A mid-week update! How about that? I’ve had a busy couple of days engaging in some politics and other things, getting ready for a busy, busy Mother’s Day weekend. I thought it might be nice to run by a few things I’ve been up to in the meantime rather than cramming everything together after the weekend.
On Tuesday evening, I crossed the river to Treynor, Iowa to have “Cake with Vivek,” an event hosted by Free Speech America with presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Around 150 people joined me at the picturesque Palace Events Center in the rolling fields of farmland, including some familiar faces from the Nebraska side such as my blogger friend Dave Begley. The program started with a handful of kids reciting a memorized portion of the Declaration of Independence. Then Vivek took the stage and talked about such things as an “American Identity,” which he likened to a kind of cultural sonar a bat would use to navigate a cave. He also talked about various campaign issues, such as corporate censorship, shutting down the FBI, and term limits for government bureaucrats — as well as his favorite President Thomas Jefferson, the apparent inventor of the swivel-chair.
Martin Cannon with Free Speech America talked briefly about his organization and raising funds for a fireworks show on July 1 before wrapping up. Then Vivek met with guests outside for photos as they signed his tour bus before he left.
Then on Thursday, I attended the Assure Women’s Center’s “First Step to Life” banquet at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. I’d learned about Assure way back in 2017, when executive director Toni Clarke spoke at a pro-life luncheon. They are a crisis pregnancy center that seems to focus on a non-judgmental and objective presentation of “options” for women facing an unplanned pregnancy, hoping that they would choose adoption or keeping the child rather than abortion. Around 2000 people were packed into the sold-out event for dinner together. Pam Tebow was the emcee of the event, and she spoke briefly about her pro-life experience with her son Tim Tebow. Other speakers included Gov. Jim Pillen and Mayor Jean Stothert. The keynote speaker was Seth Dillon, the CEO of The Babylon Bee, who talked about using humor in what he described as a spiritual warfare in our culture.
Tebow and Dillon both stayed to mingle with guests after the event, so I came by to shake Dillon’s hand and chat a bit about his company getting Elon Musk to buy Twitter last year. I also saw a handful of familiar faces from such recent events as the Elephant Remembers dinner, including Rod Edwards, who I got in a few candid shots before I headed off for the evening.
In other news, the school year is wrapping up, so Aaron has his last Wednesday night at Royal Rangers with his little friends. It’s been a fun year with him learning bits about the bible while making some new friends. I’ve also enjoyed all the extra reading time I’ve gotten in the church lobby while I’ve been there.
We also managed not to have a week full of rain, as they’d been forecasting, so I got outside for a bike ride nearly every day of the week. That meant trips to Towl Park, to Hanscom Park, and also up to Democracy Park (to play a bit on the playground). They’ve reopened a few of the trails that had been demolished months ago to replace some sewer pipe, and as soon as the kids are done with school, I’ll probably be biking to and from work once again.
