Alright – so, when I first heard a Somali woman won the state senate, I was so excited. You see I have been advocating at the MN state legislature for over fifteen years now. I retired in 2023 – technically. Initially, she was not on any autism related committees, and I never saw her as I only go to such committees. I also heard she tells Somalis “I did not win because of the Somali vote”. But I shrugged off as I did not know her. I also heard she was arrogant and cocky. I did not pay attention to that either as I never met her and she was not on any health or education committee.
Well – then magically she was assigned to the senate human services committee. Now, I thought things will be good because we will have a Somali woman there. Not so fast. At first, if you watch the committee hearings, she asks questions, does not understand much but does nothing bad. Just you wait.
A group of Somali autism parents go to the senate chair Sen. Hoffman and ask if he can add funding to his omnibus bill for them to train in collaboration with DHS EIDBI agencies and autism families. All good right as that is sooooo needed. Sadly, Hoffman becomes a toddler and a teenager mixed and wants to take that funding from the Somali autism advocacy agency. Guess what he does; he uses the village idiot Sen. Zaynab and Sen. Fateh to divide the Somali autism families. It is the end of the session and the funding for Maangaar Voices (MV) is in the Omnibus for human services senate version.
Sen. Zaynab couches Sen. Fateh to introduce an amendment to take the funding from MV and give to another Somali autism advocacy agency (SPAN), what now? what the heck is that? creating a pitting situation within the Somali autism families. You see this is what happens when you are the village idiot senator who is over-rated, underperforming, and can fall for an easy divisive tactic like that. Yes, siree Bob.
The amendment fails because a Republican, Sen. Abeler says – why are we taking funds from one agency who has been here advocating to another? This is all in the committee hearings on 4.9.25 (the part where Sen. Fateh introduces amendment A16 to take the funds from one Somali autism advocacy agency and tries to give to another Somali autism advocacy agency starts about 2:39 minutes into the hearing. All hearings are recorded and anyone can watch. What happens next?
Well, evil Hoffman deletes the funding from MV. This is the guy Somalis claim to like because he is good for people with disabilities, oh please.
The above words do not reflect any candidate, agency, or committee.
Idil Abdull – Somali Autism Mom & Retired Advocate