Tuesday, April 17, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Templin Hall dog helps owner daily
Lorax is a companion and conversation piece
Adam Burnett, Templell Hill resident assistant, met Lorax, a 7-year-old yellow labrador, five years ago at the Kansas Specialty Dog Service in Washington, Kan. After a diving accident left the Melvens senior paralyzed for life, the two became constant companions. Photo by Phidil Aallander/KANSAN
By Scott Smith and Amy Randolph
Special to the Kansan
and Kansan news editor
The 7-year-old yellow lab lazi ly looks around her master's residence hall room.
Then her master, Adam Burnett, partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, drops a piece of paper. Lorax rises to all four feet, ambles over and picks up the paper in her mouth
She gives it back to Burnett,
"Good girl!" he says.
Burnett, Melvern senior, broke his neck in a diving accident the two days after his high school graduation. He was paralyzed from the waist down and has limited use of his hands.
He uses Lorax for help in everyday life and to fulfill his duties as a resident assistant at Templin Hall.
Burnett said most people on his floor brag about living with a dog.
"It's nice to have a floor pet," said Matt Traylor, Emporia freshman. "Plus, Lorax loves the attention she gets."
Burnett found Lorax about five years ago through Kansas Specialty Dog Service in Washington, Kan. Hills Science Diet sponsors the program and provides free food for the dogs as long as they are in service.
"All I have to do is call them up and say that Lorax is running
Melvern senior
Adam Burnett
"Lorax and I are both ver laid-back and she's a great listener."
low on food, and they send more out." Burnett said.
Chuck Ruane, who was imprisoned for armed robbery, raised Lorax in prison. When Burnett received Lorax, Ruane had been raising dogs through the program for 12 years. At first, Burnett was wary of the environment Lorax was raised in.
"But then I thought, who else can give more attention to a dog, when they have nothing but time?" Burnett said.
Burnett wrote letters to Ruane about Lorax for a few years, but they are no longer in contact. Burnett doesn't know where Ruane lives now.
"Yeah, I really wish I would've kept in better contact with him." Burnett said.
Lorax, who never barks unless told to, helps Burnett turn on lights, open doors and pick up objects. But Burnett said Lorax helps him more emotionally than physically.
"The program tries to match the personalities of the dogs with the personalities of the people," Burnett said. "Lorax
and I are both very laid-back and she's a great listener."
Lorax accompanies Burnett everywhere he goes, including dates and plane rides.
“It's a great conversation piece. Normally people see a guy in a wheelchair and don't say anything,” he said. “But because I have a dog they feel able to come up and talk to me without feeling uncomfortable.”
Sometimes restaurants or stores give Burnett trouble about trying to bring Lorax inside. But he just shows them Lorax's tag, which states that Kansas law enables Lorax to be by Burnett's side at all times.
Most of Lorax's day consists of sleeping and playing fetch with her favorite tennis ball, a ragged orange and yellow Dunlop.
"I don't understand why it's her favorite ball. She just always grabs that one." Burnett said.
He said because Lorax was so well-trained, she rarely needed her harness put on. The harness tells Lorax she is on duty.
"Whenever I get out the harness, her tail stops wagging because she knows that she is on the job and she has to ignore people and can't be petted." Burnett said, "which is tough for her since she loves people."
— Edited by Leita Schultes
Nader: corporations affect government, society
Continued from page 1A
from being reviewed by other scientists and by the public.
In a meeting with political science students yesterday afternoon in Blake Hall, Nader said colleges and universities should have citizen skills courses.
Political activist Alph Nader illustrates a point about the national news media. Nader arrived on campus yesterday at 3 p.m. for a news conference at the Kansas Room in the Kansas University. At 4 p.m. he greeted students at Blake Hall, followed by an 8 p.m. lecture at the Lied Center. Photo by Thad Allander/KANSAN
"It doesn't require a new building. It doesn't require new faculty," he said
But he said the response from the schools had been negative.
Paul Schumaker, chairman of political science, said courses in the department came out of collective faculty decisions, and not usually from suggestions from guest speakers like Nader.
"Ninety out of a hundred think it's a good idea," he said, referring to the idea in his lecture last night. "But not one out of a hundred will institute it."
He said instead of creating a new course, it was more probable that faculty members would incorporate citizen skills into their current courses.
"But it's hard to say," Schumaker said.
In his lecture last night, Nader said corporations weren't engaged in solving the world's major problems such as dictatorships, global warming, ozone layer depletion, contagious diseases and housing needs.
He said the solution lay with ordinary people but those people needed civic tools to build a better world for themselves.
"The important work in this world is not going to be made by corporations." Nader said.
