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If he could come back, Dr. King would have a saddened heart to look around and see how little has changed since his civil rights efforts. The parallels between Vietnam and Iraq are drawn each day, but light needs to be shed on one important parallel: that thirty years later, young blacks are still being sacrificed to a war that serves no purpose and for which America will have no victory.

Louisiana has provided more troops for the war effort in Iraq than any other state in the union, and a large portion of those troops come from poor, substandard educated black families. Their quality of life is not based on their race, just the simple facts that Louisianans suffer a poorer quality of life, and their educational system historically has been one of the lowest ranked in the nation. For many young Louisiana males, a military career is the only way to get into college. Therefore they are easy prey to an arrogant administration looking for a few good men to ship overseas to fight a holy war. Yet these young men get no thanks from their administration, and when disaster strikes their own homes, the administration sits by idly.

Bush's administration has spent $350 billion on its so-called war in Iraq, but where is the money for the Louisiana citizens whose homes were destroyed in Katrina? Almost two years later, these same citizens who have given up their children to Bush's war sit in run down FEMA trailers, many of them still looking for work because businesses have been unable to rebuild and reopen, waiting on the federal government to do something.

Six years after 9/11, the feds are still pumping money into NYC, where two buildings were lost, but no such effort is being spent for the hundreds of thousands of homes lost in Katrina. Before the storms ended in Florida a couple weeks ago, Bush declared a state of emergency, but he waited more than three days before doing the same for Louisiana in the wake of Katrina.

The citizens of New Orleans do not ask for housing any better than what they had before the war, which theoretically means $40,000 could build one wood frame shotgun house typical of the areas most devastated. Imagine how many $40,000 homes could be built with the $350 billion Bush has spent on his holy war in Iraq. Imagine what kind of efforts could be made to alleviate coastal erosion with $350 billion. Imagine what kind of improvements could be made to Louisiana's educational system, and specifically the New Orleans area, with $350 billion. Imagine how much safer the region, which lures tourists annually with venues like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, would be with $350 billion pumped into crime intervention and police forces. Imagine what $350 billion could do to improve the lives of the young black men of Louisiana who are giving up their lives for an administration that treats them like second rate citizens.

Learn more about this author, Nichole Nash.
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