Alright, as many remember Gov Dayton of Minnesota won with less than 9000 votes back in 2010 and is up for re-election in 2014. What does this mean for our community of over 50 thousand which seems to suffer and struggle with autism at a higher rate.
Well, let’s think about this and hopefully use our votes wisely next time. One of my favorite African American Journalist and blogger Lauren from Crewof42 wrote once Jack Lew to Detroit “drop dead” and $1.5 billion to Egypt – Zero for Detroit. See that blog here.
Gov Dayton met non-minority autism families on world autism day in 2013. They were given an opportunity to tell him their pain and frustrations. To us in minority autism families we were told he is too busy for us, in layman’s terms – drop dead. See that story here and notice there is not one single parent of color.
I know every elected official has some kind of gate keepers to filter information and prioritize and I must say Gov Dayton’s gatekeepers are as heartless as a hammer. Remember when his chief of staff Smith was the chief of staff for Mpls Mayor and was called velvet hammer in city hall. See that story here.
Well, in my humble little minority autism mom opinion – I like to think we have been treated with heartless hammer and get lost attitude from every corner in this administration. Also, remember when Gov Dayton was a candidate and we were told “he will be better than Gov Pawlenty” because his administration will reflect Minnesota and have more minorities. Well – Gov Pawlenty had one person of color in his cabinet and – Gov Dayton (the great savior) has two. Yay! See that here. For what it is worth here, it took one email to Gov Pawlenty’s scheduler Amy and one phone call to his policy adviser Brian LeClair in one day (if you can believe that) to get the ball of Autism in the Somali community rolling which resulted MDH research in 2009, MDH community forums in 2008, an autism professional forum in 2009 and a Somali autism brochure. With Gov Dayton, almost 4 years later, we are still begging, think about that.
Also, remember, when Gov Dayton got mad because the MN Senate did not confirm one of his nominees and he just gave her a job. See that story here. When our community centers struggle and they ask for support they are told by heartless hammer to drop dead or get lost. Remember when MinnPost did a story on what it would be like if the other side controlled and mocked the controlling side in 2011 & 2012 sessions. Well – in 2013 session, this side just added more committees, more chairs and more staff, but when our community centers struggle and ask for support, guess what they are told – drop dead or get lost, even though one of their board members Sen Cohen is the chair of the Senate full finance committee.
Getting the hint here – please use your votes wisely and don’t buy into anymore useless campaign slogans. Judge them by their policies or lack thereof.
It will be interesting to see how Gov Dayton will spin his policies for 2014 elections and how all of these folks including Gov Dayton will make us think we are stupid or out of touch. I am sure they will hire couple of turofatoore communitiga hafiya oo aan fahansanayn the difference between policy from poop. We are a lot of things here in minority autismville, but stupid ain’t one of them.
We have to vote better and wiser.
Finally, I get asked to run for some kind of office and as flattering as that sounds, I will not for many reasons. First, there are much more qualified other Somalis already running this year and hopefully beyond. 2nd, if you have ever seen an interview between reporter Bill O’ Reilly and Rep Barney Frank that would be me at the MN state capitol because so many of these folks would irritate me so much, see that here. 3rd, if you follow education policy and remember from Washington DC schools – Michelle Rhee who fired everyone – that would me because I would first get rid of MDH’s CMH staff and combine MDH with DHS since there is no need for two health and human services agencies. And, that would probably piss off lots of people. 4th, and the most important reason – as much as I like to blog about our current MN politicians, I could not possibly do what they do. Sometimes these folks have to understand & comprehend hundreds and even thousands of bills and vote making decisions that would affect millions of people. That is a pressure and a job that needs someone smart & strong.
So, please support other Somalis and minorities running this year and next year from city council to county commissioner, etc – but also hold them accountable to their policies as well.
Thanks!
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate