soon offspring were being born behind bars. Among the male exiles there were artists who captured their lives in captivity in many fine drawings.

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Orthodox Christmas & An Article of Paramount Importance

Dear CCI Friends,

Hello from St. Petersburg where it is Orthodox Christmas night, Monday, January 7th. This morning when I awakened about 8 am, the sight out my window was a blanket of snow over everything … all was covered in pristine white … from Moika Canal and 19th century buildings all the way down to St. Isaacs’ gold dome: there were no people to be seen anywhere (the first time ever for my eyes). Few automobiles and no trucks or city buses were seen out of my windows. St. Petersburg appeared frozen in time… silent, like in the centuries past.  It has been the quietest beginning of a day I’ve ever experienced in Russia.

In the afternoon traffic picked up a bit. Going outside my door, from the flat next to me, a Russian man of about 50 years rushed off wishing me Happy Christmas and mentioned he was on his way to St. Nicholas’ Church services. Later there was more foot traffic going in the direction of the church. What a wonderfully pensive day to enjoy the snow and the quiet … and to ponder.

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Late in the day, an amazing article arrived on my computer. I call your attention to it, since it is the most rational writing I’ve experienced that deals with the challenges we Americans face today.  I urge you to take sufficient time to absorb it seriously. I scanned it first, then realized I’d not digested it sufficiently; whereupon, I went back and read it aloud to myself to really get the essence of it.  I’ve not seen any other article quite so specific, so truthful, so focused on where we Americans are at this particular time in our history.  I urge you to digest this piece … whether you are Democrat or Republican, whether you abhor Trump or think he is good for our country.

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HAPPY NEW YEARS — 2019!

Dear CCI Friends,

To those of you who have participated directly in our face-to-face diplomacy both across Russia and here in our American cities, we are so grateful to you. Also, many thanks to those of you who have become informal educators, resending CCI’s educational emails to your colleagues, friends and families. We greatly appreciate your notes and support for our joint missions to create a better educated and safer world in the immediate future!

Best Wishes to You for a

Wonderful Creative Year in 2019

upon which we are now embarking!

I wonder if you are deeply grateful, as I am, that our planet has survived this past tumultuous year?

Given the numbers of surrogate war-making threats and incursions in numerous areas of the world, i.e. Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, the Baltic states and others … we are lucky that none have ignited an all-consuming conflagration. Perhaps parity of nuclear weapons and instant delivery systems maintained the tenuous peace between the two nuclear giants of the world––our nation and Russia.  For whatever the reasons, I’m deeply grateful that we have a bit more time ahead to develop beyond the warring mentalities among us.

Traveling around the U.S., I continue to be so impressed with the sheer goodness of ordinary American citizens. This year I visited Rotary clubs, witnessed over a hundred fathers signing up to volunteer at a lower-income school and others volunteering to benefit local disadvantaged children and families. I’ve witnessed men, women and their children raising funds to serve the needs in their communities.

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Graham Allison’s Ted Talk

Dear Friends,

A brilliant 18 minute TED Talk, Is war between China and the US inevitable?, was presented just over a month ago, and it’s already had over 1.8 million hits.

The subject: whether the US will resort to war that will go global … as China becomes the world hegemon within the next few years.  Across the centuries, there have been 16 times when one nation rose and another fell from power; a massive war occurred in 12 of them, killing millions of ordinary citizens.

Graham Allison, eminent Professor of Political Science at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and part of the “Establishment,” explains the phenomenal miracle occurring in China which at this moment, shortens the very notion of America’s No.1 place in the world. This YouTube SHOCKS the senses, both in how fast China is rising and how soon this change of power will take place.

Allison provides no magic bullets. He coolly presents the world’s history with such circumstances and then questions how a US-China war (that would be the last on planet earth) could be avoided … and whether we will be aware enough to search for ways to live constructively with this rapidly escalating situation?

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