He said corporations had always opposed major changes in the United States, including the nation's independence. Nader said business leaders in the 18th century didn't want the colonies to gain independence because they thought it would hurt their commercial interests.
Nader, who received $18,000 to come to the University as part of the student lecture series, said business leaders had continued to oppose beneficial changes like anti-trust laws and safety laws to protect their interests.
Nader said 58,000 people died of occupational hazards, 65,000 of polu-
He said corporations were annually responsible for more deaths than street crime.
tion-related diseases and 80,000 of medical malpractice each year in the United States.
"We should have an adjective called corporate crime," he said.
Nader said few people knew the meaning of the term corporate welfare when he crafted it more than 30 years ago.
Now, he said, many people knew what he was referring to because corporations receive more money than the total amount used to combat poverty.
Nader said he didn't expect the scenario to change during President George W. Bush's term.
Nader said decades of economic growth were meaningless because today's workers were making less money than workers in the 1960s, if wages were adjusted.
"We have one giant corporate party with two heads and different make-up." Nader said in a press conference on campus yesterday afternoon.
Mary Ponder, St. Louis junior, said Nader's lecture was shocking.
"They have the Corporate King in the White House," he said.
She said she wasn't aware of many issues he had addressed in his lecture.
Beatrix Lohr, Munich, Germany, graduate student, said Nader's lecture is interesting because it touched issues Americans need to think about but that Europeans don't question.
Nader complained about the media coverage of his race for the White House last year.
"We have universal health care and social welfare," Lohr said.
"Our campaign was covered like a
feature story," Nader said. "Then in the fall they accused us of affecting the election between Bush and Gore."
Nader said his 35-year record, the unique platform of the Green Party and the crowds he gathered in stadiums and gymnasiums like Madison Square Garden in New York City weren't enough to attract media attention to his candidacy.
"They were never good at covering third parties." Nader said.
Edited by Leita Schultes
Gay comic illustrates struggles with humor
By Amanda Begin
writer kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Jan Einarson walked onto the ballroom stage last night carrying a big red sack of gifts — for herself.
Her gifts were blocks with phrases written on them, like "deep-seeded unresolved anger," "passive-aggressive behavior" and, most importantly, "denial."
The blocks, Einarson said, represented the "presents" her family gave her during her struggle with her sexuality, denial being the most frequent.
Einarson held them up as she recalled with sparks of humor the events that encouraged her to create them — and discuss them with more than 100 people in the Kansas Union ballroom last night as part of Gay Pride Week.
In atale she called "PG—Pretty Gay," Einarson, who is from Winnipeg, Canada, said she had been an "out" lesbian since she was 22, but her feelings for women began when she started grade school.
"I was in love with my fourth grade teacher," said Einarson, who then recalled her teacher's beautiful blue turtleneck sweater. "I wanted to be the teacher's pet. I wanted to pet the teacher."
Einarson said she convinced herself in high school that she would like men, and had a boyfriend to prove it. But she broke up with him because she didn't like him, she said as she picked up a green toy phone, mocking their conversation.
Einarson said her lesbian relationships began when she was 16. She got caught with her best friend Kate on the couch in Kate's parents' house. Einarson said she was scolded by Kate's father, but her mother had reacted with, of course, denial.
"Well, maybe the basement was cold, and they were keeping each other warm," Einarson said of the mother's reaction.
"I was going to get in trouble for being me," Elmarson said.
Kidding aside, Einarson said,
she was unhappy and confused.
"My parents were more impressed with him than I was," Einarson said. "And I went on the film for him—an antacid."
She said she never saw Kate after that and went on to community college where she got a degree in hotel management and dated a man.
It wasn't until speaking with a counselor and breaking up with her boyfriend, which she reactivated via the green toy phone
— that Einarson realized she was a lesbian.
Feeling freed by the breakthrough, she said she called her friends.
"Hi, I'm Jan, I'm a lesbian," Einarson said into the phone. "Oh, you knew?"
Emisonn discussed her longterm lesbian relationships with "the Tracy," two women with identical names but personalities that didn't match Emisonn's.
One of them, Einarson said, fled to Massachusetts to be with another woman she met through the Internet.
But Einarson has found love again, she said as she motioned toward a woman standing near the back of the ballroom.
"I accept the fact that I'm not the majority," Einarson said. "I can accept that I love a woman and maybe we'll get married — when we go to Vermont."
John Roth, Honolulu, Hawaii, sophomore, said he enjoyed Einarson's speech.
"It was funny, but there were definitely serious undertones," he said. "It was a fun way to start Pride Week."
—Edited by Melinda Weaver
The University Daily Kansan
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