Why your heart is the ‘brain’ of love

In 1991, scientists discovered that the heart, in all its persistence, also has a “cardiac brain.”

Although pain, it seemed, could always be associated with the brain, researchers found that a “broken heart” or anguish, and even the joy we feel from great moments of love in our life are actually centered in our “intrinsic cardiac nervous system.”

The heart speaks to our brain not only biologically, biophysically and biochemically, but also energetically and neurologically. Comprised of over “40,000” neurons, our heart is capable of feeling and helping our flight or fight response. Scientists discovered that the “heart brain” carries more messages to the brain than receives them and that means that everything your mom told you was correct. Your heart feels every bit of you and responds as such. Fear, shame, joy, love, excitement – all felt through this “heart brain” that sends signals up to the brain via the Vagus nerve which then redirects to the different areas of the brain for responses.

The heart is not just a blood pump, but rather, a central beginning to the neural network that helps the brain interpret “feelings.” It is the subjective part of ourselves and that’s why we have “broken hearts,” hearts “filled with love,” “we take heart,” “have a change of heart,” we are hard hearted’, soft hearted” and have a “big heart.”

Intercultural Senior Center

You’re invited to visit the Intercultural Senior Center (ISC), 5545 Center St.

The facility – open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – offers programs and activities from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Participants must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend the ISC. Men and women are asked to wear a mask and bring their vaccination card with them when visiting the center.

The ISC offers a light breakfast, lunch, fitness classes, programs, and activities. Technology classes are held Tuesdays and Wednesdays @ 10:20 a.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays @ 12:30 p.m.

Lunch reservations are due by 9 a.m. A voluntary contribution is suggested for the meal. Please call 402-4446529 for reservations.

Monthly food pantries are available for men and women ages 50 and older.

ISC’s SAVE bus can bring case management services to your doorstep.

The ISC will be closed on February 20 in Observance of President’s Day.

For more information, please call 402-444-6529.

Nebraska Wind Symphony

Join the Nebraska Wind Symphony on February 19th, 2023 for its annual Middle School All-Stars Concert.

Nebraska Wind Symphony will provide a rich and exciting musical experience for middle school horn students this year, complete with guest artists and plenty of great horn music.

The concert will include Ralph Vaughan Williams’ classic Flourish for Wind Band and selections from Carl Orff’s tour-de-force Carmina Burana.

The wind symphony will feature guest artist Ross Snyder on Will Pitts’ Dynamo for Horn and Wind Ensemble. Guest artists Horns of the Heartland will feature on Mozart’s Concerto No. 3 for Horn and Joseph Wilcox Jenkins’ American Overture.

The Middle School All-Stars will join the wind symphony on Malcolm Arnold’s The Padstow Lifeboat, Kevin Day’s Ember Skies (guest conductor Lindsey Bogatz) and Ed Huckeby’s Horn-A-Plenty (guest conductor Deb Lund).

“It sounded like an explosion, or a gunshot right inside my head, with this blinding white ball of light. I was struck down, and I believed I was dying. But I felt very calm. Afterward, I really didn’t feel right physically for weeks.”

Though never forgotten, he is unsure if that event had any lasting effects, physically. “Through the years, I’ve had little bouts of atrial fibrillation (an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm or arrhythmia) that could be from the lightning, or not,” he said.

Five years ago, he came close to dying again, when a drunk driver rear-ended his car. “This guy plowed into me and spun my car 360 degrees across the street,” Koterba said. “It hurt my right shoulder, my drawing arm and my hand, which is also my strumming hand. I still have about 10 percent paralysis. It took a lot of physical therapy to keep drawing, but playing music took a back seat.”

Dedicated to his work, few of his World-Herald followers even knew it happened.

After joining the editorial page staff at the World-Herald, Koterba wasn’t content to just draw political cartoons. A skilled storyteller, he wrote editorials and columns. He spoke at schools and countless events and gatherings, and was a twotime TEDx speaker, sharing insights into his life, his craft and the newspaper business. He took part in a video series for the newspaper’s website and was twice nominated for a Heartland Emmy award.

