Day 6 - Lincoln, Nebraska

In addition to visiting university campuses, we’re also heading for all 4 Debates to support Jill and Ajamu, so we need to drive many miles each day to be at Hofstra U on Long Island on Monday. Today, we did over 500 miles -  2,200 since Saturday - to stay on schedule, but we arrived too late to visit the U of Nebraska-Lincoln here in the state’s capital. We’ll make it up tomorrow morning by visiting U of Nebraska in Omaha before crossing the Missouri River and beginning our drive across Iowa.

No time to stop at Della's Cafe in the heartland. 

The good news: we’re finding millennials everywhere! Before leaving our motel in Laramie this morning, the young manager, a recent graduate of UW, accepted some leaflets to share with friends and clients. We’re constantly in search of good Wi-Fi (we don’t have it tonight!), so we were delighted at mid-day to see a Starbucks sign on Interstate 80 in Sidney, Nebraska, only to learn from the Visitors Center there that it was some 4 miles distant. I made 2 new friends for Jill, then left the Visitors Center with a map and drove the 4 miles, passing through Sidney’s charming old downtown area. We found Starbucks in a supermarket. No Wi-Fi but did  talk with the barista and two young ladies waiting in line, all of whom were grateful to learn there was an alternative to the two disliked candidates that the shallow media likes so much. All eagerly took extra leaflets, delighted to learn there was a great alternative. And I was delighted to find so much openness to Jill here in the heartland.

At lunchtime, we stopped in North Platte for a sandwich and engaged the young man who made our sandwich in a discussion about the election. He, like so many, was so pleased to learn of an alternative candidate that he extended his hand in gratitude when we said goodbye. I get to shake a lot of hands after talking about Jill!

I'm not the least bit discouraged by the numbers today. Cynthia Bourgault wrote this about hope: "Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness. It does not come at the end, as the feeling that results from a happy outcome. Rather, it lies at the beginning, as a pulse of truth that sends us forth." Every person I talk with about Jill and Ajamu is at the center of a personal network and his or her unique "pulse of truth" can send hundreds forth to bring real hope to millions. I just have to keep driving and telling people about Jill and Ajamu, sharing our pulse of truth.