A Comment from Dan Clark

I date my Russia experience from Nikita Khrushchev's visit to Iowa in 1959. Whatever I grasped of our Cold War world at age 8, I knew this was the "enemy" leader coming through our town, and I was keen to see him and understand what it all meant. I got a good look at him and his motorcade from my Dad's shoulders as we stood just a few feet away on the curb of the Lincoln Highway in West Boone. It's a memory still strong after 50 years. As an adult, I've been fortunate to welcome many visitors from the former Soviet Union in Iowa, to have had some as house guests, and to have helped many Iowans with their exchange efforts as well. I visited Estonia and Ukraine in 1984 and traveled in Russia eight times, 1984-1998, especially Stavropolski krai, Iowa's sister state. My wife visited Russia twice, and our daughter Becca lived more than a year in Kislovodsk. In the course of all these adventures, we have made many, many friends, some for life. For us, all this makes sense because we're Iowans, and this is what Iowans do.