Satan's Pizza

1976.5.25

One week until Yankee Stadium.

We are in Omaha and have been since Saturday. There is another MFT here from California, also on their way east. On Sunday there was a group of brothers and sisters here on their way to a gathering of negative parents. They were all former kidnap victims and were going as a group to give testimony about how evil kidnapping is, how psychologically damaging it can be, and that it's wrong to try to force someone to give up or betray their religious convictions, no matter what they believe.

One of the sisters was Wendy Helander. She was famous. Her picture and story were printed in church publications and everyone talked about her with awe. She had a very strong, clear and determined spirit. She said some people who get kidnapped and come back are even stronger than they were before.

I started a seven-day fast for Yankee Stadium today. Both Susan and I are doing it.

Today I fundraised downtown Omaha. I went into a place called Satan's Pizza. I couldn't believe it. It was all painted black on the outside. And the guy inside even looked like Satan, right down to the goatee. He was pretty negative, but he wasn't nasty or rude or anything to me. He seemed to take some perverse delight in seeing that I was actually a little afraid of him, like he might actually be Satan. He didn't have any customers, so I quickly left.

Nebraska is really negative fundraising territory. We found out from headquarters in New York that it's one of the worst areas in the country for MFT. Every town in the state is a police problem. A year ago it was prime territory, but it's been fundraised so much that everyone has turned negative. It's like the entire state has been burned up in a spiritual prairie fire. I had to stay out until 3 am just to make my $100 goal. I'll be glad when we can leave.