Alright – so, if you read my blog then you know, I am not a big fan of any county. There is no good county at all. I came across Dakota county recently after a couple of autism families asked me to help them. Actually, I advocated for an autism mom, maybe a couple of years ago. She had to go to Minn Disability Law Center to get adequate support and resources from this county.
I have seen many counties that have biased and/or racist low-level staff. Usually, when I contact the commissioners or the director, things move a bit smoother, not Dakota. Top to bottom and bottom to top from their county commissioners to the receptionist and vice versa – they are all bad to the bone. I mean BAAAAAAAAD as in cold, heartless, useless, arrogant, ignorant, malicious, and cold. Did I say cold?
I wanted to know why so I looked into their county commissioners. Remember State Rep Halverson and Atkins? Well, let me remind you. They both voted against EIDBI. Well, actually back then we were not calling it EIDBI. It was simply asking state legislators that Medicaid covers autism therapy for low-income autism families. Yep, these two yukies voted against that. They also voted to dismantle the state autism task force we had back then.
Now, they did not win in either bill. Eventually, we (autism parents) won. But these two are now Dakota county commissioners. Imagine the level of bias and heartless crap flowing through there now. The commissioner that is in charge of the families I have been trying to advocate for live under Liz W. She is even worse than they are. Akhhhh.
This is why we need to diversify county commissioners. They hold so much power and are as ice as Minnesota snow. I remember Atkins when he was a chair in the House. I testified against a bill that wanted to only help autism families with private insurance while low-income autism families with Medicaid were thrown under the bus. He was as cold, rude, and heartless back then as he is a county commissioner. Why do we keep voting for these people. Insanity is voting for the same politicians and expecting different results.
The question of at least the funding and support this county refuses to provide to autism families needs to be addressed by DHS and/or CMS. This county needs to be held accountable for neglecting and screwing with autism families which is never acceptable and should never be tolerated.
The above words do not reflect any candidate, agency, or committee.
Idil Abdull – Somali Autism Mom & Advocate