{"id":34120,"date":"2023-04-14T14:46:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=34120"},"modified":"2023-04-17T08:56:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:56:08","slug":"riepe-ready-for-new-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=34120","title":{"rendered":"Riepe ready for new chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Merv Riepe, pictured in front of the Omaha skyline, has returned to the Legislature after a four-year absence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ralston Sen. Merv Riepe still hasn\u2019t learned how to do retirement. Since leaving his career as a hospital executive in 2008, he took a number of interim positions in the health care field, served one term in the Legislature and won a seat on the Ralston School Board before returning to the Unicameral in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI flunked retirement,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI find gratification in work. I\u2019ve always worked, since the time my foot could push in the clutch on a tractor.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that fulfillment found in a job well done and the opportunity to be engaged with others that brought Riepe back to the Legislature for another go at lawmaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience was very positive when I was here before and it\u2019s been very positive this time,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t had one day that I\u2019ve regretted returning or second-guessed my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledges, however, that the Legislature has changed in the four years that he\u2019s been gone. The divide between urban and rural senators has deepened, he said, and members are having difficulty working together \u2014 all of which increases concerns outside the Capitol that progress on important issues isn\u2019t being made.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the public gets frustrated that we don\u2019t get more done, but in some ways that\u2019s how the democratic process works,\u201d Riepe said. \u201cIt\u2019s intended to be push and shove.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s tried to encourage more Nebraskans to participate in that rough-and-tumble while knocking doors during his campaigns \u2014 asking folks if they\u2019ve ever thought about running for school board, for example. His hope is that the more individuals engage with the process, the more they\u2019ll understand it and the better the outcomes will be for everyone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a reflection of his belief in the power of hard work. Riepe said his son, an organizational psychologist who earned a PhD and currently works as a consultant, found his most character-building work scrubbing pots and pans in a pizza parlor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe learned humility,\u201d Riepe said. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that success isn\u2019t necessarily where you are at the end of the road \u2014 success is all the obstacles that you\u2019ve overcome to get to where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

His office in the Capitol is a testament to Riepe\u2019s own road. It was put together by his wife, Jody, an interior decorator, and is filled with artwork and mementos: a picture of him at 17 as a Navy corpsman; a rendering of the Capitol signed by every governor since Charles Thone; a framed news story of the time Johnny Cash stayed in a hospital that he ran.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is a series of chapters and you need to write each one and try to make it as interesting as you can \u2014 and you\u2019re a success as long as you feel that you\u2019re meeting your purpose,\u201d Riepe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ralston Sen. Merv Riepe still hasn\u2019t learned how to do retirement. Since leaving his career as a hospital executive in 2008, he took a number of interim positions in the health care field, served one term in the Legislature and won a seat on the Ralston School Board before returning to the Unicameral in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34133,"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":[153],"class_list":["post-34120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-merv-riepe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Riepe_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34120","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=34120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34143,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34120\/revisions\/34143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}