Remember when the committee on Oversight and Government Reform decided to talk about women and health care, but they forgot to include in their panels a WOMAN.
So, last night – MN Autism Task force held a meeting which I did not attend because they said my views and opinions will not be discussed. This is a legislative directed autism task force see below in that charge. No where in that bill does it say minority voices will be silenced. In fact, when the previous task force was writing the charge for this task force – they conveniently wrote it and excluded minority representation even though I was a member and just happen to be absent that day.
Well – needless to say, I fought with tooth and nail and said no minority inclusion – no peace. Thankfully the author of the bill, Rep Mack who is simply fantastic said my ideas were good and that we should take out having specific agencies and instead have mainstream and minority autism advocacy agency representation. What a simple and fair idea, Thanks Rep Mack.
And, that is how this current task force membership was created. Move forward to last night, which we got Rep Norton (The Queen of autism disparity – not a typo) who replaced Rep Slawik (the reasonable one) told us she would get some mediation company who would be objective and neutral in helping us write some guidelines which we don’t need and already have a legislative charge. To make matters worse, this so called neutral company removed my views from the get go. Their reasoning – wait for it….it was not what the majority wanted. You think! And who the heck are the majority anyway. And to be neutral one should not take sides, apparently not by them. What a shock, someone Rep Norton knows who is bias from the gate, what a great way to be objective and neutral by excluding some. Awesome!
Let’s dig deeper. The majority who oppose my views and ideas are Rep. Norton (remember when she kept telling us the sun rises from the West and MN DHS paid for ABA autism therapy) It turns out the sun rises from the East and MN DHS did not pay for ABA Autism therapy. Hence, why the MN state legislature just passed this year to pay for, wait for it ….. ABA autism therapy. Rep Norton also wrote a bill that would have given the wealthy autism family unlimited hours and age ABA autism therapy – while the low income child was only up to age 7 years old. Can you believe that and we are not suppose to say that is unequal, unfair, bias and discriminatory policy. Are you kidding me – we are a lot of things, but stupid ain’t one of them. Rep. Norton needs to own and defend her policies.
And, Sen Chris (I still don’t know how she won unopposed – really anyone could’ve defeated her – total clueless on many issues including the difference between ABA and PDD – NOS. Imagine that not knowing the difference between a diagnoses and a method of therapy). So, these two who are totally overrated and should be easily defeated next election are the majority. Oh and MDH’s new representative who I am not sure what to say other than. MDH does not hire based on merit or competence. And the last one is the representative from Pacer who as I blogged before just hogs federal and state autism funding while delivering mediocre record in improving disparity.
These folks decided to talk for and about autism, minority and diversity without actual minority autism community. Therefore, the Sandra Fluke theory of we know what you need and we will talk for you without you happened last night at the MN Autism Task Force.
One of my favorite rules they came up with is we will remove a task force member who we don’t like or agree with in policy. And, we will have rules of what parents and others can or can not say in blogs or other means in their own time. Are these people kidding me. Do they live in an egg shell. I have to believe they don’t read autism blogs or follow soooooo many other autism parents who are way more vocal than I could ever be. Imagine if they were tried to be silenced. Heck – imagine if Rep Norton silenced me when she was trying to sell us ABA is covered by MN DHS. We would not have the amazing new legislation just passed by MN state legislature of guess what – that is right, covering and paying ABA autism therapy. And, if that existed then there would be no need for a new legislation, right.
That is what common sense person would say, not Rep Norton or Sen Eaton. To them if they tell us the sun rises from the West then we better believe it. And, if they want to pull a Sandra Fluke thing and speak for us without us then we better thank them for it. I mean even Morgan Freeman only drove Miss Daisy in one movie, but Norton and Eaton want us Black folks to keep driving and buying their out touch policies that are wrong in every turn.
Finally, my other favorite and stupid rule was when they said – we should talk in private about autism task force. Ah – this a public autism task force and should follow open meeting laws which is every decision made there should be public and debated publicly. Imagine arrogance and ignorance mixing, sort of like water and oil mixing. Not good right. Well neither are policies and stupid rules coming from Norton and Eaton or anyone who can’t just read the actual charge and follow it.
So, what happens now and how do we fight such completely out of touch policy makers. At the ballot with our votes, by protesting with our voices, at every corner with our opinions and with our ideas in every district. They are easily defeatable if we unite and look at their policies and not let them bully us for disagreeing with them and standing for our children and our communities.
It is people like them that not only create disparity and discrimination policies, but try to silence those with different ideas. They are the opposite of what makes America – the greatest country in the world. A country where freedom of speech and political expression shall never be damped, silenced or stopped. It is why no matter what country one lives – they imagine their life would be better here. It is why thousands across the globe stand in line every year to migrate here.
We simply can not let the Norton’s and Eaton’s of this state dilute that perfect American image and that founders vision of everyone’s voice and ideas matter and should be respected and validated.
God Bless!
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate.