The roughly 370 miles between North Omaha and the heart of southwest Nebraska aren’t slowing a group of Nebraskans from forging relationships that they hope will serve as a model for bridging the gulf between rural and urban communities.
In less than a year, residents from either end of that span have crossed the state to experience how the other side lives – from mock cattle auctions in Ogallala to a Juneteenth parade on Omaha’s North 24th Street. Momentum is gathering, and they have no plans to stop.
“We didn’t get into this problem overnight and we’re not going to get out of it overnight,” said McCook-area farmer Dale Dueland, one of the western Nebraskans participating in the exchange. “We’ve got to be committed to the long haul.”
This endeavor’s roots date to 2020, when longtime Omaha activist Preston Love Jr. wrote an open letter to rural Nebraska, encouraging residents across the state to put aside division and embrace one another. The fates of urban and rural Nebraska are inextricably linked, he argued, so why not focus on building a bright future together?
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The letter resonated with Nebraska Community Foundation President and CEO Jeff Yost. The two opened a dialogue that ultimately led to the idea of an exchange.
It began with two busloads of folks from rural Nebraska traveling to North Omaha in November 2022. After lunch at Big Mama’s Kitchen, Love led a driving tour of the community.
The trip inspired volunteers out west to return the favor. In April, they hosted a two-day tour for a contingent of North Omahans including Love and other community leaders.
The first stop: McCook and the famed Sehnert’s Bakery, where they were greeted by members of the local community foundation affiliate. After breaking into groups, they toured McCook, including the historical homes of George Norris and Ben Nelson.
From there they headed to Imperial. Dueland narrated the jaunt northwest on Highway 6 with information about agriculture, farmers cooperatives and water management.
“We learned a lot today,” Love said later at dinner. “A lot about your community, a lot about your people, a lot about the work that you do and how important that little center pivot is to your survival. We learned that, we go home with that and we’ll take that message back. It’s a bridge, if you will.”
There is certainly division to bridge.
Nearly 60% of rural residents surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2018 said their values don’t align with those living in urban areas. More than half of city dwellers (53%) said the same about rural residents. Both groups said the other looked down on or misunderstood them.
Polling closer to home has identified differences.
Andrew Ambriz, owner of Sehnert’s Bakery and Bieroc Café in McCook leads Michael Williams and D. Kevin Williams of Omaha through a tour of the business. Ambriz and his wife recently took over the James Beard Award-winning restaurant.
Among rural Nebraskans, 66% described their community’s political views on social issues as conservative, compared to 48% in metro areas, according to the 2021 Nebraska Rural Poll conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
But there are commonalities.
Similar percentages of rural and urban Nebraskans expressed positive views of their jobs, their friends, their families, their personal safety and their communities, according to the UNL poll.
The national Pew survey found residents in both types of communities worry about drug addiction, availability of affordable housing, availability of jobs and infrastructure,…
Read More: Cross-state exchanges build bonds between North Omaha and southwest Nebraska