Honored by the National Cartoonists Society, National Headliner Awards and Great Plains Journalism Awards, his cartoons have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today.

After an invitation from Nebraska astronaut Clayton Anderson, his cartoons flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery. His work has been included in multiple exhibits in the U.S. and Europe, alongside Picasso and Banksy.

He also wrote a popular memoir, Inklings, that Entertainment Weekly called “a powerful and moving portrait of an artist.”

“I was always doing things that I felt brought value to the newspaper,” he said.

Which is why it came as a shock in September 2020 that Koterba was among many longtime employees suddenly laid off by the World-Herald’s new owners.

When Warren Buffett sold his stake in the WorldHerald to Lee Enterprises in early 2020 it didn’t take long for layoffs, buyouts and pay cuts to become the headline of the day. Unknown to him, Koterba’s name was on one of those lists.

After all he had done to bring recognition to the World-Herald and his craft, with more than 12,000 political cartoons to his credit, Koterba left the newspaper not with a handshake but a cold slap to the face. He was denied the opportunity to draw one final cartoon; even to say goodbye to his coworkers. Instead, he was escorted to the door by security.

“I can’t say I was angry, but I was hurt,” he recalled. “I asked to do a final cartoon and the answer was like, ‘No. You don’t exist anymore.’ That was the hardest thing.”

Though that was more than two years ago, Koterba says he still runs into people who recognize him or his name and ask him what happened; why he left the paper and what he is doing now.

Today, Koterba is still at the drawing board.

After his son, Josh, told him about Patreon, an online platform where people support independent artists’ work, he joined its roster of talents. While continuing to draw political cartoons on national issues for the distribution service Cagle Comics, he has a growing list of more than 230 people whose Patreon memberships range from $6 to $100 per month.

He was invited to serve as an artist-in-residence at Pottawattamie Arts, Culture and Entertainment (PACE) in Council Bluffs, an invitation he is very happy to have accepted.

He also fills in for Otis Twelve on the morning show at KVNO radio, a gig he says he absolutely loves. “I’m no expert in classical music; just a regular guy,” he says. “But I love the show. The station, the people, everyone at KVNO is so kind and thoughtful. They really care about the listener, and how the music brings joy.”

He said the radio show has renewed a connection with the people of Omaha and the area. “I don’t draw local cartoons anymore. There’s no market for it,” he says. “But through KVNO, I’ve come to enjoy Omaha in a way I haven’t been able to for a while; to connect with Omahans in a way I never have before.”

He still loves to draw, now also using an iPad so he can work anywhere, and he has returned to oil painting, “but those take weeks; months.”

He hopes to continue growing his subscriber base on Patreon (visit patreon. com/jeffreykoterba for more information) and to launch a podcast geared toward creativity. “I believe everyone is creative in some way,” he says. “All things take creative thought, and I want to celebrate that.”

He also continues to perfect his French, a language he took up four years ago. From that interest, he created a French conversation group. “When I started, it was just me. Now, there are more than 300 people.”

In a life full of so many twists and turns, one thing is certain. Jeff Koterba will continue to create cartoons as unique as the person who draws them. Even when his mind is as blank as the page he is staring at.

“I have a job to do. I know I will come up with something,” he said. “I can’t just sit there and wait for lightning to strike.” Again.

Green added, “we had a very high respect for our elders. We made sure we took care of them, and everybody took care of their own.”

Likewise, everyone looked after one another’s children. Neighbors became instant surrogate aunts and uncles when a parent passed away.

“We made sure all those kids were taken care of,” Green said.

Many families had two working parents, often laboring in multiple lower paying jobs. But kids generally didn’t see themselves as poor, said Terry. “We thought our parents were wealthy, making big money,” although many jobs were menial labor in the stockyards, packing plants or railroads.

“These were the moneymaking jobs,” she said.

