{"id":25200,"date":"2019-03-01T18:32:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25200"},"modified":"2019-03-01T18:32:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:32:46","slug":"dorn-brings-a-listening-ear-to-the-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25200","title":{"rendered":"Dorn brings a listening ear to the Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caption: Sen. Myron Dorn and his grandson, Dempsey, on the family farm near Adams in 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Adams Sen. Myron Dorn was sworn into office Jan. 9, he represented one of four generations of his family gathered in the legislative chamber that morning. <\/p>\n

The eldest, Dorn\u2019s 90-year-old uncle Wilmer, had asked weeks before if he could attend his nephew\u2019s swearing-in ceremony, even though he has trouble getting around. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know he\u2019s super excited,\u201d Dorn said. <\/p>\n

Dorn\u2019s wife, Julie, and his children, Kyle and Erin, also are \u201cvery much in favor\u201d of him serving in the Legislature, he said, even if they are wary of the amount of time his new job will keep him away from the family farm. <\/p>\n

It will be difficult, too, for a man who said he holds no ambition in life other than to be a farmer. Dorn grew up on his parents\u2019\u2014now his brother\u2019s\u2014farm near Adams. When he left home to study animal science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the 1970s, he came home as often as he could to help with farm work. <\/p>\n

Dorn grows soybeans and corn and raises cattle with his two younger brothers, his son and a nephew. Over time, the brothers have delegated decision making to the two younger men, a generational transfer of responsibility that Dorn said has been exciting to see.<\/p>\n

Just as Dorn has enjoyed watching his son and nephew grow as young farmers, he looks forward to learning about the legislative process from more experienced senators. <\/p>\n

In fact, Dorn said, he is glad to start his term with a 90-day long session so that he has more time to learn about lawmaking\u2014even if that means being inside the Capitol rather than outside on the farm. <\/p>\n

Dorn, who served on the Gage County Board from 2010 to 2018, said the motivating force behind his run for the Legislature was the encouragement from those who watched the board work together during his three years as chairperson. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, I think they saw what I had the ability to do,\u201d Dorn said of his supporters. <\/p>\n

One lesson from his time on the board stands out: If you talk too much instead of listening, he said, you can miss the big picture. Dorn said he made certain to hear everyone who came to him for help, even if it was clear that a resolution was out of his hands. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people visit with you about something or when they have an issue,\u201d he said, \u201cthey want to feel that they had somebody that was interested or had somebody that really listened to their concerns and their thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Adams Sen. Myron Dorn was sworn into office Jan. 9, he represented one of four generations of his family gathered in the legislative chamber that morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[250],"class_list":["post-25200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-myron-dorn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/MeetDorn_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25200"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25220,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25200\/revisions\/25220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}