Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and other members of Portland City Council met the afternoon of September 28, 2022 to hear the annual reports of all Portland’s Sister Cities, including that of the Portland Khabarovsk Sister City Association.
Mayor Wheeler expressed his strong support for the Portland-Khabarovsk Sister City Association (as he and other Council Members support all of Portland’s City Associations), including the following comments:
I believe that the Sister City Relationship is a two way street…it’s not only an opportunity for other communities to learn what we’re doing here, and some of the ideas that we have here that maybe they might want to adopt in their city. It’s an opportunity for us to learn too. Because we have no monopoly on the truth, either here in the City of Portland or nationally in the United States of America.
But this we do know. We do know, or at least I believe fundamentally, that the Sister City relationships are critically important because this is how we reduce conflict between nations. It’s by familiarity, and sharing, and exchange. Whether it’s educational opportunities, whether it’s cultural opportunities, whether it’s economic opportunities, or other personal ties and connections, those are the things that bind us. And when things get tough, for example, when somebody decides they want to start a war, or whatever consequences there may be, then it’s up to us [the] people to intervene. And we do so more passionately when we know who we’re talking about. When its not just some ethereal place that we don’t know anything about that shows up on page B7 of the New York Times or elsewhere. If it’s people that we know, where we have those connections and those ties, then all of a sudden it’s personal, it’s about us too.
The meeting can be viewed on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cuX_woVC8
Shireen Farrahi’s presentation is at time 00:37:34 and Mayor Ted Wheeler’s remarks are at time 01:24:14
