Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.
Dear CCI friends,
One of our new CCI Board Members, Krishen Mehta, has written an amazing analysis of the rise of the “Global South.” It is rapidly shifting our planet’s power politics. A Multipolar world is replacing the former Unipolar hemisphere in which we in the United States have been the sole lead nation. How will this affect us? Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated by our new CCI Board.
Sharon Tennison
Paula Day
Sylvia Demarest
Pamela Tetarenko
Krishen Mehta
Dear CCI Friends and Colleagues,
We are bombarded with shocking news from all directions these days. Processing it all is critical. We hope you find the following article by Craig Murray helpful and thought provoking.
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As we exit this difficult and stressful year we must look ahead with hope for a brighter future. Fortunately, we have many brilliant hearts and minds focused on how we make such a future possible for our world.
The late William Polk had a full and illustrious career studying and helping to steer a wise and just foreign policy for the United States – including serving on JFK’s three-man crisis management team during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Speaking to graduating students at Bennington College almost fifteen years ago, he articulated an analysis of where we stand in the world that is as precisely accurate today as it was then. (When he speaks of “neoconservatives,” add “neoliberals,” and when he references Afghanistan and Iraq, add Ukraine, and the speech could have been written for 2023 graduates.)
Most importantly, he gave his audience members hope and assurance that they held the power to move our country toward a better future in their hands.
We hope you can take a little time to consider this wise man’s appraisal of our country. And it is our hope for all of us that we can truly take to heart his empowering notion that the future is ours to create.
Happy New Year to You All!
Center for Citizen Initiatives
William Polk: Talk at Bennington College students and faculty on September 15, 2008
Dear CCI Friends,
Please watch this amazing interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrmWpI_s7rc
Jeffrey Sachs and Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! discuss stopping the war in Ukraine. Biden is on saying he is open to negotiating if conditions are reasonable. Please witness this amazing discussion.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Friends,
We at CCI are attempting to counter the coverage in mainstream media regarding the Russia/Ukraine/NATO tragedy. It worsens by the day.
Today’s article is by Dan Kovalik, author of “The Plot to Scapegoat Russia”. I met Dan in 2017 shortly after his book was published. It was so ‘out there,” I was worried for his safety. However, he is still alive and educating. Please give us your thoughts, pro and con, on his latest piece below.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
November 30, 2022
By Dan Kovalik
Once a Pittsburgh sister city also known for its steel industry, Donetsk, and the greater Donbas region in which it is located, has been at war since 2014. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 14,000 people died in this conflict, even before Russia began its military operations in February. I’ve just returned from there.
Before Russia’s intervention, the conflict had been between the people of that region and the government in Kiev, after an unconstitutional coup took 2014. This coup, known as “Maiden,” was — as then US Ambassador to Ukraine Victoria Nuland explained in a recorded telephone conversation — managed by the United States.
The coup brought to power a pro-Western, anti-Russian, government, which contained elements which were far-right and even Nazi. The best known element, as the Nation Magazine reported in 2019, is the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been part of Ukraine’s National Guard since 2014. Its commander Andriy Biletsky once wrote that Ukraine’s mission is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade…against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”