The Power of Taking a Stand

By Louis R. Avallone

Are you a people-pleaser? If you’re not, I bet you know one. You know the person I am talking about, right? That person in almost everyone’s life who tries to make sure that everyone is happy – or that no one is disappointed. It’s the person in your life that intervenes whenever something is wrong, […]

Let Freedom Ring

By Louis R. Avallone

The 2016 campaign for president is over. And for millions of Americans this past election day, our country chose to let go of the past, and start anew. Today, it seems easier to recognize the abusive-like relationships that our country has gravitated towards, and clung to, over the past 50 years. Even though we knew […]

Last Best Hope

By Louis R. Avallone

It was the highest voter turnout in Great Britain in almost 25 years. In fact, more than 30 million British voters went to the polls last month and voted on whether Great Britain should withdraw from the European Union (or “EU”). What is the EU? Well, I’m glad you asked, because it wasn’t exactly what […]

Wanting It

By Louis R. Avallone

Many admire that he says things other people are afraid to say. The conventional wisdom was that his popularity would fizzle, but instead, it has sizzled. He’s just a showman, they say. He’s been called an entertainer, and criticized as not being a politician. He’s not spent any time volunteering for political campaigns, walking neighborhoods, […]

Recently…

By Louis R. Avallone

Would you rather “feel” better, or “do” better? Your answer will tell a great deal about you, and may even help predict who will be elected our next President in November. You see, our brain circuitry is such that emotion overrides reason, and much more easily than the other way around. And while many voters […]

National Identity

By Louis R. Avallone

When the folks in Washington begin talking about increasing the number of Syrian refugees in our country by over 250% from last year, or raising that number next year to as many as 100,000, many Americans wonder how we will be able to afford spending as much as $1.6 billion on these refugees annually, when […]

The Shepherd Tends His Flock

By Louis R. Avallone

Pope Francis is only the fourth Pope to visit the United States. As he visits Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, the crowds who come to see him stretch for as long as the eye can see. Many say that millions will crowd out one another to merely catch a glimpse of the Pope […]

Knowing Better

By Louis R. Avallone

Being informed today about current events is both easier, and more difficult, than perhaps at any time in our nation’s history. While our access to information from various sources is growing more expansive, we have increasingly less time available to give thoughtful consideration to any of it – not to mention discern fact from fiction. […]

Are You Fiddling Me?

By Louis R. Avallone

In 1964, Lyndon Johnson was the first U.S. President to provide the commencement address to the cadets of the United States Coast Guard Academy. He rallied the cadets and explained, in the words of Winston Churchill, that “civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless mankind unites together to […]

Stupid is as Stupid Does

By Louis R. Avallone – Sometimes we get so caught up in using labels that we miss the forest for the trees. Of course, labels help us organize our world, which is increasingly loud, confusing, and misleading. Folks often bite their tongue, or hold their comments back, afraid that they will be called a racist, […]