Dear Friends of CCI,
This is a belated catch-up note. I’m glad to be back in touch after a hiatus to recover from the last trip, coalesce our travelers’ experiences, and to edit numerous videos. Whoooo!
CCI has been a “dead run” for the entire year of 2018! Groups of Americans traveling across Russia to check out their stereotypes and investigate for themselves … and Russians coming to numerous American cities to address facts and fiction existing in both of our populations.
Our September trip was the most rigorous citizen diplomacy trip ever attempted in Russia by any organization, past or present. Our 25 mainstream travelers visited 15 Russian cities across 10 regions of Russia to investigate how each is faring far from Moscow and St. Petersburg. They brought back an enormous amount of information, video materials and photos which we will send to you over shortly.
Today US-Russia relations are as dangerous as they can get, short of an actual all-out nuclear war. Amazingly, few Americans are informed or even interested in this issue. Our compatriots assume their comfortable lives will go on indefinitely. Conversely, I feel compelled to “do the impossible” … something to break through this insanity. I keep hoping that others in powerful places will wake up! Senator Rand Paul, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and a few others have, maybe others will wake up as well. But so far it isn’t happening enough to make a difference. This morning I watched Dan Ellsburg’s latest, “Hitler Wouldn’t Risk Doomsday, But The United States Did”, where Ellsburg reiterates how none of the top scientists and political advisors to Truman opted to tell him the truth about the A-bomb he was about to drop on the two Japanese cities. Some said it “wouldn’t be patriotic” and advised others not to tell!
Here is the link to that video: https://therealnews.com/stories/hitler-wouldnt-risk-doomsday-but-the-united-states-did-daniel-ellsberg-on-rai-2-8.
Watch this video, it is shocking. Do we have top scientists and political advisors today who are NOT advising President Trump about the worldwide consequences of a “limited nuclear war?”
What will CCI do in 2019? We aren’t quite sure at this point, since new possibilities have emerged even in the past two days. In any case, breaking through stereotypical mindsets and revealing the truth will be central to everything we at CCI do. In addition to repeating programs we have carried out previously, two huge new ideas are brewing in my cranium as 2019 looms immediately ahead. More to follow on these two.
Restarting Major Programs: Fortunately we can rely on CCI’s past experience and huge networks of American volunteers and Russian alumni across both nations. Earlier, the U.S. State Department loved CCI’s business training programs because we depended solely on American Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs to provide pro bono airport pickups, homestays and business training in the local companies of their cities, whereas the State Department had to pay other programs USA costs. Previously, we began large programs without full-time staff and can do it again.
CCI Volunteers as of Today: CCI currently has three dedicated volunteers (in New Jersey, Dallas and Bay Area) who work “at distance.” Another participant emailed yesterday saying he will volunteer his financial skills from New Zealand. Thankfully computers and Internet make all of this possible! I’ve learned over the past year, how effective at-distance helpers can be. Sometimes they volunteer up to a dozen hours a week, some weeks not at all, depending on the need. We will need up to three or four more volunteers to do specific tasks for 2019 activity. FYI, at-distance staff is the only option for CCI at present. Rent for office and living space in our area has skyrocketed since Silicon Valley migrated here a few years ago. So I’ll create a list of at-distance tasks needed and put it out to this list soon. Later with funding, we will pay some services by the hour and by contract. Our CCI volunteers, past and present, feel volunteering with CCI is a very important part of their lives … they know they are involved in trying to make a difference. You might be also!
Fundraising: This is a challenge today since funders in American cities are being hit by pressing local needs that didn’t previously exist. For instance, CCI’s largest non-governmental funder in the 80s and 90s was the huge Charles Stewart Mott Foundation with its home offices in Flint, Michigan. Knowing what Flint has gone through in recent years, one can imagine how much the Mott Foundation is now spending locally. However, I will investigate funding after decisions are made about which CCI programs will need financial support.
Any thoughts you have about any of the above will be greatly appreciated, meanwhile we move forward with the intention to greatly increase public awareness about the truth behind the US-Russia relationship and the over-arching potential for Nuclear War with tensions as volatile and unpredictable as they are today.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
FYI: Our YouTube videos and reports will “take you there” with our travelers over the next few weeks. Warning! They may make you want to travel in 2019 to have the same types of people-to-people experiences. If so, let us know, we will send you an application!
Videographer Regis Tremblay captured much of our September trip on video. Last week, we edited some of it. The first YouTube you will receive will be a shortened version of our two-hour meeting with former President Mikhail Gorbachev … the man who single-handedly changed the future of the world in the late 1980s! Thirty years later, despite being 87 years of age, he still has the same power and spunk to address the issues of today’s world!