Dear CCI Followers,

The worldwide situation worsens by the week. What this means to us individually is as yet unknown. To many countries it will mean dire challenges with food supplies. Thankfully we are in a growing season in the temperate zones. I remember when my Kentucky father tilled much of the soil around our modest little home during World War II to grow vegetables during the spring and summer.

Who could have ever guessed that Russia would matter to the rest of the world?

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Readers,

Andrew J. Bacevich is an American historian specializing in international relations, security studies, American foreign policy, and American diplomatic and military history. A Colonel in the U.S. Army, he served in Vietnam and the Gulf War. His warnings about the Ukraine War must be taken seriously.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Friends,

Tulsi Gabbard has just announced to the world the most powerful message imaginable regarding Ukraine, Russia and the United States … what must happen to avoid further damage and WWIII.

Please read Tulsi’s most profound interview ever. Apparently she has no fear in telling the truth.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Followers,

Here is the latest on the discussions in Ukraine regarding ending the tragic war.

More to follow,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Thanks again to Natylie Baldwin, a close watcher of all things regarding Russia and Ukraine! Note Natylie’s two books, both of which are excellent:
Ukraine: Zbig’s Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated
The View From Moscow: Understanding Russia and U.S.-Russia Relations

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Dear CCI Friends,

I’ve obviously been silent for the past dozen days. Having just returned from Russia upbeat, I couldn’t seem to ‘get my bearings’ on return home.

I’ve written messages, some finished, some unfinished, but didn’t send any of them. I was concerned whether I’d misunderstood the situation. The horrendously dangerous time was developing but not like I had expected.

Russians and Ukrainians were trying to best one another, each for their own survival … meanwhile the survival of our earth was hanging in the balance. All of this with NATO in the background.

I’ve had 38 years of being in both countries on and off, working with and loving both people. I found my heart breaking from watching the daily news reports and photos about this war. I had to withdraw, meditate and find solace. I could see that sources on both sides were supplying plenty of information, not always good but this time I didn’t have the energy to get into the fray.

I’m still sitting in the crosscurrents with this grief. This is too personal and I know and feel too much. Usually I think I can make a difference in difficult situations. This time I know that nothing I can say or do will make any difference at all. Hopefully others will fill this space and bring solutions.

Countless times in these past days, I’ve turned to the world’s great music for solace. It seems to identify with and address the ache-in-the-soul when I have no solutions.

The music that most captures for me the horror existing between Russia and Ukraine today is Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2.  It doesn’t take sides, it simply reveals the pain, the penetrating angst, and also the potential for redemption. Russia’s amazing young prodigy, Alexander Malofeev was about sixteen when this recording took place. He is Moscow’s latest gift to the world of great music, having been on the piano since age five. Malofeev is now performing in top halls all across the world.

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