Get Back to Basics

By Louis R. Avallone

A 4-year-old is killed in a late night Shreveport shooting. A 15-year old is found murdered next to a bullet riddled SUV. Deadly shootings continue night after night at nondescript apartment complexes and along streets with names that most in Shreveport couldn’t locate on a map if their lives depended on it, and in neighborhoods […]

The Truth Shall Set You Free

By Louis R. Avallone

Watching a magic trick can make us feel like a kid again. It might be as simple as the disappearance of a coin from our hand, and having it appear again behind our ear, but it still delights us. It’s thrilling because we’re all attracted to things we cannot explain logically. How was it possible […]

15 Minutes of Fame

By Louis R. Avallone

We’ve all heard the phrase, “In the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Along with radio, television, and the growing affordability (and accessibility) to Internet technology, combined with our instinctive appetite for the urgent and dramatic, there are now billions who have the opportunity to seek the attention of billions of others. But […]

Polarization of America

By Louis R. Avallone

Nearly halfway into President Trump’s first term, there are some who might say that America today is more polarized than at any time in its history. And this goes behind mere partisan disagreements, or bickering, regarding any number of subjects – taxes, healthcare, immigration, education – or even more fundamentally, the role of government itself. […]

“Caring”

By Louis R. Avallone

“Have you ever written anything about helping the needy among us,” began an email I received from a reader, in response to a recent column I had written. “Democrats are trying to help our people who need help,” the reader continued, “not the ones who party at Mar A Lago and have plenty of money.” […]

Blame it on the Rain

By Louis R. Avallone

Perhaps not since 1989, when the number one song that year was Milli Vanilli’s “Blame it on the Rain,” has there been a more grand fraud, perpetrated upon the people of Louisiana, than the incessant and child-like reasoning of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. He blames anyone, everyone, and anything – but himself – for […]

Cause and Effect

By Louis R. Avallone

There’s a lot of debate over gun control these days, especially after the Parkland, Florida murders. And let’s call it “murder” because that’s what it is…yes, it was also “shooting” (as the media prefers to put it), but that doesn’t adequately describe the unjust, cowardly, selfish, and evil act of taking an innocent life. Why […]

Doesn’t Make Sense

By Louis R. Avallone

None of this fits together. None of it. It’s like Mark Twain said, “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” So, here’s the truth: Last month, 183 members of the House of Representatives voted against a bill in Congress that would have imposed penalties on abortion providers who […]

Drain the Bayou

By Louis R. Avallone

“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck,” right? This is often said when you are making a point you can identify an unknown situation by merely observing the characteristics of that situation. Well, in 2015, 56% of conservative Louisiana voters believed […]

Skin Deep

By Louis R. Avallone

In his 1957 speech entitled, “Give Us The Ballot,” Martin Luther King, Jr. did not advocate for the right to vote simply because he wanted to see more black people in office. No, not at all. He wanted more than that – he wanted to be able to choose men “of good will” who would “do […]