September 11th 2005

Former Democrat Presidential candidate Howard Dean told members of the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday that race played a major role in the death toll from hurricane Katrina.  The National Baptist Convention is a black religious group with roughly 3.5 million members in 3000 churches. 

"We must … come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," Dean said.  He made the comments to the Baptists’ Political and Social Justice Commission. 

Dean went on to tell the commission that Americans have a moral responsibility to not ignore the devastating effects of damage caused by the hurricane when it hit the Gulf Coast.  "People are poor in different parts of the country. They are not refugees. They are Americans," he said.

The former Presidential candidate proposed we scuttle the estate tax breaks and the Senate should channel the $760 billion savings into the relief according to an south Florida NBC affiliate.  "Shall we give that to the wealthiest people in the country, or should we rebuild New Orleans?" Dean said.

He recommended shifting funds from the war in Iraq to reconstruct New Orleans.  Dean also recommended exempting the hurricane victims from the new stricter bankruptcy law changes.

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By Dan Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer

Keywords and misspellings:  Katrina catrina rasism