A recent poll stated Dayton and Franken have a slight and hopefully a shrinking lead. This means they are completely counting on the minority vote while ignoring their issues and concerns. Think about it.
Alright, so it is election year again and you know how – that is when MN DFLers pretend to care and learn few Somali words and show up in our restaurants, businesses and communities. And, we are suppose to have amnesia and forget about their policies of health disparity, Commissioner of Minnesota department of health, Dr. Ehlinger stated structural racism is partly to blame for this persistent and chronic health disparity, yet MDH does meaningless annual needs assessment including for children with special health care needs, such as autism and nothing ever changes. Why is that? Quite frankly, if one more person from MDH tells me they are doing a useless needs assessment – I am going to scream. MDH does not change policy, leadership or outreach so how exactly is disparity going to decrease. Let me guess by magic or better yet one more MN DFLer coming to our community and preaching how they are going to change it this time. Negro please. Commissioner Ehlinger you said “State Health Commissioner Dr. Edward Ehlinger says part of the blame can be laid at the feet of “structural racism,” which, he said, all Minnesotans must confront in order to bridge the gap, “Everybody is damaged by health disparities”. If you mean those words then start holding child and maternal leadership accountable for their failures and please fire them. Come on – you can’t preach equality while CMH practices inequality. For autism – they have done nothing significant.
Education wide gap, embarrassing city/state minority contracts, highest employment gap between Whites and Blacks. By the way, take a read of how many minority leadership persons are with MN DEED – you know the agency in charge of employment. In sum, Minnesota has some of the worst gaps between Whites and Blacks, especially in Minneapolis. And, most of those areas doing bad are run by MN DFLers. Therefore, they take our votes for granted and it is time to kick them out of office and vote them out.
In addition, during elections is when Take Action Minnesota pretends to be inclusive (George Wallace was more inclusive then them – really) and partners with MN DFLers telling us – MN GOP want to ask minority voters ID. Yet, when MN DFLers ask Somalis to cough up voter ID’s during Kahn/Noor Caucus – well that was needed to proof residence. Really, the audacity and the level of hypocrisy would be too funny, if it wasn’t all true.
Now, we can be stupid and vote for Dayton and Franken again by buying more empty words, useless promises that will never become fruits or we can make a different choice this year. Fool me one election cycle – shame on you. Fool us every election cycle – shame on us. Dayton and Franken CAN NOT win without Minnesota minority votes – period. MN DFL chair who can sell water to a drowning minority person knows that very well.
During Dayton’s last four years of governing Minnesota – he has done very little to uplift minority disparities – in fact it has gotten worse under his administration. He eliminated any chance of improving the horrible education gap between white and black students. In 2012, a bill to repeal the seniority-only provision was passed by the House and the Senate. It was known as the “LIFO” bill, which stood for “last in, first out” — also known as last hired, first fired. The bill, which had support from education-reform advocates statewide, was vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton. See that post here: By the same token, Jeff Johnson said this about MN education gap and he can fix it by putting students first not over-rated teachers who suspend black students and underachieve our kids.
Dayton’s running mate, Tina Smith is the previous chief of staff for Mpls Mayor RT in which she left the city having some of the worst racial disparities in the country and now we want her to make all of Minnesota to have similar racial disparity. In city hall – Smith was called velvet hammer, in state capitol – I call her heartless hammer who rules with an iron fist. Why would we want that for number two person to Dayton. Ask yourself, especially if you are Black or Brown.
By the same token – Jeff Johnson will not delegate your issues to any heartless hammer, he will tell you what he will and will not do himself. Jeff will level the playing field and assure opportunities are equal. He is compassionate, caring, considerate and conservative. What more could we ask, he believes we are in this together.
During Dayton’s state of the state speech, we were told to praise the MN DFLer’s legislative achievements. I am sorry, but MN DFLers did not even approve one single legislation from the Council of Black Minnesotans. See for yourself which of those so called achievements have benefited Black Minnesotans. In fact, out of the 12 legislations recommended by Council of Black Minnesotans
last session – guess how many actually passed committees, floors and signed by Gov Dayton? Zero, zilch, zippity and nothing. But we want to vote for him again. Come on folks – you can’t be serious.
In other words, not only was there almost zero for the broke African American museum or the struggling Somali American community center in Brian Coyle, but a recent study stated – city of Mpls minority and women owned businesses contracts have decreased. How lovely. Come on – we can’t vote for the same person and somehow expect different results or policies. It ain’t going to happen. When Dayton was a candidate, he promised Somali autism research that looks into a cause and that has NOT happened at all. Take a read below.
Mark’s Pledge to the Somali Community:
Mark will work with Minnesota’s Congressional delegation to speed up the family reunion process, helping families splintered by war and the refugee crisis to reunite.
Mark will work with the Congressional delegation to ensure that Green Card and Citizenship applications are processed quickly and fairly.
Mark knows that Somali Minnesotans are struggling to find good-paying jobs in this tough economy. He will stand up for economic justice and work to ensure that Somalis have access to state job-training initiatives.
Mark is alarmed by the Minnesota Department of Health’s findings that autism is seven times more prevalent in the Somali community than in other communities. As Governor, he will charge the Department to work with the Somali community, public health experts, and researchers to find the reasons for that disparity and how to overcome it.
Regarding Sen. Franken – well where shall we start. I am not even sure how his polls can be high at all. Remember how close Sen. Coleman was to our community. He was the first person to write letters and contact NIH, CDC and Gov Pawlenty regarding Somali autism. Franken – oh lord have mercy – talking to Alana is like pulling your teeth without Novocain. It is excruciatingly painful. If you look at Thomas loc.gov and put Franken’s name to see which legislations he authored that became law or policies – you will see a toddler would have had more success in Congress. After six years of silence and leading from behind – Franken has accomplished one thing. He can take his SNL comedian hat off and sit in committees especially the HELP (health, education, labor and pension) committee quietly. Franken has refused to hire any Somali policy aide even though I alone sent quite few to his office. They always managed to say “you are not qualified even with master’s degrees – yet hire clueless non-minority folks”. He has zero person of color in a higher position advising him on any policy.
Franken has refused and stayed quite to help and support the neglected HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) by the current Dept of Education Secretary Duncan. By the same token, the Koch brothers have donated $25 million to HBCU’s. Imagine that, A mind is a terrible thing to waste – indeed.
His rivals are many and I support Rep Abeler who will lead from the front, has abundant health care solutions, education issues ideas and is truly a man of the common person from main street – not Hollywood blvd. Abeler is the reason we will have an equal autism therapy benefit. He started that ball with MN DHS by telling them to come up with a plan that covered everyone rich/poor, black/white – all autistic kids under Medicaid when he was the chair of health and human services finance cmte. This is why HSAC was asked to come up with a plan and DHS is now applying this plan of 1915i autism therapy coverage with CMS (Center for Medicaid and Medicare). Abeler will stand for the little guy against any big company or agency. See that here:
In other words, while Franken might have the big bucks, Abeler has the big ideas and a bigger heart filled with solutions, ideas and a humble personality to back it up. So, ask yourself do you want a SNL (Saturday Night Live) comedian where no Somali is good enough to work for to represent us or do you want a proven legislator with a medical background to lead us? Ask yourself and VOTE FRANKEN OUT.
You see, Dayton and Franken have failed Minnesota minorities and if we vote for them again we are saying – we like being at the bottom of every pit. It is time for a better change that is driven by ideas not worthless campaign words. Vote wisely please!
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate