By Jaime Ballard
Hearing Representative Ilhan Omar speak was an empowering experience.
As part of her opening remarks, Representative Omar described how she grew up watching her father and grandfather fight convention to include more people in decision-making. She has worked to follow that same path here in the United States. It is inspiring to hear the assets that our immigrant and refugee residents bring to the United States, how they bring knowledge and experiences from their home countries to direct and strengthen work to improve processes in the United States.
Several audience members asked how Representative Omar coped with discrimination and hateful speech. Representative Omar mentioned that as her flight landed today, she received a message from someone stating, “I forgot to send you your bouquet of bacon today, here it is”, and that this person does send her a picture of bacon daily. She laughed as she stated that she is not allergic to the sight of bacon, and that if it is not being force-fed to her, she is fine. I was struck by how there are people in our community who would make it a daily point to taunt Representative Omar, and by her ability to laugh off the comments that do not affect the work of her office.