Butler added, “Nobody had more than anybody else, and if you did, you didn’t brag about it.”

Despite the positives of North Omaha community closeness and the proximity of stores, recreation, and services, many residents longed to move westward, but were prohibited by redlining, according to Terry. Redlining was a now-illegal federal government-sanctioned practice of restricting home loan lending in predominantly Black neighborhoods. The Home Lenders Loan Corporation justified the practice by tagging such areas as “hazardous and unfit for investment.”

Even loans for home or property improvements were hard to come by. Green recalled, “When we first lived on 24th Street, we were not allowed to do any construction.” For example, her family wanted to build a new garage, but couldn’t secure the financing to do so. Redlining was eventually banned by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Securing a seat in many restaurants was not possible, either. Terry recalls trying to nab a stool at the counter at a local “five and dime” store. Accompanied by her brother and several friends, they ordered hamburgers, fries and drinks, which were typically prepared to go.

“No, we want to sit at the counter and eat,” Terry said. But the counter attendant barked, ‘Oh no,’ We asked why not. And he replied ‘It’s the law. It’s a rule,’ and he called for the manager for reinforcements. The manager then insisted, in no uncertain terms, ‘You kids are going to have to take this and go.’ And we said, ‘No.’ That was our first taste of militancy. We didn’t leave. We just sat there and ate.”

In a forum recognizing Black History Month sponsored by the Schenzel Community Center, senior members discussed their experiences growing up in North Omaha. Among those participating were (from left): Center Director Pastor Ed King, Sharon Green, Bessie Howard (program coordinator), Pauline Terry, Phyllis Mitchell Butler, Robert Anderson and Rugenia Morrow.

In addition to experiencing discrimination in housing and dining, participants in the forum also described discriminatory practices in education, recreation, transportation and employment. Black families, for example, were not welcomed at Omaha’s Peony Park, but instead crossed the Missouri to enjoy Playland Park in Council Bluffs.

Highly symbolic of efforts to further isolate Black Omahans, the North Freeway, a project first envisioned in 1954, effectively erected a physical barrier bisecting and marginalizing Omaha’s African American Community. In addition, wide swaths of homes and businesses were bulldozed, displacing countless families. Community activists blocked the planned extension of the freeway beyond Fort Street, but the thoroughfare nevertheless opened in 1989.

“The North Freeway was purposely designed to cut straight across the Black community,” said Green. It was a matter of “divide and conquer.”

Also contributing to the splintering and fracturing of the North Omaha community were a series of riots in the mid to late 1960s. Terry recalls them vividly.

“I was there. I was right in the midst of it all. I was probably one of the militant children because the young man I was courting wanted to be a Black Panther. We ing Tech, North and Central High Schools. For example, former Tech principal, Carl Palmquist, who served from 1950 to 1971, was lauded by those who attended Tech, especially for his focus on strong vocational education and training in the trades. Nevertheless, disparities between schools became obvious. Terry recalled taking a field trip to a West Omaha high school and was struck by disparities in textbooks. as well as, in 1948, the first African American female to graduate from the Creighton University Law School.

“What we learned is the schools out west had the current books, and Tech High had the books that were four or five years older,” she said.

“What I found as a young person was an inspiration,” said Terry. “And my inspiration was Judge Elizabeth Pittman. When you’re around people such as Judge Pittman, you have a different philosophy about everything.” didn’t know how dangerous it was. I have a picture of him sitting on a stool with two guns, holding each gun up. I though I was Angela Davis, Jr., sitting there trying to scare somebody. But we didn’t scare anybody. We only scared ourselves. We hurt ourselves more than we hurt anybody else,” she said. “But it was still worth some of the effort.”

Today, positive role models are in short supply, participants agreed. Robert Anderson suggested fractured families are to blame for many of today’s issues in North Omaha.

