Инструменты пользователя
August 2012
Irina Evgenievna Dudina
Krasnoyarskiy kray
Taymirskiy munitsipal’niy rayon
p.Dikson
ul. Vodop’yanova 14
Russia 647340
Dear Irina Evgenievna,
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am the current mayor of Dixon, which is located in the state of Illinois, U.S.A. I serve as honorary chairperson of a citizens’ organization named Dixon Sister Cities Association. Dixon Sister Cities Association came into existence after eight citizens of your city wrote a letter to our mayor in 1986. They asked for a reply, hoping to establish communications and possibly a peoples’ exchange at the citizen level.
As you likely know, that original letter from your residents resulted in groundbreaking exchange visits involving residents of your Russian town and our American town. It was the first truly people-to-people initiative between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. Two authors, Mr. William E. Shaw and Mr. Boris Ivanov, subsequently co-authored a book about the exchange breakthrough, which was published in English and Russian. The respective titles are: And We Crossed the Ocean (Russian Edition) and From Fear to Friendship (English edition).
Twenty-six years later, the communication between us has significantly diminished but not disappeared. Some of our secondary school students have been in contact with some of your students through the Internet, but that contact is infrequent and sporadic. It needs to be strengthened, broadened and intensified beyond the schools.
Further, the person on our end, Mr. Harry Ulferts, who maintained the internet communication with the English teacher in your city, died in June, bringing our involvement temporarily to an end. Mr. Ulferts, a police officer, was one of our citizens who visited your city. There may be some who still remember his dynamic personality. We will now be forced to find another person to keep our respective students in communication with each other.
We believe that the earlier efforts of your citizens and ours in forging vital personal contacts between us should not be forgotten or abandoned. We believe that today’s new challenges are of critical importance for the peace and prosperity of our two nations and of many other nations around the world. We believe that we, as citizens, have an important role to play in keeping faith in global peace and reconciliation alive.
We propose, therefore, that together we make an effort to restart that citizen to citizen exchange begun so courageously 26 years ago. We are prepared to either host a small delegation from Dikson, or send a small delegation from Dixon to you. The purpose of such a visit would be to open a new chapter in relationships. We are interested in knowing how life has changed in Dikson as a result of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. We are interested in knowing how the North East Passage through the Arctic Sea has affected or will affect the Kara Sea and Dikson. We wonder if the global climate change that we both read about and are experiencing might not be a point of interest for us to explore together.
We encountered your name as the current mayor via the internet but are unsure that the information we received is recent enough to be correct. If you could please confirm that you are the person to whom I should be writing about this matter, that would be most appreciated.
We eagerly await a reply. You may use the Internet if you like. My email address is james.burke@discoverdixon.org or you may send a letter to my postal address:
Mr. James Burke,
Mayor of Dixon, Illinois
121 W. 2nd St.
Dixon IL 61021 USA
You may also copy that email to the president of Dixon Sister-Cities Association, Mr. Ray Schmidt. His email address is ray020557@gmail.com The Dixon Sister Cities Association has the following postal address:
Dixon Sister-Cities Association
Attention Mr. Ray Schmidt, President
1811 Valley Ridge Lane
Dixon IL 61021 USA
I will ensure that Dixon Sister Cities Association receives an English translation of any correspondence from you.
We are able to correspond with you in Russian through the kindness of Mr. Denis Touroutine, who attended school in Dikson, Siberia while a student, but now lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Sincerely,
James Burke
Mayor, City of Dixon
122 W 2nd St.
Dixon IL 61021