No visit to New York City is complete without seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I had decided to do both in one day along with the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, for a jam-packed Saturday filled with history, culture and emotions. I began my morning with a tour of our Lady Liberty followed by a visit to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. If I had known how much fascinating information was available in all these three attractions, I would have spread out my visits over the course of two full days. I was stunned to discover how much I was moved and interested in discovering my own heritage after touring the fabulous Ellis Island Immigration Museum. I could have spent at least four hours there but alas I only had two.
12/2025 Minnesota has one of the largest populations of Somalis (over 80,000 and most are either legal residents or U.S. citizens) in the United States, and our Somali population has been represented wide and far in our local, city, state and National governments, in business, in education and more. Somalis are a vibrant part of our culture here in Minnesota and I stand behind our local government, our Mayor and our Governor, in standing up against ICE. As Jamal Osman, our Minneapolis City Council member says: “Many Somalis that live in this community are working at your groceries, working at your hospitals, delivering your babies. They are very successful individuals. ” Osman, a Minneapolis City Council member, came to the United States from Somalia.
It is hard to fathom what is happening in the US as quite frankly we are ALL immigrants except the Native Americans who land we stole, whose culture we decimated and whose lives we have ravaged. It is the beauty of all our cultures that makes us great, not the hate.
NM
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Last Tuesday on my flight home from LaGuardia I had the most exceptional experience. In fact, days later after an incredibly inspiring three-day visit to New York City where I attended the 2013 Social Good Summit, I still cannot stop thinking about my plane ride home. Sitting next to me on the window seat was a new American.
I really wanted to capture her beautiful, kind face but she was sleeping by the time I thought of it. Here is the New Minnesotan, a mom just like me.
For all that I’ve traveled, I have never actually been on a plane with someone immigrating to the United States. Seeing this middle-aged Somali woman sitting tentatively next to me wearing her U.S. Immigration Tag and holding her white plastic U.S. Immigration bag, simply blew me away. I couldn’t stop thinking it was a strange coincidence that she happened to not only be on my flight but was sitting right next to me after I had just spent three extremely intense days at the Social Good Summit learning about a vast array of global issues.
