Taking back the war zone

No, not in Syria. Not in Afghanistan or Iraq. But right here in Illinois. In Chicago. Maybe even in parts of McHenry County.

Recently I was directed to David Kennedy's 2011 book, Don't Shoot - One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America.

I hate books like this.

I picked it up at the Woodstock Public Library, and I haven't even finished the Introduction and this is a book that I want to own!

Kennedy lined up a pretty impressive list of people to praise his book: Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink); a former police chief of LAPD; a couple of guys from Harvard and Yale; mayor of Cincinnati; Garry McCarthy (you recognize this name; right?), Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department; and Rev. Kenneth Copeland, New Zion Baptist Church, Rockford, Ill.

We're lucky out here in McHenry County. We don't have to live behind wndow bars and locked doors with grills on them. We can walk out streets at night (not so sure about the Square in Woodstock or Benton Street).

But the problem on the streets of Chicago had better get solved and not just get pushed out because, if police pressure gets too great in Chicago (without solving the problem), guess where the problems will show up?

I urge you to buy Kennedy's book and read it. Woodstock's Read Between the Lynes Bookstore will be glad to get it for you.