With close to 10,000 letters in tow, a group of community leaders traveled to Baton Rouge Friday morning to make an in-person delivery to Governor Piyush Jindal. The Jeremiah Group, a faith-based, non-partisan community organization, started their “Life, Liberty, and Healthcare for All” letter campaign in July. The signed letters urge Jindal to accept Medicaid expansion for Louisiana and were collected from residents across New Orleans.

There is nothing in Dr. King's speech to imply that to be a hyphenated American is to have divided loyalties. When Jindal says American, the non-hyphenated version, he simply means Judaeo-Christian white - a whiteness that might not be visible in the color of the skin, but is definitely there in the content of the character. King's speech needs to be read again and again - not just commemorated or elocuted - to prevent it from being appropriated by the Jindals for their own ends. And not just in America.

Last week, 400,000 poor and underserved Louisianans, many them people of color, were shut out of potentially life-saving health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A Louisiana House health committee voted down a measure that would have forced Governor Bobby Jindal to opt into the Medicaid expansion provision of ACA that is being subsidized by the federal government to cover vulnerable communities.

As Bobby Jindal begins to lay seeds for a possible run for the White House, approval at home seems to be falling for the Louisiana Governor. The new survey finds Louisiana voters are as conservative as ever, backing the Governor’s refusal to implement the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare to critics, by a 13 point margin. However, in a bright sign for Democrats, it also shows that the local electorate has grown slightly critical of Jindal’s refusal of expanded Medicaid dollars.