CCI Team says Farewell to St. Petersburg
Today's email from the Center for Citizen Initiatives.
Dear CCI Readers,
Farewell to St. Petersburg, from Mike Metz!
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
I came to Russia looking for history, that's been my passion since retirement. I found history for sure, but mostly what I found was a country looking forward, looking away from a difficult past. Clean cities, crowded streets, new cars, busy people, peace, stability and relative prosperity.
When I watched the Russian team in the World Cup, I noticed the old Romanov crest on their uniforms and thought what an identity—centuries of czars, decades of communism, ten years of anarchy followed by nearly twenty years of Putin. Who are these people? They are all of that.
Some old believers:
Some new church goers:
Some Putin supporters, some not, but all lovers of peace and stability after the years of chaos and domination by these guys below:
All in all, Russians are just normal people, like Americans, with kids to raise, jobs to go to, bills to pay, hopes for the future. It's a great place to visit (and cheap!) but don't come as a tourist. Come with one of Sharon Tennison's CCI group (https://ccisf.org/). Come with a purpose, to meet Russians, to listen and learn, and maybe make the world a slightly better place.
And if you're lucky you might find a double rainbow over the Winter Palace.
Ok so the palace is slightly to the right- I missed the shot but this one's not bad 
Do Svedonya!
Mike Metz
Citizen Diplomat
September 2018
Comments
All that is true, but unfortunately....
The demonization of the Russian people (not just Putin) in the West is complete and unstoppable at this moment.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/haley-slams-russ...
That is so terrible
and heartbreaking . . .
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Not just the dems have Russia Derangement Syndrome, I see
From Wikipedia:
Supposedly, owner is nephew of William F. Buckley, Jr.
Everywhere people are just people living their lives.
I've not been to Russia although I've flown over vast stretches of Russia and Siberia. The land is amazing. I have only met a few Russians. They were Aeroflot pilots and flight attendants several times in Narita, Japan and Mumbai.
I also had a first officer who ran a small business doing tours of St Petersburg. I don't remember his name but he absolutely loved the city and it's people.
Twenty years of flying to five continents and now living in the sixth continent I have found people to be the same everywhere. Their languages, cultures, and customs vary widely but they all want the same things. The first (I think it is a universal one) is to live a happy, peaceful life among family and friends. We chose to live in Cuenca for this reason. I've never been anywhere in the world whose people cherish peace and tranquility
more. Living here has changed our lives by changing everyday life among people with a peaceful world view.
This was hard for me to accept but I'm convinced that too many Americans are the exception. I think this idea that we are somehow unique, exceptional, and better than everybody else in the world. This idea is the root cause of our disease. A nearly equal part is the steady drumbeat by those who preach fear of everybody not exactly like us. It's nearly impossible to not be caught up in the the toxicity when people hear, read, and see nothing else. To fear we need think fearful thoughts. To hate we need to think hateful thoughts. To justify a willingness to do evil to others we only need to believe they are inferior to us.
I am so relieved to have escaped the asylum. It's contagious in there.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
great comment
Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
Without experiencing it I don’t know if anyone can really appreciate the change of perspective that is free for the taking when living amongst people who aren’t endlessly scared spitless and seeking every advantage over their friends and neighbors that they can steal.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
I couldn't agree with you more about this
Immigrants abroad are all bad people. Immigrants here that fled their countries mainly because of our actions are cowards who should have stayed and fought to take their country back. Poor people who rely on social programs are lazy and if they just worked harder then they would make more money. Black people who are killed by cops are thugs and they shouldn't have committed crimes in the first place or should have obeyed the cops. Liberals are stupid. Conservatives are stupid. Rich people deserve tax cuts because they create jobs for us. The list goes on and on, but bottom line is this country is full of hatred for "other".
Great comment. Glad that you were able to escape from the asylum that is America. It's fitting that a person like Trump became president.
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.
- Kevin Alfred Strom
I agree Snoop but
Americans have come to fear and/or hate damn near everybody. Minor, insignificant differences, are now the basis for intense distrust and suspicion. That shit is sick. Our fellow citizens who have differences are stupid, worthless, ignorant, etc., etc. for what? Almost anything. There is no longer any basis for understanding or discussion. Our ears and minds are closed but our mouths are wide open in full throated rage. At. Stupid. Who. Gives. A. Shit. Stuff.
I'm not judging but observing how I was coming, no, had come, to feel. It had to stop. I felt like I was faced with shutting myself away from all but a few like thinkers and friends or GTFO. My wife and son were even more sensitive to it. They thought up going to Ecuador, not me. This was during the election and before we knew who was going to win. Not much has changed since except more people are angrier and have more supposed enemies. I don't want to live like that. Let people tear each other apart but I won't watch or participate.
I've said it here many times. Trump is but a symptom. We are the problem.
The only way to change it is to change how we think and act. It does not matter what anybody else does. This is solved one person at a time in their own heads and hearts.
For us it is just easier here instead of there. I feel for those who can't or won't get out. I had to decide to decide to change myself before we came here or it would be the same. The key is not location but our choices. "Whereever you go there you are" has meaning. We can't run from ourselves. Choose to live in peace or stay in the sewer.
I have to write about my experiences here but I'm too busy enjoying life and making a new one in a strange land. Maybe sooner than later.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Thank you sincerely
For your comments. I agree with your assessment.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I so needed this!
Thank you so much for this and your main comment. I so needed it! Perfect timing too.
Please, please make it sooner rather than later! We'd love to read it, and need it too.
I went on a Russian Volga River cruise recently.
Admittedly, the Russians I met were travel staff.
Moscow is about patriotism. It is the capitalistic "now", kudos to what brought it to the "now". Jokes about communism, opportunities to see fabulous shoes at the fabulous Rum shopping mall, that place where tanks were on the overpass, Yeltsin in his office. I watched that on tv.
In between Moscow and the tour's end of St. Petersburg were various and sundry villages dating back to times of raiding marauders, the beginnings of Christianity. Churches, more churches, still more churches. Until St. Petersburg. And everything changed.
They are European. They have those historic royals, those castles, that art, the siege, and they go to Russian Orthodox Church, and they have more in common with people in Oslo than Moscow. They identify with the royals, who were much richer, much more powerful than their European cousins.
Over and over, Russians said they could deal with communism, capitalism, or anything in between, but what they rejected was instability.
The crudity of Moscow, the culture and refinement of St. Petersburg was reconciled by stability. No surprises. No more surprises. We will just deal with the bad hand we drew.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981