While historical evidence suggests a disturbing pattern of substandard, segregated and resource-poor schools in North Omaha, forum participants generally recall with fondness their experiences in high school, includ-

When Supreme Courtordered bussing started in 1976, a practice that continued until 1996, Black families feared for the safety of their children. Terry described, “there were some people of a different ethnicity that would talk about shooting our people if they got off the busses in their neighborhood.”

Pastor Ed King, director of the Schenzel Community Center, asked the group to share thoughts about the challenges faced by young people today in North Omaha. Many suggested a dearth of positive adult modeling. Terry recalled how impactful it was for her to grow up next door to Judge Elizabeth Pittman, the first Black judge and the first woman judge in Nebraska,

“There is no family structure at home and the gangs have become their family,” he decried. Unfortunately, “gangs provide that organization and structure. Now we don’t see a lot of successful black men and women.”

Anderson summarized what seemed to be the sentiment of the group. North Omaha was once a thriving, vibrant and caring community – “a self-contained community that showed love for one another. We don’t have that now.”

Yet optimism reigns among the seniors at the Schenzel Center because their purpose remains not just to share a meal and play games twice a week, but to engage, mold and mentor the young people next door at the Hope Center for Kids.

Volunteer Connect offers a variety of opportunities

Do you have some spare time, a skill to share, and wish to contribute to your community? Private and non-profit agencies are looking for your help.

Please contact Tia Schoenfeld with the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging’s Volunteer Connect program at 402-444-6536, ext. 1045 for more information on the following volunteer opportunities:

• Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity construction projects and the Homestore.

• Volunteers to help with Heat the Streets event on Saturday, March 4.

• Partnership 4 Kids is looking for volunteers to serve as Goal Buddies (5th grade) and Group Mentors (6-12th grade). If you are interested.

• Siena Francis House, volunteers to assist with serving breakfast and lunch.

• Volunteers Assisting Seniors VAS Volunteers are needed to provide nonbiased Medicare Counselling and Homestead Exemption Application Assistance through

Volunteers Assisting Seniors. Free training is provided.

• Washington County Recycling Association WCRA 440 S.3rd St., Blair, NE, 8-noon Saturday mornings, currently 1-4 pm Tuesday afternoons, is always in need of volunteers. People don’t have to sign up.

Flaherty Senior Consulting

Caring for a loved one is difficult, and the challenges are amplified during a pandemic. Join Flaherty Senior Consulting for a series of Solutions Group gatherings that will address the questions and challenges caregivers face.

Solutions Groups provide opportunities for caregivers to learn how to deal with various issues, obtain skills and knowledge, engage in discussions, and interact with others in similar circumstances.

Upcoming meeting dates and locations are:

• March 14, May 9, July 11, Sept. 12, Nov. 14

• Write greeting cards of encouragement to residents in skilled care and assisted living facilities.

• Men and women are needed to write greeting cards of encouragement for residents living in skilled care and assisted living facilities.

• Volunteer Connect wants men and women to participate in a focus group.

• Volunteers are needed to knit/sew baby caps/clothing and prayer shawls.

St. Vincent de Paul Church 14330 Eagle Run Dr.

• Feb. 15, April 19, June 21,

Aug. 16, Oct. 18, Dec. 13

St. Timothy Lutheran Church 93rd and Dodge streets

• Feb. 2, April 6, June 1, Aug. 3, Oct. 5, Dec. 7

The Servite Center of Compassion 72nd St. and Ames Cr.

• March 25, May 20, July 22, Sept. 23, Nov. 18

Faith Westwood United Methodist Church 4814 Oaks Ln.

The Solutions Groups are facilitated by Nancy Flaherty, MS, CDP, president of Flaherty Senior Consulting. She has extensive experience working with family caregivers and caregiver groups.

Registration is required to attend each gathering. Masks are mandatory and social distancing will be observed. Visit flahertyconsulting.net or call 402-312-9324 for more information.

Flaherty also provides private consultations with family caregivers to help them develop individual plans for their loved ones.

