Bright Spots, Big Country: What Makes America Great

By Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr

Being happy isn’t about fixing everything that’s not working in your life.

It’s about realizing what is working, and doing more of it.

Those are the bright spots in life. Those ah-ha moments when everything seems to come into focus. The times that lift us up when we're feeling down, and show us a path from the o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Conservative Ground
• Release date: Jul 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9780999013113

Book preview

Bright Spots, Big Country: What Makes America Great

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louis R. Avallone & Stephen Parr

Published by Franklin Paine Press,

dba Conservative Ground, LLC

P.O. Box 5072

Shreveport, LA 71135-5072

USA

conservativeground.org

Conservative Ground, LLC

First published by Franklin Paine Press, 2017

Copyright © 2017 by Conservative Ground, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Conservative Ground, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. For information regarding permission, write to Conservative Ground, LLC, P.O. Box 5072, Shreveport, LA 71135.

ISBN: 978-0-9990131-1-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017907512

Cover Design by Elisabeth Crews

Formatting and Editing by Louis R. Avallone, Stephen Parr

Typeset in Bebas Neue, Didot, and Baskerville.

Printed in the United States of America.

While the authors have made every effort to provide accurate information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the authors assume any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for authors or third-party Web sites or their content.

Group Sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by schools, associations, businesses, and wholesalers. For details, please contact the publisher at the address above or by calling 318-798-7732, ([e-mail].)

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Shareables Database

To my Mom and Dad, who always pursued their children’s happiness, even before their own, and encouraged us to see the greatness of America in ourselves.

- Louis

To my parents, who taught me to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.

- Stephen

Table of Contents

 

 

Foreword

 

 

THE BIG IDEA

 

 

ONE A Shining City Upon a Hill

 

 

TWO Defining Conservatism

 

 

THREE The Liberty Cycle: How America Works

 

 

IT’S STILL WORKING

 

 

FOUR Joey Durel’s Temporary Tax

 

 

FIVE Galveston’s Alternate Plan

 

 

SIX Cassie Claxton and Concealed Carry

 

 

SEVEN Dr. Smith’s Pricing Prescription

 

 

EIGHT Eagle Mountain’s Extra Recess

 

 

NINE Beth Barron’s New Job

 

 

IT LASTS

 

 

TEN Voting With Your Feet

 

 

ELEVEN What Makes America Great

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

 

 

REFERENCES

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Foreword

By Louis R. Avallone

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It was Saturday night, August 14, 1943 when the Allies shelled my father’s village, along the southern coast in Italy. From their ships in the Mediterranean Sea, the naval bombardment from the Allies was brutal – over 1,000 shells were fired in less than 20 minutes.

And it was all gone.

My father’s home, carved into the mountainside, collapsed. All of their belongings reduced to nothingness. The shrapnel had left little unscathed, as my father, his parents and his siblings, faced the dire task of finding food, shelter, and clothing – and escaping German forces. As they made their journey into the hillside that night, with everything they owned packed on a mule drawn wagon, it was peasant farmers along the way who offered them shelter, food to eat, and a place to dry their clothes when they were soaked to the skin, and the opportunity to begin a new life.

After the Allies defeated the Germans, the fighting stopped in Italy. It would be months before electricity was restored, or government services of water or sanitation returned. There would be food rations to sustain them, in the meantime. My father’s family would then begin the seemingly unbearable task of rebuilding their home and finding a way to support themselves, with my father’s 2 sisters (8 years old and 2 years old), in tow. Eventually, they rebuilt their war-torn home, and my father and grandfather established a modest living painting and building.

More than 20 years would pass before my father would make another journey into the hillside, but this time with everything he owned packed in a small, borrowed suitcase. That was the day he landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was August 23, 1964 and he was only supposed to visit for three weeks. But it was by chance that he was here at all.

You see, years before the war, his first cousins had immigrated to America, and settled in Baton Rouge. But in 1963, one of those cousins invited my grandfather to come visit his nieces and nephews in America. My grandfather wanted to go to America very much so, in fact. But in an act of love, and perhaps it was God’s plan all along, my grandfather offered the idea of his son (my father) to visit America, instead.

Instead of the peasant farmers in the hillside, who had offered shelter, food, and opportunity years before, this time it was my father’s American cousins, and the promise of the American dream.

As he went to Baton Rouge High School to learn English, my father didn’t know of John Winthrop, one of the first leaders of the colonies in 1630, who wrote about how America could serve as an example for the world.

As he mailed reel-to-reel audiotapes back to his mother and father describing how he was doing in America (because calling overseas was just too expensive), he had no idea of the political philosophy of limited government or the importance of the 10thAmendment.

As he painted houses during the day, while going to school at night, he didn’t know of Alexis de Tocqueville of France. He hadn’t studied Benjamin Franklin's writings, or knew of the Gettysburg Address, nor had he read the Declaration of Independence.

And yet he knew their principles, somehow like the back of his hand.

He understood Thomas Jefferson’s adage, I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. He knew first-hand that energy and persistence conquer all things, just as Benjamin Franklin had written almost 200 years before. He had not studied much American history, but he understood that perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages, just as George Washington had written in 1775.

He had not read the writings of John Adams, but he knew that to be good and to do good is all we have to do. He may have only faintly known of Abraham Lincoln, but he clearly understood that things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

All along, though, he worked hard to make the most of this opportunity in freedom he had been given. He soon got a job as an estimator for a construction company. Later, he started his own. He and Mom would type bids and balance the company checkbook at our kitchen table, late into the evenings and early mornings. Just 10 short years later my parents bought their first house. It wasn’t a large one, but it was cared for, and made better because he and my Mom lived there. Together, we made it a home.

And if you are reading this, more than likely you want to make this home – our American home – better because you lived here, too.

And you can.

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