Valuable chapter in Blink

The entire book of Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (author, Malcolm Gladwell) is worth reading slowly and carefully. This book is not laborious, but it's not for the speed reader, either. I just finished the first section in Chapter Four, about Paul Van Riper (USMC, Retired) and the war games of 2002 called Millennium Challenge.

Read it, and then think about the U.S.A., Illinois, McHenry County and your town. Is our leadership prepared to 'thinking without thinking"?

Are those who are hired to protect and serve us prepared to operate this way, still within a command structure?

As you read Blink, think about the next election in McHenry County for Sheriff. This is a crucial decision for our county.

It is interesting to note that the longtime sheriff of Boone County is finally retiring. The Rockford Register Star reported on Thursday that Duane Wirth will not seek re-election in 2014. Wirth, 72, has been sheriff for almost half of his life. By coincidence I was at his department on Friday, and I could just walk in without getting scanned or having to pass through security. It had a nice, rural, not-unfriendly feeling to it.

Later in the day a Rockford-area resident commented to me, "You may think the McHenry County Sheriff is powerful but in our county Boone County's Sheriff is god.”