For information on private consultations, Solutions Group meeting times, and/or to register to attend a Solutions Group, email Nancy at flahertyconsulting@cox.net or call/text her at 402-312-9324.

Fremont Friendship Center

You’re invited to visit the Fremont Friendship Center, 1730 W. 16th St. (Christensen Field). The facility is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

A meal is served weekdays @ 11:30 a.m. Reservations, which are due by noon the business day prior to the meal the participant wishes to enjoy, can be made by calling 402727-2815. A $4.25 contribution is suggested for the meal.

This month’s activities will include:

• February 1: Horse Derby @ 10:30 a.m.

• February 2: Presentation from Nye, “Don’t Slip” @ 10 a.m.

• February 7: Craft Class (Valentine’s Day Cards) @ 1:30 p.m.

• February 8: Music with Julie Couch @ 10:30 a.m.

• February 14: Valentine’s Day Party with Bingo and Trivia

• February 14: Craft Class (Photo/Inspiration Boxes) @ 1:30 p.m.

• February 15: Music with Ben Tomesillo @ 10:30 a.m.

• February 22: Music with THE LINKS! Mary and Diana @ 10 a.m.

• February 24: Merry Maker’s Presents Rockin’ Woody! @ 10:30 a.m.

• February 28: Board Meeting @ 1:30 p.m.

Walking Club returns: During the month of February and March, you may walk from 9-9:30 a.m., every Thursday.

Craft Class is every Tuesday from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Tai Chi offered every Tuesday and Friday from 9:15-10 a.m.

For meal reservations and more information, please call Laurie at 402-727-2815.

Courtesy Photo

Metro Community College created a space for everyone: Digital Express. Located right in the heart of North Omaha, Metro Community College provides Wi-Fi, technology, meeting rooms and a digital library to people in the community that want to learn and connect.

A space for the community to access, connect and engage: Digital Express

Metro Community College welcomes a space created for everyone: Digital Express.

The Digital Express provides multi-generational technology services and programming, one-on-one assistance with technology, low-cost-device repair, and spaces to gather and relax. It is a space created for everyone in the heart of North Omaha.

As a Digital Express patron, Metro Community College allows access to services and resources.

The services and resources include:

• Technology Checkout and Support: Use our desktop computers, laptops, iPads, children’s STEM kits, gaming consoles, Nintendo Switch, and other tech devices or bring in your own device. One-onone assistance provided.

• Low-Cost Device Repair: Bring in your broken devices (mobile phone, laptop, or tablet) to Reboot Central Powered by iFixOmaha to be repaired by a certified technician; you pay only for the parts. Drop off your device and return at a convenient time to pick up and pay.

• Digital Library Services: Check out books and videos and access digital resources including audiobooks, electronic books, magazines, newspapers, streaming videos and research databases.

• Meeting Rooms: Reserve a Huddle or Family room at no charge for a two-hour maximum on a first-come-first-serve basis. Use a Huddle room with technology built into the room including screens to mirror your laptop image. Bring your children and reserve a Family room for both work and play; includes desktop computer and a TV.

• Print, fax and scan your documents at a reduced cost.

• Workshops: Currently offering Medicare and Homestead Exemption workshops provided by VAS (Volunteers Assisting Seniors); call the Digital Express at 531-622-2000 for additional information and to reserve your spot. Coming mid-2023: Participate in workshops learning the basics of computers including Chromebooks, using Email, searching and using the Internet, accessing digital library resources, and much more.

The Digital Express is located on the north end of Metropolitan Community College’s Fort Omaha Campus in Building 10 at 5300 North 30th Street (30th and Fort Streets) on bus route 30 to North 30th Street. Parking lots are conveniently close to the Digital Express building and handicap parking is immediately in front of the building.

To sign up for your Digital Express account (no charge), call Metro Community College at 531-622-2000, email Metro Community College at digitalexpress2@mccneb. edu or come in to the Digital Express with your photo ID. Metro Community College collects only basic information to provide you access.

The Digital Express is opened on Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.